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 v...
https://worldhitz4u.blogspot.com/2013/12/suroz-iran-musical-instrument.html
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.
