12/13/2023 0 Comments Single string indian instrument![]() The nineteenth century sarangi was a smaller and less standardised instrument, and it is possible that the unwieldly complexity of the modern instrument has contributed to its decline as an accompaniment instrument, and to solo sarangi’s relatively low profile on the modern concert stage. The bow, held with an underhand grip, is usually made of rosewood or ebony and is considerably heavier than Western violin or cello bows, contributing to the solidity and vocal quality of the sarangi’s sound. This rests on a leather strap which protects the instrument’s goatskin face. The strings pass over and through an elephant-shaped bridge usually made of bone or ivory. It has three melody strings which are usually made of gut and around thirty-five metal sympathetic strings which provide a bright echo. These bridges resemble the sitar bridge and, similarly, serve to enhance the tone. The strings are suspended by four bone bridges: one bridge carries the playing and the sympathetic strings through different notches, the second bridge raises the main playing strings approximately half-an-inch above the instrument two bridges carry five or six sympathetic strings each. The instrument has a roughly rectangular slightly waisted body- a goatskin face on which rests an elephant-shaped bridge of ivory or bone and broad fretless neck. ![]() The classical sarangi is carved out of a single piece of hardwood, usually tun (sometimes called Indian cedar) and is between 64 and 76 centimeters in length. The Sarangi consists of squat, truncated body. This is because the sound of the sarangi is said to be as expressive and evocative as seven colours. In Nepal, where Sarangi is an important classical instrument it is believed that the word sarangi is derived from two Nepali words: sau (meaning “seven”) and rang (meaning “colour”). The Idiom is derived from two words of Hindi: “sau” means “100” and rangâ which means “colour”.įor some scholars, the wor sarangi is believed to be a derivative of Sarang (Sanskrit for ‘spotted deer’). The term she-rangi seh represents the three melody strings Sarangi is widely believed to mean “a hundred colours” indicating its adaptability to a wide range of musical styles, its flexible tunability, and its ability to produce a large pallette of tonal colour and emotional nuance.Īnother school of thought believes that Sarangi is Hindi for ‘of a hundred colours’ or “the voice of hundred colours”. This is an instrument which has the unique distinction of being the closest to the human voice in its richness and melodiousness.Īccording to some musicians, the word Sarangi is a combination of two words ‘seh’(Persian equivalent of three) and ‘rangi’ (Persian equivalent of colored) corrupted as Sarangi. It still retains this vital role today but is largely supplanted by the harmonium. Having lived in the folk tradition for centuries, Sarangi began to become popular in the mid-17th century to accompany vocal music. Eminent violinist, Yehudi Menuhin describes it as one that “most poignantly and most revealingly expresses the very soul of feeling and thought”. The Sarangi is the premier bowed instrument of North Indian music. One of the highly refined and sophisticated instruments which are faced with oblivion today is Sarangi. That many have survived in the folk tradition and are guarded and treasured by a miniscule population in small pockets of the country is not very reassuring when it is borne in mind that much of that folk tradition itself is fighting for survival. Originally estimated at over five hundred, the instruments now in vogue are about one-tenth of that. In the present times, the depletion in the number of musical instruments, especially in the classical tradition, presents an alarmingly stark contrast. Music treatises, from the ancient times to the present, adequately provide information for analyzing the evolutionary path chalked out by our musical instruments. Sculptures and paintings on temple walls depicting instruments in use in various periods of history, documents the processes of adaptation and improvement with time and experience. The experiment which must have begun in the hoary mists of antiquity has over the centuries yielded a rich harvest which is in itself a tribute to the our classical music genius. ![]() One of the most spectacular features of Indo-Pak sub-continent’s complex and rich musical tradition is the evolution of a wide range of musical instruments of various kinds – percussion, wind and string.
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