Sarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in Hindustani (northern Indian) classical music. The sarod is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound (contrast with the sweet, overtone-rich texture of the sitar) with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. It is a fretless instrument able to produce the continuous slides between notes known as meend (glissandi), which are very important to Indian music.
The sarod is believed by some to have descended from the Afghan rubab, a similar instrument originating in Central Asia and Afghanistan. It is Indian [1] The name Sarod roughly translates to "beautiful sound" or "melody" in Persian (which is one of the many languages spoken in Afghanistan). Although the sarod has been referred to as a "bass rebab"[2] its pitch range is only slightly lower than that of the rubab. Lalmani Misra opines in his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya that the sarod is an amalgamation of the ancient chitra veena, the medieval rebab and modern sursingar. There is also a speculation that the oud may be the origin of the sarod. Among the many conflicting and contested histories of the Sarod, there is one that attributes its invention to the ancestors of the present-day Sarod maestro, Amjad Ali Khan. Amjad Ali Khan’s ancestor Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a musician and horsetrader, came to India with the Afghan rabab in the mid-1700s and became a court musician to the Maharajah of Rewa (now in Madhya Pradesh). It was his descendants—notably his grandson Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash who became a court musician in Gwalior -- who gradually pepo the rabab into the sarod we know today.[3]. A parallel theory credits descendants of Madar Khan (1701–1748) -- Niyamatullah Khan in particular—with the same innovation circa 1820. It is possible that Ghulam Ali Khan and Niyamatullah Khan came to the similar design propositions either independently or in unacknowledged collaboration. The sarod in its present recognizable form dates back to c.1820, when it started gaining recognition as a serious instrument in Rewa, Shahjahanpur, Gwalior and Lucknow. In the twentieth century, the sarod received some finishing touches from Allauddin Khan, the performer-pedagogue from Maihar best known as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan's guru.
Essential Question
What story is this musician telling us?
What story is this musician telling us?
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