Musical Instruments of India
Surbahar
The Surabahār, often written Surbahar, was created, according to tradition, by Gholām Mohammad Khān, disciple of Piyār Khān and Omrāo Khān. Much larger than the Sitār, it is used, depending on the skills of the musician, both in the Dhrupad and in the Khayal. The difference in size allows the Surabahār to have a lower register, usually a fourth or fifth lower than the Sitār, and by pulling the first string, the instrument allows you to perform a leap of a seventh on each fret. The technique of the right hand in the Surabahār can be like that of the Vīṇā, where the index, middle and little fingers are used, but the majority of artists use the Sitār technique, which although already existing in those years, will owe a lot to experimentation which were made on Surabahār.
The intention behind the invention of this instrument was to integrate the entire ālāpachari* into a single instrument, non-traditional and less complicated than the Vīṇā. Although the Surabahār was initially designed for students outside the family unit, called Gharana**, little by little, as the tonality and capacity of the instrument were developed, many musicians decided to try their hand at this instrument. Thanks to thicker strings and a body with enormous thickness, the Surabahār has a very deep timbre, excellent modulation of the low registers and being suitable for all ālāpachari techniques, for a short time, it became common practice for musicians to play the Ālāpa on the Surabahār and then present the composition, accompanied by percussion, on the Sitar. Slowly the Surbahar's popularity declined and the Sitar acquired a dominant place among stringed instruments.
The wood used is often rosewood, however teak or deodar*** is also occasionally used. The pumpkin sound box is closed by a wooden soundboard on which the two bridges are fixed, one for the main strings and the other for the resonance strings. For the neck, which is quite wide, seventeen or nineteen brass frets are fixed with wire, depending on the Gharānā. The upper portion of the neck, culminating in a headstock shaped in the shape of a dragon, crocodile or swan head, houses the keys of the main strings. Nowadays, as the instrument is in little demand, it can only be ordered from luthiers' shops in Calcutta, New Delhi, Miraj, Varanasi etc.
Besides Gholām Mohammad Khān and Sajjād Mohammad Khān, some of the great Surbahar players were:
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Imdad Khan
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Inayat (Enayat) Khān
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Bimala Kanto Raychaudhuri
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Jiten Sen
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Mushtaq Ali Khan
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Annapurna Devi
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Santosh Banerji
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Imrat Hussain Khan
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To date, many musicians, including some Westerners, study this instrument with passion.
As for Indian musicians, Pushparaj Koshti, disciple of Zia Moiuddin Dagar, player of Rudra Vina, is perhaps the only artist who has achieved wide recognition in the Dhrupad style thanks to Surabahār.
As regards the Khayal, Imrat Hussain Khān (1935-2018) is certainly the point of reference for all musicians who study this instrument today.
*Gradual development of a Raga which through slow modulations of sound, without fixed rhythm and/or composition, but following a reference structure, shows the entire sound extension of the instrument.
**In the Indian musical system there are different lineages, or Gharānā, which are distinguished from each other by the style used in expounding the Rāga or in the use made of the Alaṁkāra. Traditionally certain techniques and certain musical instruments were taught only to blood relatives and often only to the males of the family.
***Cedrus deodara
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The main instruments of Indian Classical Music
The Sitar is the icon of Indian Classical music. The structure and tonal quality of this instrument is the result of several years of hard work and dedication of both the musicians and the master luthiers.
Goṭu Vādyama is a modified and developed form of Ektantri Veena, appeared on the scene of the Carnatic music system about hundred fifty years ago, it can be considered the Vichitra Veena of South India.
The name Rudra Vina, often written Rudra Veena, first appears in Nārada's Saṃgīta Makaranda between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and is supposed to be a derivation of the Kinnarī Vīṇā.
The Taus, the Dilruba and the Esraj are North Indian bowed instruments, all three with hybrid characteristics of the Sitar, such as long necks, fingerboard and metal strings, and of the Sāraṅgī such as the crafted soundboard Leather.
The Saraswati Veena, is very different from the Vīṇā of northern India. In fact, the arrangement of the main strings and cikari, the posture and the sound production techniques remain the same.
The Vichitra Vina, often written Vichitra Veena, saw its splendor towards the beginning of the twentieth century but many indications lead us to think that it is a developed and modified version of a very ancient instrument.
