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Some new notes from a musician of note

AN ARTIST OF DISTINCTION: Salil V. Bhatt

Salil V. Bhatt, who created the Satvik Veena to meet the requirement of depth, richness and continuity in his style of rendering classical ragas, will be performing in a concert titled "Prerna'' organised in the memory of Tushar Pandit at India International Centre in New Delhi on Friday.

Representing the tenth generation of the famous Bhatt lineage, where music has been flowing for more than 500 years, Salil is the son of the legendary slide player and Grammy Award winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, who had created the Mohan Veena, a revolutionary instrument that has been hailed as a discovery in the Indian classical music scenario.

The Satvik Veena, which Salil created, is made of a 100-year-old oak wood block and its top is made of pinewood to let the sound filter and resonate. Two f-shaped sound holes provide easy emergence of sound and the Fret board is made of rosewood.

Music lovers in Delhi will get an opportunity to see Salil play this instrument during the concert in memory of Tushar, who was a disciple and grandson of Pandit Krishan Rao Shankar Pandit and a young and upcoming artist who died in a tragic accident in 1994.

Salil's instrument has 19 strings in all, including three for main melody, five for drone and 12 sympathetic strings. The head of the new veena is shaped like a crescent and rises above the plane of the body. Just beneath the head is placed the gourd, which is attached to provide base and a better grip when the instrument is played.

"The new veena has been created for the innumerable variations of my style that assimilates the Gayaki and Tantrakari styles, the vocal as well as the instrumental styles respectively. I specialise in playing high-speed taans, stroke and strokeless taans,'' says Salil. -- Bindu Shajan Perappadan

-- Bindu Shajan Perappadan

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