Suroz: Iran musical instrument

The suroz is a bowed string musical instrument that has a long neck. The instrument is analogous to a fiddle or sārangī and it is played vertically. The musical instrument is considered the national musical instrument of the Baloch people of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

source of picture: flickr.com

The suroz has three or four main strings that are tuned 1. low E - 2. low A - 3. a (440 Hz) - 4. e. the strings 1, 2 and 4 are manufactured of steel. String 3 is manufactured of thick gut. There are about 5 to 8 sympathetic strings, produced of thin steel and tuned according to the raag that is to be played. The playing strings of the instrument are some millimeter higher on the bridge of the musical instrument than the sympathetic strings of the instrument, so that the latter cannot be touched by the bow. The strings of the musical instrument are not played like on the sārangī by pressing the strings with the nails of the finger but by touching the strings with the fingers, though without pressing them onto the neck of the instrument.

The high strings of the musical instrument are commonly fingered. The player of the musical instrument uses the highest string up to an octave. The sound of the instrument is very close to the Nepalese sārangī. In the south of Baluchistan, there are some smaller versions of this musical instrument, here the length of the playing strings are about 33 to 35 cm. in the north and in Sindh, the musical instrument can be much bigger, having about 45 cm as the length of the strings. There the tuning of the instrument is somewhat lower.

The Baloch name for both musical instrument and music is saz and the name for the player of the instrument is sazi. Ludi caste would be the caste linked to the playing of the suroz within the Baloch culture until the modern times. Members of the caste would learn how to play the suroz from their families due to the art of instrumental music was said be a hereditary profession, and because of that, upper caste Baloch would be linked with the musical instrument. Recently, members of lower as well as the upper social caste can be seen owning and playing the musical instrument.