Sarangi

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Sarangi

Classification	Chordophone
Related instruments
Sarinda Taus Dilruba/Esraj Dhantara Nepali Sarangi

The sārangī is a

, unornate and four-stringed.

History

According to some musicians,^[who?] the word sarangi is a combination of two words: seh ('three' in Persian) and rangi ('coloured' in Persian) or Persian sad-rangi, sad for 'hundred' in Persian ('hundred coloured) corrupted as sarangi.^{[citation needed]} The term seh-rangi represents the three melody strings. However, the most common folk etymology is that sarangi is derived from sol rang ('a hundred colours') indicating its adaptability to many styles of vocal music, its flexible tunability, and its ability to produce a large palette of tonal colour and emotional nuance.

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 sometimes include a full-scale raag presentation with an extensive alap (the unmeasured improvisatory development of the raga) in increasing intensity (alap to jor to jhala) and several compositions in increasing tempo called bandish. As such, it could be seen as being on a par with other instrumental styles such as sitar, sarod, and bansuri.

It is rare to find a sarangi player who does not know the words of many classical compositions.^{[citation needed]} The words are usually mentally present during the performance, and a performance almost always adheres to the conventions of vocal performances 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 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 Nepali 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 the repertoire in India. In Nepal, the sarangi is viewed as an iconic musical instrument to identify the Gandarbha people.

Structure

Carved from a single block of tun (

) of the raga. A properly tuned sarangi will hum and cry and will sound like melodious meowing, with tones played on any of the main strings eliciting echo-like resonances. A few sarangis use strings manufactured from the intestines of goats.

Pakistan

The sarangi is a Mughal-era musical instrument. Its usage has been declining in Pakistan since the 1980s, as a result of the deaths of several master players and its high cost - around Rs. 120,000/- (US$400).^[1]

Notable performers

Sarangi players in India

• Abdul Latif Khan (1934-2002)
• Aruna Narayan (born 1959)
• Ashique Ali Khan (1948-1999)
• Bharat Bhushan Goswami (b. 1955)
• Bundu Khan (1880-1955)
• Dhruba Ghosh (1957-2017)
• Ghulam Ali (Sarangi) (b. 1975)
• Harsh Narayan (b. 1985)
• Kamal Sabri (b. 1974)
• Manonmani (b. 2000)
• Ramesh Mishra (1948-2017)
• Ram Narayan (b. 1927)
• Sabir Khan (Sarangi) (b. 1978)
• Sabri Khan (1927-2015)
• Siddiqui Ahmed Khan (1914-)
• Suhail Yusuf Khan (b. 1988)
• Sultan Khan (1940-2011)
• Ustad Faiyaz Khan (born 1968)
• Moinuddin Khan (musician)
• Ram Narayan

Sarangi players in Pakistan

• Allah Rakha (1932-2000)
• Bundu Khan (1880-1955)
• Nathu Khan
  (1920-1971)

Other sarangi players

• Yuji Nakagawa, Sarangi – a Japanese citizen who learnt to play the instrument in India under the tutelage of Dhruba Ghosh

See also

• Esraj
• Sarinda
• Hindustani music

References

Further reading

• Bor, Joep, 1987: "The Voice of the Sarangi", comprising National Centre for the Performing Arts Quarterly Journal 15 (3–4), December 1986 and March 1987 (special combined issue), Bombay: NCPA
• Magriel, Nicolas, 1991 Sarangi Style in North Indian Music (published Ph.D. thesis), London: University of London, available on amazon.com
• Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt, 1997: “The Indian Sarangi: Sound of Affect, Site of Contest”, Yearbook for Traditional Music, pp. 1–38
• Sorrell, Neil (with Ram Narayan), 1980: Indian Music in Performance, Bolton: Manchester University Press

External links

• Resham Firiri A popular Nepali folk music with a Sarangi and madal.
• sarangi.info – downloadable sarangi and vocal music, including the integral of two important books, The Voice of the Sarangi by Joep Bor and Indian Music in Performance and Practice by Ram Narayan and Neil Sorrell.
• Growing into Music – includes several films by Nicolas Magriel on Indian musical enculturation including films about the sarangi players, Farooq Latif Khan (b. 1975), Sarwar Hussain Khan (b. 1981), Mohammed Ali Khan, Sarangi (d. 2002), Ghulam Sabir Qadri (1922-), Vidya Sahai Mishra (d. 2019), Siddiqui Ahmed Khan (1914-), Ghulam Sabir Khan (b. 1948), Murad Ali (b. 1977), Faiyaz Khan (Varanasi), Zakan Khan (Varanasi) and Kanhaiyalal Mishra (Varanasi).
• Sarangi, Gujarat, 19th century
• Sarangi, ca. 1900
• Sarangi, North India, late 19th century