Ram Narayan - Sarangi | Hindustani Classical

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Mishra Pilu (raagmala)

Ram Narayan - Mishra Pilu (raagmala)
Pandit Ram Narayan - Sarangi - circa 1983
Tabla - Suresh Talwalkar

one of the most haunting musical instruments that i've ever heard, played by a master. i had the honor of attending one of Pandit Nayaran's recitals around the time this was recorded.

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Sarangi

The Sārangī (Hindi: सारंगी, Punjabi: ਸਰੰਗੀ, sarangī) is a bowed, short-necked string instrument of India which is originated from Rajasthani folk instruments. It plays an important role in India's Hindustani classical music tradition. Of all Indian instruments, it is said to most resemble the sound of the human voice – able to imitate vocal ornaments such as gamakas (shakes) and meend (sliding movements). It is also said to be the hardest Indian instrument to master.

"a hundred voices"

There are different versions for the meaning and origins of sarangi but the most logical and widely accepted ones are that the word sarangi is derived from two Hindi words: sau (meaning hundred) and rang (meaning colour) hence meaning the instrument of 100 colours while the other one is that the word sarangi is combination of two sanskrit words: saar (summary) and ang (form, herein different styles of playing instrumental music for eg. gayaki ang) hence meaning the instrument that can summarize every style of music or playing. Both the versions though point towards the same quality of sarangi, that it can play any type of repertoire of music and still sound beautiful.

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Sarangi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Pandit Ram Narayan

Ram Narayan (Hindi: राम नारायण; IAST: Rām Nārāyaṇ, IPA: [ˈraːm naːˈraːjn]; born 25 December 1927), often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician who popularized the bowed instrument sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationally successful sarangi player.

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Living Legend...
He was fortunate to have learnt music from vocalists with a spiritual bent of mind. His first Guru, Udaylalji, was a disciple of Allah Banda Jhakurdin (of the Dagar family of Udaipur). He used to sing daily at the Ram temple in Udaipur. An often forgotten fact is that our classical (Raag) music had always been seeped in spirituality and was always deeply rooted in the ritual of the temples. All the major schools of classical music have a spiritual foundation. The compositions would mainly consist of praise for or description of the Almighty or Hindu philosophy.

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ramnarayansarangi.com

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Narayan was born in Udaipur and learned to play the sarangi at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and, as a teenager, worked as a music teacher and traveling musician. All India Radio, Lahore, hired Narayan as an accompanist for vocalists in 1944. He moved to Delhi following the partition of India in 1947, but wishing to go beyond accompaniment and frustrated with his supporting role, Narayan moved to Mumbai in 1949 to work in Indian cinema.

After an unsuccessful attempt in 1954, Narayan became a concert solo artist in 1956, and later gave up accompaniment. He recorded solo albums and began to tour America and Europe in the 1960s. Narayan taught Indian and foreign students and performed, frequently outside of India, into the 2000s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2005.

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Ram Narayan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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see also

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ramnarayansarangi.com

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Indian Music (Hindustani Classical) playlist on robertcherwink's YouTube Channel

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