Esraj
Esraj ( Bengali : এস্রাজ , esrāj , pronounced "isrādsch") is a North Indian painted bowl-neck lute , which was probably developed in the 19th century from the mayuri vina , the broad body of which ends in a peacock's head. The esraj has four to five playing strings and over a dozen sympathetic strings. In the classical music of North India it is particularly suitable for the Khyal style and is also used, especially in Bengal , for singing accompaniment in other song genres. The same instrument family includes rubab ,sarangi , sarinda and dilruba .
Origin and Distribution
The esraj , a Bengali name is ashuranjani, is one of the more recent of the numerous Indian string instruments ( Hindi : dhanustata, from dhanu "bow"). The origin of the instrument is in Gaya in the state of Bihar . Either the Rubab player Basit Khan from Bengal or a certain Iswari Raj from Gaya brought it there as the author. In the case of the latter inventor, the esraj is named after the abbreviation of his name. The esraj could have originated from the mayuri vina ("peacock vina "), the deep, voluminous body of which has been simplified and slimmed down with a towering peacock head at the lower end. The new instrument existed obviously in the 1850s, because Karam Imam recounts in his 1856 in Lucknow published, Urdu-language work Ma'adan ul-Musiqi .
The singer Hanumandas Singh (1840-1939) from Gaya improved the form of esraj in the 1880s and recommended it to his student Kanailal Dhendi (Dhenri, Dhengdi, 1861-1901), who had to give up singing for health reasons. In all concerts given by the kheyal singer Hanumanda, his pupil played the esraj to accompany him . In addition, Kanailal gave solo concerts and taught some students in Gaya and Kolkata . Kanailal founded the Gaya Gharana for the esraj , the first Gharana (master school, which stands in a certain musical tradition) of this instrument. Among the musicians who came to Gaya to learn esraj there was Sheetal Chandra Mukherjee (1880–1945), who was supported by Brajendra Kishore Roy, a wealthy zamindar and art patron from Gouripur (in today's Maimansingh district in Bangladesh) . Kanailal is also mentioned as one of Swami Vivekananda's music teachers . He also brought the instrument to Abanindranath Thakur (1871–1951, a nephew of Rabindranath Thakur ) and to other members of this culturally influential Kolkata family. Rabindranath's father Debendranath Thakur (1817–1905) had already mentioned esraj . This environment was the starting point for the further dissemination of the esraj as an accompanying instrument together with the harmonium for thumri singing.
Rabindranath Thakur developed a new, romantic genre of songs from the literary tradition of Bengal, the Rabindra Sangit ("Tagore songs"). His compositions were influenced by traditional Bengali song forms such as Kirtan and Panchali, the classical style Tappa and the musette, which was valued in Europe at the time . The catchy tunes were very popular as part of the national independence movement in the early 20th century. Tagore songs contributed to a melancholy atmosphere in many films. They are accompanied on the harmonium and esraj , both of which follow the singer's melody. The rhythm was created by hand cymbals ( tal ) and the double-cone drum khol , which the Bengali singer Pankaj Kumar Mallick (1905–1978) replaced from the 1930s with the pair of kettle drums tabla . Around the middle of the 20th century the esraj faded into the background. From the 1980s it experienced a certain renaissance and in western countries it gained the reputation of a particularly authentic Indian musical instrument due to its musical home in Shantiniketan , Bengali , where Rabindranath Thakurs worked.
In the Bishnupur Gharana ( Bishnupur in West Bengal, Bankura District , 130 km northwest of Kolkata) the esraj was used together with the sitar for the serious classical style of Dhrupad in the 20th century . The credit for introducing the esraj as a solo instrument into Hindustan music (North Indian classical music) goes to musicians from this city. Ashesh Chandra Bandyopadhyay (1920–1992) from Bishnupur had taught Esraj in Shantiniketan. One of his students was Ranadhir Roy (1943–1988), who is considered the most important Esraj player. He made some improvements in form with the aim of being able to use the esraj as a solo instrument. The tradition of the Tagore songs is still maintained in Shantiniketan and the songs are performed with the esraj as an accompaniment.
