Sarangi From Nepal
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The sārangī is a
bowed Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound. Despite the numerous specialist studies devoted to t ...
, short-necked three-stringed instrument played in traditional music from South Asia –
Punjabi folk music Punjabi folk music (, or Punjabi Folk) is the traditional music on the traditional musical instruments of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. There is a great repertoire of music from the time of birth through the different stages of j ...
, Rajasthani folk music, Sindhi folk music, Haryanvi folk music, Braj folk music, and
Boro BORO (Business Objects Reference Ontology) is an approach to developing ontological or semantic models for large complex operational applications that consists of a top ontology as well as a process for constructing the ontology. It was originally ...
folk music (there known as the ''serja'') – in Pakistan, South India and Bangladesh. It is said to most resemble the sound of the human voice through its ability to imitate vocal ornaments such as ''
Gamak Gamaka (Hindi: / Urdu: ) (also spelled gamakam) refer to ornamentation that is used in the performance of North and South Indian classical music. Gamaka can be understood as embellishment done on a note or between two notes. Present-day Carna ...
s or Gamakam'' (shakes) and ''
meend In Hindustani music, ''meend'' (Hindi: , ) refers to a glide from one note to another. It is an essential performance practice, and is used often in vocal and instrumental music. On the veena, sitar, sarangi and other plucked stringed instrument ...
s'' (sliding movements). The Nepali sarangi is similar but is a
folk instrument A folk instrument is a traditional musical instrument that has remained largely restricted to traditional folk music, and is not usually used in the classical music or other elite and formal musical genres of the culture concerned, though relate ...
, unornate and four-stringed.


Playing

The repertoire of ''sarangi'' players is traditionally very closely related to vocal music. Nevertheless, a concert with a solo sarangi as the main item will sometimes include a full-scale '' raag'' presentation with an extensive ''alap'' (the unmeasured improvisatory development of the raga) in increasing intensity (''alap'' to ''jor'' to ''jhala'') and several compositions in increasing tempo called ''bandish''. As such, it could be seen as being on a par with other instrumental styles such as
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...
,
sarod The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...
, and
bansuri A bansuri is an ancient side-blown bamboo flute originating from the Indian Subcontinent. It is an aerophone produced from bamboo and metal-like material, used in many Indian and Nepali Lok songs. A ''bansuri'' is traditionally made from a ...
. It is rare to find a sarangi player who does not know the words of many classical compositions. The words are usually mentally present during the performance, and a performance almost always adheres to the conventions of vocal performances including the organisational structure, the types of elaboration, the tempo, the relationship between sound and silence, and the presentation of ''
khyal Khyal or Khayal (ख़याल / خیال) is a major form of Hindustani classical music in the Indian subcontinent. Its name comes from a Persian language, Persian/Arabic language, Arabic word meaning "imagination". Khyal is associated with rom ...
'' and ''
thumri Thumri () is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb ''thumuknaa'', which means "to walk with a dancing gait in such a way that the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dram ...
'' compositions. The vocal quality of sarangi is in a separate category from, for instance, the so-called ''gayaki-ang'' of
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...
which attempts to imitate the nuances of ''khyal'' while overall conforming to the structures and usually keeping to the ''gat'' compositions of instrumental music. (A ''gat'' is a composition set to a cyclic rhythm.) The Nepali sarangi is a traditional stringed musical instrument of
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
, commonly played by the Gaine or
Gandarbha The Gandarbha caste () or Gaine () are a tribal community which belongs to the Indo-Aryans, Indo-Aryan ethnic group from the central, hilly region of Nepal. They have also been called a "caste of professional musicians" and "itinerant bards." By ...
ethnic group; the form and repertoire of the instrument in Nepal is more folk oriented than in India, and it is particularly associated with Gandarbha people.


Structure

Carved from a single block of ''tun'' ( red cedar) wood, the sarangi has a box-like shape with three hollow chambers: ''pet'' ('stomach'), ''chaati'' ('chest') and ''magaj'' ('brain'). It is usually around long and around wide, though it can vary as there are smaller as well as larger variant sarangis as well. The smaller ones are more stable in hand. The lower resonance chamber or ''pet'' is covered with
parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
made out of goat skin on which a strip of thick leather is placed around the waist (and nailed on the back of the chamber) which supports the elephant-shaped bridge that is usually made of camel or buffalo bone. (Originally, it was made of ivory or
Barasingha The barasingha (''Rucervus duvaucelii''), sometimes barasinghe, also known as the swamp deer, is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occu ...
bone but now that is rare due to the ban in India). The bridge in turn supports the huge pressure of approximately 35–37 sympathetic steel or brass strings and three main gut strings that pass through it. The three main playing strings – the comparatively thicker gut strings – are bowed with a heavy horsehair bow and stopped not with the fingertips but with the nails, cuticles, and surrounding flesh.
Talcum powder Talc, or talcum, is a clay mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate, with the chemical formula . Talc in powdered form, often combined with corn starch, is used as baby powder. This mineral is used as a thickening agent and lubricant. ...
is applied to the fingers as a lubricant. The neck has ivory or bone platforms on which the fingers slide. The remaining strings are sympathetic, or ''tarabs'', numbering up to around 35–37, divided into four choirs having two sets of pegs, one on the right and one on the top. On the inside is a
chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, es ...
ally tuned row of 15 ''tarabs'' and on the right a
diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair ...
row of nine ''tarabs'' each encompassing a full
octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...
, plus one to three extra surrounding notes above or below the octave. Both these sets of ''tarabs'' pass from the main bridge to the right side set of pegs through small holes in the ''chaati'' supported by hollow ivory/bone beads. Between these inner ''tarabs'' and on either side of the main playing strings lie two more sets of longer ''tarabs'', with five to six strings on the right set and six to seven strings on the left set. They pass from the main bridge over to two small, flat, wide, table-like bridges through the additional bridge towards the second peg set on top of the instrument. These are tuned to the important tones (''
swara Swara () or svara is an Indian classical music term that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, a note, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of the octave, or ''saptanka''. More comprehensively ...
s'') of the raga. A properly tuned sarangi will hum and cry and will sound like melodious meowing, with tones played on any of the main strings eliciting echo-like resonances. A few sarangis use strings manufactured from the intestines of goats.


