Music: form, tambura

[Vasudha Narayanan]

At 09:27 AM 4/18/96 BST, you wrote:
>
>North Indian classic music consist on four elements, the drone, the melodi,
>the second melodi and drums. 
>
>1. Is there any book/articles available which discuss this form or four
>elements in Indian music?  I havn't found any.
>
>2. Is there any book/articles available that deals with the "drone"?
>       I havn't found any.
>
>3. Contain "classical indian literature" any reference to the tambura?
>
>
>Jon Skarpeid
>
>
I have found Bonnie Wade's Music In India: The Classical Traditions
(Prentice Hall, 1979) very useful for her discussions on melody, drone and
drums.  She discusses melody at length in chapter 3, surveying Hindustani
and Carnatic notions.  There is a whole chapter on percussion instruments (I
think she calls it "Rhythm Instruments and Drumming").  Several references
to the drone and a discussion on it in one chapter, but I agree with the
earlier note from Sri Pichumani that B. Chaitanya Deva has the most
extensive research on it in "The Psychoacoustics of Music and Speech"
(Madras: Music Academy ?).
Vasudha Narayanan, University of Flordia