A morning in Thanjavur for a music lover
If you come to Thanjavur to choose an instrument, give yourself a free morning. A short walk through the town’s music history.
Is a heavier veena a better veena?
Weight is often taken as a sign of quality. It tells you something about the wood, but much less about the sound.
We hear this often: someone lifts two veenas, and the heavier one feels more serious, so it must be better. Weight does tell you something, but not as much as people think.
A heavier veena usually has a thicker resonator wall, or denser wood. Dense, well-seasoned jackwood is good. A thick wall, though, can make a veena sound muffled, because the wood has to work harder to vibrate. Some of the best-sounding veenas we have made were noticeably lighter than average, carved thin by a confident hand from a very even log.
Weight also hides problems. Wood that has not been seasoned long enough is heavy with water and will lose weight, and possibly crack, over the following year. A heavy instrument at a low price is a reason to ask how old the wood is. What matters more is how evenly the body is carved, how well the frets are set in wax and how carefully the bridge and jivari are finished. These are hard to judge by lifting; they are easy to judge by playing.
So play before you weigh. Listen to how long the lowest string rings, whether each fret gives a clean note, and whether the drone strings blend or buzz. Then pick the instrument you would be happy to practise on for an hour, whatever it weighs.
