THE PHYSICS OF SARASWATI VEENA
Written by : Dr . Tara Rajendran , MBBS MFA ., a physician-musician , and the leading advocate of introducing music into Indian palliative oncology infrastructure .
Saraswati Veena is an indigenous acoustically unique fretted stringed instrument of India that has unquestioned antiquity . Saraswati Veena consists of two resonators , a wooden dome-shaped primary resonator , and a secondary resonator , a fretboard with twenty-four frets connecting these two resonators , seven strings , their respective tuning pegs , and a bridge . Although acoustics of musical instruments have been studied widely in the past , there is a paucity in the number of scientific analyses on Saraswati Veena . The earliest study that explored the physics of Saraswati Veena was in 1921 , and in the last decade , there was a small surge in vibro-acoustic analyses .
Most Western string instruments researched extensively have sharp bridges , whereas the Saraswati Veena has a curved bridge . The remarkable effect of the bridge on sound radiation and geometric significance was first examined in 1921 ; one of the earliest available studies on the Saraswati Veena was by physicist and Nobel laureate Sir C . V . Raman . Even when the strings are pressed down on the frets while playing , the curvature of the upper surface of the metallic bridge ensures the string always leaving the bridge at a tangent to it . C . V . Raman notes that all string frequencies in Saraswati Veena are excited regardless of the excitation position , which goes against the Young – Helmholtz law . The law states that the vibrations of a string do not contain the natural modes which have a node at the point of excitation . The physicist reports that this is due to the characteristic bridge . Raman ' s hypothesis of partial harmonics was verified through several mechanical explanations over the years . Today we understand that the nodal points of the different modes for the string vibrations are not stationary due to the finite bridge , and hence , all modes will be excited irrespective of the location of the excitation .
He further adds that the tones show a remarkable , powerful series of overtones which gives them a bright and pleasing quality . The ideal tuning frequency for a given Saraswati Veena appears to be interconnected to the body ' s resonant frequency . The harmonic scale used in classical Indian music is rooted in the quality of string vibrations . A skilled musician will recognize the notes that are heard on plucking a string , which can be utilized while tuning the instrument , in contrast to western classical string instruments with fixed key values . This technique of identifying notes based on the string vibrations is imperative while constructing a Saraswati Veena . A 2017 experiment reports that the richness of Saraswati Veena ' s timbre is most perceivable when plucked at the center than being plucked closer to the bridge . The authors also comment that energy distribution among the formants is the scientific basis for the naad of the Veena , which musicians identify .
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