The sarangi is a folk Nepalese string instrument. Unlike the classical Indian sarangi which has many sympathetic strings which are not bowed...
The sarangi is a folk Nepalese string instrument. Unlike the classical Indian sarangi which has many sympathetic strings which are not bowed, the Nepali has only four strings, all of which are played. Traditionally in Nepal, sarangi was only played by people of Gandarva or Gaine caste, who sing narrative tales and folk song. However, in present days, its widely used and played by many. The sarangi has largely usurped the role of the previous Gaine instrument, the plucked lute arbajo.
History
There are different versions for the meaning and origins of sarangi but the most logical and widely accepted ones are that the word sarangi is derived from two Hindi words: sau (meaning hundred) and rang (meaning colour) hence meaning the instrument of 100 colours while the other one is that the word sarangiis combination of two sanskrit words: saar (summary) and ang (form, herein different styles of playing instrumental music for e.g. gayaki ang) hence meaning the instrument that can summarize every style of music or playing. Both the versions though point towards the same quality of sarangi, that it can play any type of repertoire of music and still sound beautiful.
Sarangi now enjoys the status of a solo classical instrument due to the single-handed efforts of Ram Narayan. There is a variation to the fingering technique that was used by Ram Narayan. It differs from the standard fingering as to when one shifts from the first finger (index) to the second finger (middle finger). By Ram Narayan's own admission it is a non-standard approach, and under any other circumstance we would dismiss this as being a somewhat idiosyncratic technique. However Ram Naryan is considered unequalled in the 20th century for his skill and influence over the entire field of sarangi.
Well known sarangi players include Mamman khan, Nathu Khan, Shakoor Khan, Sagiruddin Khan, Hanuman Prasad Mishra, Abdul Lateef Khan and Sultan Khan.
The repertoire of sarangi players is traditionally very closely related to vocal music. Nevertheless, a concert with a solo sarangi as the main item will probably include a full-scale raag presentation with an extensive alap (the unmeasured improvisatory development of the raga) in increasing intensity (alap-jor-jhala) and several compositions in increasing tempi called bandish. As such, it is on a par with other instrumental styles such as for sitar, sarod, and bansuri.
Sarangi music is often vocal music. It is rare to find a sarangi player who does not know the words of many classical compositions. The words are usually mentally present during performance, and performance almost always adheres to the conventions of vocal performance including the organisational structure, the types of elaboration, the tempo, the relationship between sound and silence, and the presentation of khyal and thumri compositions. The vocal quality of sarangi is in a quite separate category from, for instance, the so-called gayaki-ang of sitar which attempts to imitate the nuances of khyal while overall conforming to the structures and usually keeping to the gat compositions of instrumental music. (A gat is a composition set to a cyclic rhythm.)
The sarangi is also a traditional stringed musical instrument of Nepal, commonly played by the Gaine or Gandarbha ethnic group but the form and repertoire of sarangi is more towards the folk music as compared to the heavy and classical form of repertoire in India.
Construction
Traditional Nepali sarangi is made up of single piece of wood having a neck and hollowed-out double-chambered body; it is often made from a very light wood called khiro. The lower opening is then covered up with dried sheep-skin upon which the bridge rests, while the upper chamber is left open. The neck is fretless, and the strings are tuned with the kunti.
The original strings were made out of sheep intestine, similar to the use of catgut (made from the intestines of cattle) in violins. The village people allotted intestines of sheep, sacrificed during major festivals like Dasain, to the Gandarvas. The Gandarvas left the intestine in a pot for some days. Once the meat was fully rotten, it was pulled out, leaving behind the fine nerves of the intestine which were then woven to get the strings, which produced fine quality sound. However these days, readily available nylon and steel strings have generally replaced gut strings.
The bow was traditionally strung with horse tail-hair (as used in violin bows), but in the modern day nylon bowstrings are common. Different notes are made by touching the strings with the nail of fingers of the left hand.
The range of the traditional sarangi start from G4 and almost covers two octaves. Traditionally, sarangi is tuned G4 C5 C5 G5 (Pa Sa Sa Pa).
Structure
Carved from a single block of tun (red cedar) wood, the sarangi has a box-like shape with three hollow chambers: pet (stomach), chaati (chest) and magaj (brain). It is usually around 2 feet (0.61 m) long and around 6 inches (150 mm) wide though it can vary as there are smaller as well as larger variant sarangis as well. The lower resonance chamber or pet is covered with parchment made out of goat skin on which a strip of thick leather is placed around the waist (and nailed on the back of the chamber) which supports the elephant-shaped bridge that is made of camel or buffalo bone usually (made of ivory or Barasingha bone originally but now that is rare due to the ban in India). The bridge in turn supports the huge pressure of approximately 35–37 sympathetic steel or brass strings and three main gut strings that pass through it. The three main playing strings – the comparatively thicker gut strings – are bowed with a heavy horsehair bow and "stopped" not with the finger-tips but with the nails, cuticles and surrounding flesh. (talcum powder is applied to the fingers as a lubricant). The neck has ivory/bone platforms on which the fingers slide. The remaining strings are resonance strings or tarabs (see: sympathetic strings), numbering up to around 35–37, divided into 4 "choirs" having two sets of pegs, one on the right and one on the top. On the inside is a chromatically tuned row of 15 tarabs and on the right a diatonic row of 9 tarabs each encompassing a full octave plus 1–3 extra notes above or below that. Both these sets of tarabs pass from the main bridge to the right side set of pegs through small holes in the chaati supported by hollow ivory/bone beads. Between these inner tarabs and on the either side of the main playing strings lie two more sets of longer tarabs, with 5–6 strings on the right set and 6–7 strings on the left set. They pass from the main bridge over to two small, flat and wide table like bridges through the additional bridge towards the second peg set on top of the instrument. These are tuned to the important tones (swaras) of the raga. A properly tuned sarangi will hum and buzz like a bee-hive, with tones played on any of the main strings eliciting echo-like resonances. A few sarangis use strings manufactured from the intestines of goats — these harken back to the days when rich musicians could afford such strings. Sarangi could be of different types also.
