Kishori Music Store

Tanpuri

KMS — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 10:42:33 +0000

The tanpura is a drone instrument of Indian music prevalent in both the Hindustani and the Carnatic systems. It plays an important role in a concert of classical music by providing the base note (adharaswara) and by creating an aesthetic ambience on the stage. A well-tuned tanpura can emit possibly all the seven notes of the gamut. The tanpura by its function of providing a background, provides neither a specific note nor a rhythm. It creates a circle of certain pitches which by themselves do not produce a melody. Therefore, it will be more apt if we say that the tanpura creates a melodic background, but not a melody. Thus the tanpura provides a drone, i.e. adhar swara, designed to create a musical state in which an artist enjoys the fullest possible freedom to explore the different elements of the music.

The continuous drone of the tanpura can also impart a musical continuity, especially to the plucked and struck instruments, which do not possess a musical continuity in their sound production. Tambora, tambura, tumbura or tamura all are synonyms of the Tanpura, which is relatively a new nomenclature given to it in Northern Indian music, wheras in Carnatic music it is still called tambura.

Dholak

KMS — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 10:30:46 +0000

A two-headed hand drum, Dholak is a folk percussion instrument. Around 45 cm in length and 27 cm in breadth, it is widely used in qawwali, kirtan, lavani and bhangra. The smaller surface of the dholak is made of goat skin for sharp notes while the bigger surface is made of buffalo skin for low pitch. It allows a combination of bass and treble with rhythmic high and low pitches. The shell of the Dholak is made of Sheesham or Mango wood. The membrane has a compound Syahi which helps to lower the pitch and produce the sound. The head is played with the left hand which produces a high pitch. A cotton rope lacing and screw-turnbuckle are used to release tension while playing. Steel rings/pegs are twisted inside the laces to attain fine tuning. Dholak can be played in three ways- on the player’s lap, while standing, or pressed down with one knee while sitting on the floor.

Mridanga

KMS — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 10:25:16 +0000

the classical drum of South Indian music is the mridanga. This is an indispensable accompaniment in the concerts of both the vocal and instrumental music in south India. It is also known by the name of maddal or maddalam.

The body of the mridangam is scooped out of a single block of wood. Jackwood or redwood is the ideal choice of mridangam makers, but the wood of morogosa tree or the core of the coconut tree and the palm tree is also used for this purpose. It is shaped like a barrel whose right head is a little smaller than the left. The instrument is one-and-a-half or two feet in length and its diameter is twenty-five to thirty centimetres. The making of the parchment is a highly developed skill. The right head of the drum consists of three concentric layers of the skin, the innermost being concealed from view, which is a complete skin, and two layers at the periphery. Out of these three the complete one is made of cow-hide with calf-skin used for the outer ring and sheep skin for the inner ring.

There is another version of the arrangement of the skin, i.e. the interior is made of calf skin, the middle layer is of goat skin and the outer thick layer is made from cow skin.

Harmonium

KMS — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 09:13:58 +0000

Harmonium is a stringed instrument made of wood, metal, brass, and cloth. A kind of a portable wooden box, it was originated in West Bengal. The harmonium has thus become an integral part of Indian Music. It is extensively used to accompany folk, classical, Sufi, and ghazal compositions for both music and dance.
The keys are played and bellows are compressed simultaneously . When the bellows are compressed, the air passes through the reed, causing it to vibrate. This produces sound. The reed regulates the tone/pitch whereas the bellows produce and control air and the volume. The harmonium can produce up to 12 surs and 22 shrutis.
Harmonium was first designed by Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen in the 1700s. The design of his harmonium was like a small sized organ. It produced sound with foot-operated bellows which allowed the wind to pass through a pressure-equalizing air reservoir, which allowed the metal reeds (fixed at one end and free at the other) to vibrate. Volume of the instrument was controlled by valves operated by the knee, knobs placed above the keyboard that allowed the wind supply to bypass the reservoir and the force used to pump the bellows. As Europeans emigrated to the United States, they introduced harmonium to the Americans. Eventually the instrument found its way in the colonies of Asia, Africa and Caribbean.
In the early 20th century, usage of harmonium declined in the western world because of people’s changing tastes in music. Thus, the European harmonium lost its aura and began to be found only in the museums.

This dying instrument got a second life in India. In 1875, Dwarkanath Ghose designed his version of the Indian hand-pumped harmonium in Calcutta. Traditionally, it was used to accompany the Indian Classical musicians as they used to sit on the floor during performances.

The foot-operated bellows beneath the keyboard in the European harmonium was replaced by the hand-operated bellows at the rear, in the Indian version of harmonium. The new incarnation of the harmonium was more durable, less expensive to build, and easier to maintain and repair. The internal mechanism of the instrument was simplified by Ghose. Drone knobs were added to the instrument to produce harmonies in Indian classical music. A scale changing technique was also added to the Indian version of harmonium. By 1915, India became the leading manufacturer of the harmonium.

The harmonium has thus become an integral part of Indian Music. It is extensively used to accompany folk, classical, sufi and ghazal compositions for both music and dance.