Sarod

Sarod
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A sarod.

The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in Hindustani (north Indian) classical music. The sarod is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound (contrast with the sweet, extremely rich texture of the sitar). The tonal quality somewhat resembles the classical guitar, particularly at the lower notes, though in the higher ranges the sound is less rich than the guitar. It is a fretless instrument like almost all other Indian instruments, since Indian music depends extensively (in some cases almost entirely) on continuous slides between notes, known as meend (glissando).

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1 Origins
2 Design
3 Playing
4 Well known sarod players
- 4.1 Senior performers: past and present
- 4.2 Young performers
5 References
6 See also

Origins

The Sarod is believed to be of Persian descent, as the name Sarod means "beautiful sound" in Persian. Many scholarly and anecdotal accounts also consider the ancestral source of the sarod to be the rubab, a similar instrument originating in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The sarod is essentially a bass rebab.¹ The rebab was modified by Amir Khusru in the 13th century. Dr Lalmani Misra opines in his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya that the sarod is an amalgamation of the ancient chitra veena, the medieval rebab and modern sursingar.

Amjad Ali Khan’s ancestor Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a musician and horsetrader, who came to India with the Afghan rebab in the mid-1700s and became a court musician to the Maharajah of Rewa (now in Madhya Pradesh). It was his descendants, and notably his grandson Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash who became a court musician in Gwalior, who gradually transformed the rabab into the sarod we know today.². A parallel, but equally credible theory credits descendants of Madar Khan (1701-1748), and Niyamatullah Khan in particular, with the same innovation circa 1820. It is possible that Ghulam Ali Khan and Niyamatullah Khan came to the similar design propositions either independently or in unacknowledged collaboration. The sarod in its present recognizable form dates back to c.1820, when it started gaining recognition as a serious instrument in Rewa, Shahjahanpur, Gwalior and Lucknow. In the twentieth century, the sarod received some finishing touches from Allauddin Khan, the performer-pedagogue from Maihar best known as Ravi Shankar's guru. None of the three theories of the origin of the Sarod have credible historic documentation, and are more speculative than concrete theories.

Design

The design of the instrument depends on the school (gharana) of playing. There are three distinguishable types, discussed below.

The conventional sarod is an 18 to 19-stringed lute-like instrument — four to five main strings used for playing the melody, one or two drone strings, two chikari strings and ten to eleven sympathetic strings. The design of this early model is generally credited to Niyamatullah Khan of the Lucknow Gharana as well as Ghulam Ali Khan of the Gwalior-Bangash Gharana. Among the contemporary sarod players, this basic design is kept intact by two streams of sarod playing. Amjad Ali Khan and his disciples play this model, as do the followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra. Both Amjad Ali Khan and Buddhadev Dasgupta have introduced minor changes to their respective instruments which have become the design templates for their followers. Both musicians use sarods made of teak wood, with the playing face covered with goat skin. Buddhadev Dasgupta prefers a polished stainless steel fingerboard for the ease of maintenance while Amjad Ali Khan uses the conventional chrome or nickel-plated cast steel fingerboard. Visually, the two variants are similar, with six pegs in the main pegbox, two rounded chikari pegs and 11 (Amjad) to 15 (Buddhadev) sympathetic strings. The descendants of Niyamatullah Khan (namely Irfan Khan and Ghulfam Khan) also play similar instruments. The followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra still carry the second resonator on their sarods. Amjad Ali khan and his followers rejected the resonator altogether.
Another type is that designed by Allauddin Khan and his brother Ayet Ali Khan. This instrument, referred by David Trasoff (Trasoff, 2000) as the 1934 Maihar Prototype, is larger and longer than the conventional instrument, though the fingerboard is identical to the traditional sarod described above. This instrument has 25 strings in all. These include four main strings, four jod strings (tuned to Ni or Dha, R/r, G/g and Sa respectively), two chikari strings (tuned to Sa of the upper octave) and fifteen tarab strings. The main strings are tuned to Ma ("fa"), Sa ("do"), lower Pa ("so") and lower Sa, giving the instrument a range of three octaves. The Maihar sarod lends itself extremely well to the presentation of alap with the four jod strings providing a backdrop that helps usher in the ambience of the raga. This variant is, however, not onducive to the performance of clean right-hand picking on individual strings.

Sarod strings are made either of steel or phosphor bronze. Most contemporary sarod players use Roslau, Schaff or Precision brand music wire. The strings are plucked with a triangular plectrum (java) made of polished coconut shell, ebony, Delrin (TM) or other materials such as bone.

Playing

The lack of frets and the tension of the strings makes it very technically demanding to play, as the strings must be pressed hard against the fingerboard.

There are two schools of sarod playing. One involves using the tip of one's fingernails to stop the strings; certain strength and stiffness of the fingernails is a prerequisite for accuracy of pitch. The other uses a combination of the nail and the fingertip to stop the strings against the fingerboard.² The technique which uses the fingernails produces a ringing tone, while the fingertip technique produces a flatter tone.

In addition, different gharanas, (schools of playing), demand distinct playing techniques. For example, in the senia beenkar gharana of Ali Akbar Khan, sarodiyas are required to cross pick between strings. For example, if the artist is ascending the scale starting at low Sa, and playing a Da Ra rhythm, he must perform a Ra (up stroke) on the Pa string. Other gharanas do not require this.