Indian musical instruments: strings, winds, percussion

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Ethnic music is very popular today. Melodies with national flavor are intertwined with modern ones, giving the compositions a special sound and new depth. Therefore, today Indian musical instruments are often heard not only at events dedicated to the ancient state, but also at concerts of famous performers. Their features and history will be discussed below.

Music of India

The musical art of Indian civilization is rooted in the deep past. The classical direction originates in the "Samaveda" or "Veda of chants", one of the oldest Vedic treatises. The folk music of India has its own characteristics depending on the place of origin. Its many traditions and offshoots are still very popular today.

The classical and folk music of the state during the Muslim conquest absorbed some of the traditions of the Arab world. Later, duringcolonization, she was influenced by European cultural characteristics.

Promotion in the world

Indian musical instruments in particular, and the music of the ancient state in general, have become world famous thanks to their use by popular artists. One of the first who turned to them in Europe were members of the famous Liverpool Four. George Harrison used an Indian sitar on Norwegian Wood (This bird has flown). Briton John McLaughlin did a lot to popularize the music of the ancient state. His jazz fusion was often adorned with Indian motifs.

Fame for the musical culture of the country was brought by numerous social movements of the last century: hippies, new age and so on. And of course, cinema played a significant role in this matter.

Two directions

Classical Indian music is divided into two branches:

• Hindustani: originated in Northern India;
• karnataka: originates in South India.

Each of the directions was characterized by its own tools. Following Hindustani traditions, the sitar, sarod, tanpur, bansuri, tabla, shenai and sarangi were usually played. South Indian musicians used the vina, the longitudinal flute or vein, the gottuvadyam, the mridangam, the kanjira, the ghatam, and the violin. Let's take a closer look at some of these tools.

Indian tabla drum

Tabla is often called one of the symbols of Indian music. This is a small steam drum.used to emphasize the main rhythmic composition in the Hindustani tradition. The origin of the tabla is unknown. Probably, the features of playing this instrument and the details of its design have developed on the basis of a combination of Indian, Persian and other traditions.

Table consists of two drums, differing in size and structural features. The larger one is called "tabla" or "daya" or "dayan" or "dahin". It is always located on the right and differs in some features:

• height usually reaches 30-36cm;
• shaped like a barrel with a top cut about 15 cm in diameter;
• hollow body formed from a hollowed-out piece of wood.

The left drum is called "dagga", or "bayan", and is inferior in height to the right one, but exceeds it in width. Its design is distinguished by the following features:

• height is about 5cm lower than Dahin's;
• shaped like a bowl;
• made from copper, brass or clay;
• body is also hollow.

The membrane of both parts of the tabla is made of leather and coated with a special composition that affects the timbre. This coating creates an expressive sound pattern characteristic of the instrument, making it flexible in pitch, dynamic and technical terms.

Many faceted sitar

Probably the mosta well-known Indian stringed musical instrument is the sitar, or sitar. It belongs to the lute group and is able to create a unique sound palette that is not available to many similar instruments.

The sitar has seven main strings and 11 to 13 additional or resonator strings. During the performance, the musician uses the main strings, the rest respond to their sound. As a result, the melody becomes deeper and more multifaceted. One sitar in this respect can be compared to an entire orchestra. To play this stringed plucked instrument, a special mediator is used - the mizrab. In shape, it resembles a long claw and is attached to the index finger of the right hand.

The main feature of the sitar is a resonator made from a pear-shaped gourd. Often, the instrument is also equipped with an additional resonator, which is attached to the top of the neck.

Similar in structure to the sitar is the esraj, a musical instrument with twenty strings. A bow is used to play it. The arrangement of the strings makes it related to the sitar. Estraj arose much later - about 200 years ago. The approximate time of the appearance of the sitar is the 13th century.

Krishna Flute

Many Indian musical instruments have their roots in antiquity. Their images are found in illustrations in sacred texts. Among such instruments is the bansuri flute. One of its varieties is revered as an instrument beloved by the god Vishnu.

Bansuri is made from bamboo stalk. 6-7 holes are made in the instrument for extracting sounds, as well as 1-2holes at the end of the flute for its tuning. There are longitudinal and transverse varieties of the instrument. The former is more often used in folk music. In the classical one, the transverse flute is used.

The length of the bansuri varies from 12 to 40 inches. The most commonly used is the 20-inch flute. The longer the bansuri, the lower the sounds extracted from it can be. As a rule, playing the flute is accompanied by accompaniment, for which the tampura (a plucked string instrument similar to the sitar, but without frets) and tabla are used more often than others.

Kanjira

In the South Indian tradition, among other percussion instruments, the kanjira is used. It is a tambourine with a base of jackfruit wood. Kanjira is small in size: diameter - 17-19 cm, depth - 5-10 cm. A membrane of lizard skin is stretched on a wooden base on one side, the other is open. On the side, two metal plates are built into the frame of the kanjira.

This young percussion instrument appeared in the 30s of the last century and is most often used in folk music.

Sacred Drum

Mridanga can often be heard along with the kanjira. It is a percussion instrument resembling a drum. In the religious system of Bengali Vaishnavism is considered sacred.

Mridanga body is made of clay, wood or plastic. The last option is the latest modification, according to experts, it is not able to reveal all the possibilitiessuch a drum. The mridanga membrane is made from cow or buffalo skin. According to tradition, animals must die a natural death. The membrane of the mridanga is coated with a special compound that includes clay, rice flour and a powder of a certain type of stone.

The tool is still used today for ritual purposes. The design of the mridanga has a sacred meaning.

Snake Charmer's Tool

Another interesting Indian musical instrument is pungi. A distant relative of the clarinet is used on the streets of the country to conjure snakes. Pungi has an unusual design. The mouthpiece is connected to the air chamber, on the opposite side of which there are two tubes. The latter are made of cane or wood. Dried gourd is often used for the mouthpiece and air chamber.

To extract the melody from punga, a special technique of continuous breathing is used. The musician draws in air through the nose and almost immediately pushes it out with the help of the tongue and cheeks through the mouth.

The Indian musical instruments described above do not exhaust the diversity that has developed over the centuries on the territory of the ancient state. Today, many of them can be heard on the recordings of popular American and European artists. Ethnic music today is intertwined with a variety of genres and trends, giving them a special flavor. In India, traditional instruments have not lost their relevance at all. They are stillare used both during holidays and in the process of religious services. You can learn how to play such instruments in many cities of our country, but the best teachers, who convey not only technique, but also philosophical content, still live in India.