Krsna Kirtana Songs est. 2001 www.kksongs.org
Appendix S5: Before the Harmonium:
The Sarangi
As we made our entry into the topic of ornamentation
and intonation of Indian music, it is quite important to see the instrument
which was used before the harmonium to accompany musicians. This instrument had
the ability to do all ornamentations, do justice to all intonations, and change
intonations to add flavor as well as bring out the unique characteristic of
each raga. It was a sweet sounding instrument which made people laugh, smile,
worship, meditate, as well as made people feel sorrow and cry. This instrument
is the sarangi. The word sarangi comes the words “sau” and “rangi” which means “of one-hundred colors.” Figure S5.1 shows a
sarangi.
Figure S5.1
It was understood that the sarangi was invented when
a piece of dead monkey tail was tied up over a log. Once when a traveling
musician was walking in the forest and heard such a beautiful sound. That sound
was the wind blowing against this tail tied to a log. He took it upon himself
to create a playable instrument.
This instrument has four main strings which are made
of goat gut. The body of this whole instrument is made of wood with a goat skin
belly. In addition, there is the magical component of the sarangi, which the
thirty-seven sympathetic strings, also
known as tarafs, that vibrate when a
specific note is played. There are two sets of tarafs. One is tuned
chromatically, while the other set is tuned to the notes of the raga to be
performed. This creates a truly rich sound when played. The sarangi is used
because it is instrument which sounds the closest to the human voice. The
emotions of the human voice can be faithfully reproduced through the sarangi.
The sarangi, however, was the most difficult
instrument. The instrument did not have a fingerboard or any type of frets or
note markers. So understanding where the twelve notes are in various saptaks
required one to really know one’s instrument. Sarangi is not like the
harmonium, where you would be able to any
harmonium. Each person’s sarangi will be different. There are so many strings
to tune, as well as retune. The goat skin belly will change from temperature
differences. As the skin might stronger or weaker, the strings will change
accordingly. If you ignore the playing aspects, this instrument is physically
demanding. You produce the note by inserting the string in between your fingernail
and fingertip. From there, you slide up and down to create ornamentations of
Indian music, as well as simply traveling from note to note. This was the
accompanying instrument of Indian music.
Back in the 1500s, public dancers, courtesans, and
harems took up to music. Their preferred instrument was the sarangi. Because it
was difficult to play as well as difficult to endure causing unsightly
calluses, it was slowly faded away. In more religious settings, brahmanas, or
the priest class of
Even though this might not have anything relevant to
harmonium, it is important to see what was before the harmonium and appreciate
the intensity of Indian music.