Page:The Music of India.djvu/147

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

considered very sacred, even Brahmans being permitted to play it.

The Taturi or Turahi is a curved trumpet of brass, like a bugle with one turn. Both this and the Kuma are used in religious processions.

The Sanai is a trumpet made from Sisavi wood. It is about one foot long and has seven holes. The player blows straight down the stem.

The Karana is a bigger sanai. The former is used for the two upper registers and the latter for the lower one.

The Nafari is a small straight trumpet.

The Jalatarang and Kastarang, though not wind instruments, may come in at this point. The former consists of a number of cups containing varying quantities of water. It is played by dipping the fingers in the water and rubbing them around the rims of the cups. It gives eighteen notes in two octaves. The Kastarahg is a similar instrument, but no water is placed in the cups which are of different sizes instead. The cups may also be beaten with sticks.

The Kural is the panpipe of the shepherds. It consists of a number of hollow reeds or bamboos of different lengths. Its range is extremely limited and the scales use many different kinds of intervals. It is interesting to listen to its shrill tones, with their strange intervals, in the depths of night as the shepherd watches the flocks. I once heard one playing the following notes :— P d' P P P, G M P d" P P (g D G G G, E F G D G G.)

Instruments of Percussion

Among these, drums take the first rank. As we have already seen, the drurn is one of the most important of India's musical instruments. It provides the tonic to which all the other instruments must be tuned. It is a royal instrument having the right of royal honours. The types of drum used in India are almost innumerable, and it is impossible to give a description of many of them in this book. We can only pick out the most important and describe those. In the Indian Museum, Calcutta, there