The Surabahar, often written Surbahar, was created, according to tradition, by Gholām Mohammad Khān, disciple of Piyār Khān and Omrāo Khān. Much larger than the Sitār, it is used, both in the Dhrupad and in the Khayal.
The Tampura is a fundamental instrument of Indian classical music, present in both the northern and southern systems. The function of this chordophone is to provide a sound in the background, that acts as a drone for improvisation.
In Arabic the term rebab indicates a bowed instrument; in fact the two half-moon inlets that characterize the shape of the Rabab's sound box suggest that it was only later converted into a direct pluck instrument.
The Svaramandala is a chordophone used by singers for accompaniment. Kallinatha in his commentary on Śārṅgadeva's Saṅgīta Ratnākara coincides the matakokilavīṇā of Bharata Muni's time with the Svaramaṇḍala,
The Sanṭoor is a dulcimer that has only recently entered Indian classical music scene. It is considered one of the most important developments of the twentieth century in Indian Classical music.
The transverse flute used in Indian classical music, is capable of reproducing all the delicate movements, ornamentations and nuances of the human voice. This instrument finds references in many sacred texts.
Among the main contributions of Indian instrumental technology, both in terms of production quantity and timbre quality, bifacial convex diaphragms occupy a place of primary importance in Indian Classical Music.
In the folk and tribal music of different regions of India, various types of stringed instruments are found with a very varied tradition. In the Rajasthani tradition there are more than ten types of Sāraṅgī.
This name derives from two sanskrit terms "pakshe vadya", or from the Persian "pakh awaz" which means soft sounding. The pakahwaj became the main percussion in the north, while the mridangam assumed centrality in the south.
The term Sarod, of Persian origin, means "song" or "melody". All hypotheses regarding the origin of the Sarod, are based on many assumptions and inferences. The general opinion is that it is a developed version of the Rabab,
One of the oldest and most widespread percussion instruments are the timpani, with a conical-shaped body, the skin of which is often struck with beaters modeled in an arched shape or simply straight, with a knobbed head.
The terms Shahana, Shahanay or Shennay identify the zurna, a wooden aerophone typical of Persian musical culture. In Iran we can still find various styles of this instrument which vary both in size and in the quality of wood used.
Tabla are the percussion instruments that best represent Indian musical culture. This instrument, used mainly in the Hindustani style, accompanies singing, instrumental music and dance.
The khol is the most used percussion in the north-eastern region of India, often linked to the Vaishnava cult of Bengal and Assam, it is also often called mridang since the body is made of terracotta (mrit means clay).
Probably in the past the pakhavaj and the mridangam presented much fewer differences and are in fact to be associated with a single archetype, but they developed over the centuries within two different styles,
Frame drums are very popular in India and the simplicity of manufacturing these instruments has facilitated their diffusion. They are in fact a thin strip of iron or wood bent into a circular shape with the two ends joined on which a membrane is applied.
The sound production techniques and the structure are identical to the shennay, the differences are mostly related to the dimensions and some small details. The double reed is fixed on a metal support which fits onto the wooden body.
The violin, which in India is also called Behalā, as we know, is one of the first Western instruments to have been introduced, more than a century and a half ago, into Indian music by Baluswamy Dikshitar (1786-1858), a great music scholar caranatica.
The Suraśṛṁgāra, often written Sursingar in many respects similar to the Surabahar, is a reinterpretation of the Rabab created in Benares under the supervision of Zafar Khān.
The moorchang, is a typical example of a universal instrument. In Italy it is a popular instrument called the wind chime or marranzano and although it takes on different forms, it is used all over the world.
The tavil belongs to the folk music tradition of South India, and is often played with a wind ensemble called periya melam. This percussion has a barrel shape with a single-layered stem, obtained from a single cylindrical block of wood.
Frame drums are very popular in India and the simplicity of manufacturing these instruments has facilitated their diffusion. They are in fact a thin strip of iron or wood bent into a circular shape.
The term bhanda vadya is used to indicate all terracotta percussion instruments with a spherical body, practically real vases of various shapes and sizes.
The term "Mohan veena" can denote one of two distinct plucked string instruments utilized in Indian classical music, particularly in Hindustani classical music, which is traditionally associated with the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent.
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