The Napali sarangi

The sarangi is a four-stringed bowed instrument from Nepal, think of something like a fiddle and you've got it. These days there are usually three nylon strings and one wire string. It's a fairly small instrument, about two feet long. The neck, such as it is, is fairly short, a few inches. The instrument's body is sort of like a figure eight. The top half of the instrument is open and the bottom half is covered with skin, usually sheep but I'm sure goat and cow get used as well. I recently had the chance to hear an excellent sarangi covered with lizard skin, of all things. Now of course you want to hear it, and see it for those of you who can do that sort of thing. Well, here's a video of some excellent sarangi playing. The drum is called madal. They're generally from one to two feet long. They are barrel-shaped and have a head on either end. These heads, somewhat similar to tabla heads, are connected with leather straps. Metal rings are slid along these straps to tighten and loosen them to tune the madal.

The Nepali sarangi is unfortunately generally eclipsed by and confused with an Indian instrument also known as sarangi. The Wikipedia sarangi article tells you nothing whatsoever about the Nepali instrument, simply equating it with the Indian variety. They are quite different instruments, though it is theorized that the Indian sarangi came from simpler bowed instruments such as the Nepali sarangi. Wikipedia's etymology is also strange, it gives sarangi as coming from Hindi sau, hundred, and rang, color. The etymology I've gotten from several Nepali friends is sa, the first note of the Indian/Nepali scale equivalent to Western do, and rangi, color. Thus the instrument is the instrument that colors the notes of music. I guess the Wikipedia etymology is getting at the same basic idea, but I thought I'd put the one I've gotten out there. Enjoy!

In case this isn't musically geeky enough already, let's have some more! The sarangi is tuned root fourth fourth octave, e.g. d g g d. The bow is different from a Western violin bow, the hair is pushed out by the fingers to maintain tension. The strings are played by touching them with the backs of the fingernails. Often a bell is attached to the end of the bow for rhythmic emphasis. Here is another video showing a good view of the instrument being played, you can hear and briefly see the bell.

The sarangi is traditionally played by the gaine or gandarva, a class of wandering musicians. In the past they would report news, give social commentary, and so on. Nowadays I gather they're generally trying to sell sarangi to tourists, so unfortunately the tradition is dying out. The person nice enough to give me a sarangi lesson the other week said they used to come to his village about ten years ago but they've largely stopped. Here is another video, this time of two gaine. The thing that sounds like a high-pitched madal, it did to me anyway, is actually another gaine playing the sarangi by plucking its open strings!

Finally, here are some unfortunately faint videos of Om Gurung, who gave me the aforementioned sarangi lesson. Here he is playing sarangi, and here he is playing madal and singing! He's a very nice person and a wonderful singer and player of the sarangi and madal, and he very generously shared his time to give me playing tips for both. So crank up your speakers and headphones and enjoy the cool music! This is music the way it's supposed to be made.

Update: I found another good video. This is Shyam Nepali playing sarangi, possibly with his group Sukarma. Since I don't own any albums by Sukarma, yet, I don't know if the track in the video is theirs or not.

Also, I now own a sarangi, thanks to the wonderful people at Shangri-La Collections, right here in my very own city even! But if you happen not to live near me, don't worry, they do mail order. So check them out, they're really nice people. I hope to have pictures up somewhat soon, sound will have to wait until I can play something on it, heh. I just got it today, be patient! The main difference between mine and what I've described above is that my bow is pre-tensioned, it's a flat strip of what I assume is bamboo, probably strung with nylon. It sounds wonderful, so hopefully I'll be able to play at least some sort of simple melody or scale on it soon, for your edification. Then you can compare it to the videos and see how far I have to go, heh. I forget where I read this, but a gaine would start trying to play at about seven or so, watching their father, and be ready to go out in public by about 14. Hopefully the fact that I play other instruments will help cut the time to learn considerably. That's learning to do basic playing, of course. I'm sure getting fairly good at it takes a while, let alone mastering it.

The purpose of this blog

Well this is pretty simple. I have this internet radio show thingy called Global Sound Trek, where I play music from all over the world. In case you've stumbled across this blog before finding the show, it can be found, along with a bunch of other great shows I might add, on 107ThePhoenix.

I thought it might be nice to have a place to discuss world music, expand on thoughts about it, and link to things that don't really work on the show, like videos and such. So here we are, and let's get right down to it, shall we?