Design
The sound is like the sarangi barely wider oval with 15 centimeters as the medium-long fingerboard. The length of the body is about 20 centimeters and merges seamlessly into the 100 centimeter long neck ( dandi ). An esraj can have 17 or more frets . The arch is painted at the level of the side indentations. As with the majuri vina and the Afghan rubab , the body is rounded on its underside, in contrast to the flat but larger resonance body of the otherwise very similar dilruba . The dilruba has spread from northwest India to Afghanistan , where it became a competitor for the older Afghan sarinda from the middle of the 20th century . All of these pranks are made from a block of wood and covered with goatskin on the top. The fingerboard with sliding metal brackets as frets were adopted from the sitar .
As with the dilruba, the strings are made of metal (steel, some bronze). 12 (11) to 15 (18) sympathetic strings ( tarbs, tarif or taraf ) are adjusted with pegs attached to a bar running along the right side of the neck. This bar is absent in dilruba , but is also found in 1820 by Ghulam Muhammad in Lucknow developed necked lute surbahar . With the esraj, the sympathetic strings run through holes in the bridge made of horn and freely under the frets. Of the four to six main strings that end at the thick pegs of the peg box , which is slightly bent backwards , only one string is bowed as a melody string, the others are drone strings ( chikari ). The frets can be partially moved to achieve the mood of the raga to be played. Some instruments have a second resonator ( tumba ) under the pegbox , which consists of a calabash and provides a better center of gravity.
A version of the esraj called tar shehnai , introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, works according to the principle of the straw violin (phono fiddle ) , in which a brass horn - practically a gramophone horn - is attached to the ceiling for sound reinforcement. The resulting louder and somewhat sharper sound corresponds to the word composed of tar (a common name for long-necked lute) and shehnai (an Indian cone oboe).
Style of play
The esraj developed into an accompanying instrument for the khyal singing of classical North Indian music and for the background vocals in the semi-classical Thumri style, in folk music in today's Indian state of West Bengal and also in Bangladesh . Because of its lovely sound, the esraj is occasionally played solo and often by women. The esraj sounds more delicate and nasal than the sarangi, which is common throughout northern India . This became the leading string instrument in North Indian classical music in the 20th century after it had lost its bad reputation as an accompaniment instrument for dance girls. The esraj does not have such a moral stain from the past .
Among the most famous Esraj players from Bishnupur were Rama Prasanna Bandyopadhyay and his pupil Asheschandra Bandyopadhyay (1920-1992), as well as Nepalchandra Pramanik from the Birbhum district (West Bengal). The following are also recognized as masters at esraj : Brajendra Kishore Raychowdhuri (1874–1957) and Phalguni Khan from Dhaka , the next generation with the singer and composer Dilip Kumar Roy (1897–1980), Halkeram Bhat (Maihar Gharana) and Chandrikaprasad Dube (Gaya Gharana).
literature
- Keyword: Esrāj. In: Late Pandit Nikhil Ghosh (Ed.): The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India. Saṅgīt Mahābhāratī. Vol. 1 (A – G) Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2011, pp. 311f
Web links
- Long-Necked Lute (Esraj), Northern India, ca.1950. National Music Museum, The University of South Dakota
- David Courtney: Esraj. chandrakantha.com
- Esraj, String Instruments of India. Indian Net Zone
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Courtney: Mayuri Vina (aka Taus, Balasaraswati). chandrakantha.com
- ↑ Gharana. Banglapedia
- ↑ Mallick, Pankaj Kumar. Banglapedia
- ↑ Bishnupur Gharana. ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Nad Sadhna. Institute for Indian Music & Research Center
- ↑ Asheschandra Bandyopadhyay (1920-92). Vishva-Bharati ( Memento of the original dated December 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( Vishva-Bharati : University founded by Rabindranath Thakur in Shantiniketan)
- ^ Tagore for the Times. The Telegraph, Calcutta, January 28, 2009
- ^ Oxford Encyclopaedia, p. 311
- ^ David Courtney: Tar Shehnai. chandrakantha.com
- ^ Musical Instruments. Banglapedia
- ↑ Alain Danielou: Introduction to Indian Music. Heinrichshofen's Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1982, p. 101
- ↑ Raychowdhuri, Acharya Brajendra Kishore. Banglapedia
- ^ Roy, Dilip Kumar. Banglapedia
