Origin
Santoor is a Persian word , and it means a hundred strains. It is the
oldest known string instrument of India. In Sanskrit it is called the
shata tantri veena or "a hundred-stringed lute". The word 'veena'
was used to describe all stringed instruments where the sound is created
by maneuvering the taut string of a bow or pinaki. In the Rig Veda there
is mention of the pinaki veena, which also happens to be the instrument
of Lord Shiv.
Presumably, the
itinerant musicians and gypsies carried this instrument in their
wanderings across the continents of Asia and Europe, giving rise to a
variety of instruments that are similar in nature. In the music
encyclopedias the santoor is found under the category of hammered
dulcimer. Popular by the similar name Santour in Iran, Iraq and Turkey,
it is a 72 stringed instrument. In China, it is the Yang-Qin with 45
strings, and the German version Hackbrett has 135 strings. The Santoori
in Greece, the Kentele in Finland and the Cimbalon or Zymbalon of
Hungary and Romania are similar instruments. The Cimbalom looks like a
piano, but instead of a keyboard, large strikers are used on the
strings. The Santoor as used by Shivkumar Sharma, is played with a pair
of curved mallets made of walnut wood and the resultant melodies are
similar to the music of the harp, harpsichord or piano. The sound
chamber is also made of walnut wood and the bridges are made of local
wood and painted dark like ebony. The strings are made of steel from
Germany and England. The instruments used to be made by one family,
known as Rehemanju Saz, and the instrument that Shivkumar Sharma plays
was made by the grandfather of the present maker when he was 95 years
old.
Development
Although the santoor
was a part of the classical music repertoire in Persia and Arabia, in
India it was only heard in the hills and valleys of Kashmir. It was a
100 stringed instrument played in a style of music known as the Sufiana
Mausiqi. The Sufi mystics used it as an accompaniment to their hymns.
Pandit Uma Dutt Sharma, Shivkumar Sharma's father, was the first to
realize the potential of the santoor as a viable classical instrument.
He did considerable research on it. As he started learning the
instrument, Shivkumar Sharma took it upon himself to fulfil his father's
wishes and bring the instrument to the classical arena. To achieve this
goal, he made innovations in the form and technique of santoor.
In the vedic period the
strings were made of dried grass, later replaced by gut strings and the
metal chords we see today. The instrument that Shivkumar Sharma started
with had 25 bridges, with 4 strings each. He increased the number of
bridges to 29 and reduced the number of strings to 3 per bridge, a total
of 87. This brought greater clarity and took less time to tune. The
melodic range is now 3 full octaves.
For an instrument to be
accepted as classical it has to be able to emulate the human voice, the
ultimate classical instrument. This requires the effect of meend
(glissando), which is the ability to pass, unbroken, from one note to
another, as opposed to staccato. Two techniques could be used to create
this effect on a stringed instrument. One is by pulling the string, as
in the sitar, and the other is by gliding the fingers as in the sarangi
or sarod. Shivkumar Sharma sustains the resonance of the notes and
maintains their continuity by gliding his kalam, or strikers along the
strings very delicately , creating very little vibration. This gliding
technique allows him to play alap, the slow improvised invocation of a
raga.
The santoor was first
presented on the classical stage by Shivkumar Sharma at Bombay in 1955,
at the age of 17 , and he has brought it a long way to its current
status as one of the most beloved classical Indian instruments.
Anatomy of
Santoor [Compiled by Madan
Oak]
Santoor is basically made out of wood. The framework is generally made
out of either Walnut or Maple wood. The top and bottom boards sometimes
can be either plywood or vineer. On the top board, also known as
soundboard, wooden bridges are placed, in order to seat stretched
strings across. The strings are tide on nails or pins on the left side
of the instrument and are stretched over the soundboard on top of the
bridges to the right side.
On the
right side there are steel tuning pegs or tuning pins as they are
commonly known, that allows tuning each individual string to a desired
musical note or a frequency or a pitch. Santoor is a unique Indian
string instrument that is not plucked or bowed but is played with a pair
of light wooden mallets or hammers. Santoor is played while sitting in a
"Padmasana" or "Ardha-padmasana" position and
placing it on top of the lap.
Santoor
is a flat shaped instrument in the form of a trapezoid that means it is
wider at one end and short at the other end. It is a wooden box that is
broader in size for base notes or low pitch notes and is tapered at the
other side for the high pitched notes. While playing, the broad side is
closer to the waist of the musician and the shorter side is away from
the musician. Both left and right hands are used to lightly strike the
strikers on the strings. One can also choose to skillfully glide the
strikers on the strings.
In any
case, Santoor is a very delicate instrument and is very sensitive to
such light strokes and glides. The strokes are played always on the
strings either closer to the bridges or a little away from bridges. Both
styles result in different tones. Sometimes strokes by one hand can be
muffled by the other hand by using the face of the palm just to create a
variety.
Santoor
can have either 29 or 31 or 33 Bridges. Most common Santoor have 29
bridges. Each bridge is tuned to a single note. Each bridge rests 3
strings on it. All of the 3 strings of a bridge are tuned to the same
note or frequency. Although there can be some bridges where one can have
upto 4 strings and they all can be tuned to different notes. Such a
bridge is known as "Chikari" and the notes on these strings
are set to the prominent notes of the raga or the composition that is
being played.
Courtesy
: http://www.santoor.com |
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