Decline

Around the 20th century, the harmonium and violin began to be used as alternatives to the sarangi due to their comparative ease of handling. In Pakistan specifically, since the 1980s, the decline in sarangi playing has also been attributed to the deaths of several masters and extreme religious radicalization.


Notable performers


Sarangi players in India

* Abdul Latif Khan (1934–2002) * Aruna Narayan (born 1959) * Ashique Ali Khan (1948–1999) * Bharat Bhushan Goswami (b. 1955) * Bundu Khan (1880–1955) * Dhruba Ghosh (1957–2017) * Ghulam Ali (Sarangi) (b. 1975) * Harsh Narayan (b. 1985) * Manonmani (b. 2000) * Ramesh Mishra (1948–2017) *
Ram Narayan Ram Narayan (; 25 December 1927 – 9 November 2024), often referred to with the title Pandit, was an Indian musician who popularised the bowed instrument ''sarangi'' as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the f ...
(b. 1927) *
Sabir Khan Sabir or Sabbir Khan may refer to: * Sabir Khan (musician), Indian sarangi player * Sabbir Khan (Bangladeshi cricketer) (born 1978), Bangladeshi cricketer * Sabir Khan (Indian cricketer) (born 2000), Indian cricketer * Sabbir Khan (born 1976), I ...
(Sarangi) (b. 1978) *
Sabri Khan Ustad Sabri Khan (21 May 1927 – 1 December 2015) was an Indian sarangi player, who was descended on both sides of his family from a line of distinguished musicians. Early life Sabri Khan was born on 21 May 1927 in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, B ...
(1927–2015) * Siddiqui Ahmed Khan (1914–) * Suhail Yusuf Khan (b. 1988) * Sultan Khan (1940–2011) * Ustad Faiyaz Khan (born 1968) * Moinuddin Khan (musician) (died 2015) *
Ram Narayan Ram Narayan (; 25 December 1927 – 9 November 2024), often referred to with the title Pandit, was an Indian musician who popularised the bowed instrument ''sarangi'' as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the f ...
(1927–2024)


Sarangi players in Pakistan

* Allah Rakha (1932–2000) * Bundu Khan (1880–1955) * Nathu Khan (1920–1971)


Other sarangi players

*Yuji Nakagawa, Sarangi – a Japanese citizen who learnt to play the instrument in India under the tutelage of Dhruba Ghosh


See also

*
Esraj The or ''esraaj'' (from the Shahmukhi: اسراج) is a stringed instrument found in two forms throughout South Asia. It is a relatively recent instrument, being only about 300 years old. It is found in Pakistan and North India, primarily Pun ...
* Sarinda *
Hindustani music Hindustani classical music is the Indian classical music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' ...


References


Further reading

* Bor, Joep, 1987: "The Voice of the Sarangi", comprising ''National Centre for the Performing Arts Quarterly Journal'' 15 (3–4), December 1986 and March 1987 (special combined issue), Bombay: NCPA * * Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt, 1997: “The Indian Sarangi: Sound of Affect, Site of Contest”, Yearbook for Traditional Music, pp. 1–38 * Sorrell, Neil (with Ram Narayan), 1980: ''Indian Music in Performance'', Bolton: Manchester University Press


External links


Resham Firiri
A popular Nepali folk music with a Sarangi and ''
madal The madal () or maadal is a Nepalese folk musical instrument. The madal is used mainly for rhythm-keeping in Nepalese folk music. It is very popular and widely used as a hand drum in Nepal. The madal has a cylindrical body with a slight bulge at i ...
''.
sarangi.info
– downloadable sarangi and vocal music, including the integral of two important books, ''The Voice of the Sarangi'' by Joep Bor and ''Indian Music in Performance and Practice'' by Ram Narayan and Neil Sorrell.
Growing into Music
– includes several films by Nicolas Magriel on Indian musical enculturation including films about the sarangi players, Farooq Latif Khan (b. 1975), Sarwar Hussain Khan (b. 1981), Mohammed Ali Khan, Sarangi (d. 2002), Ghulam Sabir Qadri (1922–), Vidya Sahai Mishra (d. 2019), Siddiqui Ahmed Khan (1914–), Ghulam Sabir Khan (b. 1948), Murad Ali (b. 1977), Faiyaz Khan (Varanasi), Zakan Khan (Varanasi) and Kanhaiyalal Mishra (Varanasi).
Sarangi, Gujarat, 19th century
{{Authority control Bowed instruments Hindustani musical instruments Nepalese musical instruments String instruments with sympathetic strings Drumhead lutes * Chordophones