Tanpura: India musical instrument

The tanpura is a long-necked plucked lute. It is a stringed musical instrument found in various forms in the Indian music culture. The body of the musical instrument resembles that of the sitar, but the instrument has no frets, as the strings of the musical instrument are always plucked at their full lengths. The musical instrument has four to five wire strings that are plucked one after another in a regular pattern to manufactures harmonic resonance on the basis note or keynote. The musical instruments form the root of the ensemble and certainly of the music itself, as the musical instrument creates an acoustic dynamic reference chord from which the ragas get their unique character, color and flavor. The history of the musical instrument first come from a quote from Shri A.D. Ranade: “the first unmistakable reference to the musical instrument is in Sangit Parijat. It is neither mentioned by the earlier texts nor does the instrument fins a place in sculptures.” An electric version of the instrument, a small box that imitates the sound of the tanpura, is normally used in the modern Indian classical music performances rather than in addition of a tanpura.

source of picture: musicclassonline.in

The musical instrument is seen in the various sizes and pitches; the larger size, known as the male and the smaller size of the instrument known as the female for vocalists. The smaller version of the instrument is used for accompanying the sitar or sarod. The players of the larger version of the musical instrument pitch their tonic note at C#; the players of the female version of the instrument often pitch theirs to 5^th higher, but these tonic notes may differ according to the preference of the player and the singer, as there is no absolute and particular pitch-reference in the Indian classical music systems. The male version of the instrument has an open string length of about 1 meter, and the female version of the instrument is ¾ of the male version of the instrument. The standard tuning of the musical instrument is 5-8-8-1 or the Indian sargam PA-sa-sa-SA.

The name of the instrument is derived probably from ‘tana’, referring to a musical phrase and ‘pura’ meaning full or complete. The musical instrument is distinctive in many ways. The tanpura does not partake in the melodic part of the music, but it helps and sustains the music by providing a colorful and dynamic resonance field based on one precise, the basic note. The musical instrument also is not performed in rhythm with the music, as the exact timing of plucking a cycle of four strings in a constant loop is a determinant factor in the resultant sound of the instrument.

The special overtone –rich sound and the loud movement in the inner resonance is reached by applying the principle of Jivari that creates a sustained buzzing sound in which specific harmonics will resonate with focused clarity.

The tanpura is designed in three various patterns;

The miraj style is the favorite form of the instrument for the Hindustani players. The instrument is often between three to five feet in length. The instrument has a carved rounded resonator plate and a long hollow straight neck; in section that resembles a rounded capital D. the round lower chamber to which the table that is connecting the heel-piece and the neck of the instrument are attached is cut from a selected and dried gourd. The wood used in the production of this design of the tanpura is either tun or teak; the bridges of the instrument are often cut from one piece of bone.

The second style is known as Tanjore style; this is a southern Indian style of the musical instrument that is widely used by Carnatic music players. This style has a different shape and style of decoration from that of the miraj style, but is much same in size. No gourd is used on this instrument, but spherical part is gouged out os a solid block of wood. The neck of the instrument is smaller in diameter. Jack wood is generally used and the bridges of the instrument are cut from one piece of rose wood.

Tamburi is the third style of the instrument; it is small-scale musical instruments that are used for accompanying instrumental soloists. This design of the instrument is 3 to 3 feet long, having a flatbed-pan type wooden body with a little bit carved table. This instrument may have from four to five strings. The musical instrument may be tuned to higher octave and are the preferred instrument for accompanying solo players by string-playing artists, as the transparent sound and the lighter sound of the instrument does not drown out the lower register of a sitar, a sarangi or a sarod. To simply imply that the tanpura supplies the drone in the tonic key is accurate to that degree it is an irony.