This sheet music for “Nila, Nila, Odi Vaa”, a traditional children’s song in Tamil from India, is arranged for easy violin. Only a few fingerings for violin are marked, and both versions are played on the G and D strings. I have two versions written out in the file: A former student sang Version 1, which I feel falls under “easy violin” (but after the student is ready to learn tie notes), and her mother sang Version 2, which is not for complete beginners because of the accidentals. I was surprised that these are two versions of the same song, because they sound very different to me, melodically-speaking.
My student told me that this song is about the moon. According to the English translation of the lyrics on Mama Lisa (https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=17), it is indeed about the moon.
I have tended to have more trouble scoring traditional sung Indian music— possibly because of what I suspect are warbles to the quarter tones I hear about and because I am unused to the patterns (I have a similar problem with modern music, but less pitch and more rhythm)— so I am less confident about my accuracy when transcribing a traditional-style Indian song. This Western notation may be a little inaccurate, and I welcome any corrections. The student thought that Version 1 sounded like what she meant it to. Regarding Version 2, this YouTube video sounds very close to what I wrote: TAMIL OLD SONG–Nila nila odi vaa(vMv)–SANDI RANI – YouTube.
To download free sheet music for “Nila, Nila, Odi Vaa” arranged for simple violin, click here:
Nila-Nila-Odi-Vaa-Simple-Violin-Full-Score.pdf
