KiranpalSingh.com> the santoor

The Santoor is an exquite 100 stringed unique to the Himalayan valley of Kashmir. The santoor has been a folk instrument there for centuries but in the last 40 years it has risen to new prominence. It has the shape of a trapezoidal box, the sides of which form a 45° angle with the same. Strings are attached to the left side and tuned by turning metal pegs on the right with a key. Each group of strings is stretched over a movable hard wood bridge. Bridges are placed parallel to the sides of the trapezium. On the right, a line for the low strings, and on the left, one to support the top strings. The left strings can be sounded to either side of their bridges, giving in all three different string systems. With 72 strings disposed in two times 9 groups, 27 different sounds can be obtained, a rang of a little over three octaves.

The many strings enable an immense variety of resonating sounds that fill the air like waves. In a typical style of music known as 'Sufiana Mausiqi', the santoor has been played as an accompanying instrument with the vocalist and sometimes as a 'Solo' also.

It was originally known as the 'Shata Tantri Veena', which is a Sanskrit word for a hundred stringed instrument. All stringed instruments in Ancient India were knowo as 'Veena'. Todays examples would be 'Rudra Veenac Vachitra Veenac. The name 'Santoor' was given by the Persians.

Similar instruments are found all over tbe world like 'Santoor' in Iran, 'Yang Chin' in China, 'Cimbalom in Hungary and Rumania, 'Santoori in Greece, 'Hack Bret' in Germany and 'Hammered Dulcimer' in certain European countries and America.

The Santoor is played with a pair of curved sticks made out of walnut wood. It produces variety of lively tonal effects reminiscent of the Piano or the Harp. With the innovations carried out on it by Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma - the pioneer of the modern day santoor, it takes on a much wider range of expressiveness. "Modernists" have covered the tips of the sticks with felt to soften the impact and come close to a piano sonority, but traditional aesthetics require a fine, precise sonority only to be obtained with light hard-wood sticks.