Shringara Nepal

On Tuesday night we were privileged with a private concert by a well-traveled Nepali group called Shringara Nepal. It was the coolest thing. The group is made up of sitar, played by a woman who got her music degree at the Tribhuvan University here in Kirtipur (of which the Cornell Nepal Study Program is a part), tablas (Asia's bongos, made up of a treble and a bass drum played simultaneously), and a violin and sarangi, a fiddle-like instrument. It was so cool.
The musicians sat on a stage made up of the foot-high tables that we use for eating and for class, and we sat on rows of chakati (cushions) on the floor in front of them. They began by introducing their instruments and the styles of music they'd be playing, much of which was improvised. The violin was tuned to A, D, and then a higher A and a higher D, where my violin has G, D, A, and E. It's held with the but at the musician's heart instead of on his shoulder (part of which, he explained, stems from the improvisational style in which the music, too, comes from the heart), and the scroll rests on his right foot as he sits cross-legged. The playing style is made up almost entirely of slides, which are much more difficult to produce from the traditional Western position. The sarangi  is different yet. It has an A string on the far sides, and a set of two D strings--like on a mandolin--set lower in the middle, and its held like a cello and played by placing the fingernails to the right of the string, instead of the fingertips on top of them. Ana and I introduced ourselves to the guy afterward and he was delighted to know that there were violinists in the audience. He showed us and some others more closely how to play the instruments, and he tried out my travel fiddle. He was trained in  both Western and Asian styles, and you could tell. He also instructed me on where to get a sarangi for a good price...Pokhara here we come!
In any case, the music was just fascinating. The drummer in particular was incredible. He played a range of time signatures including both 7 and 16 beats, and his hands moved so fast, it was impossible to get a recognizable picture of them. It was amazing to see how the three worked together and played off of each other during improvised pieces.