C#/Db Tanpura (138.6 Hz) | Sa-ma | Longform HQ Drone Samples | World of Tuning | Rāga Junglism
Channel: Rāga Junglism's World of Tuning | Global Guitar
Date: 22/03/2022

More: https://ragajunglism.org/tunings/tanpuras/ | Divine Indian Drones: “Ubiquitous across India, the tanpura’s idiosyncratic buzz provides a rich canvas for improvisation, accentuating the tones of the harmonic series: nature’s fundamental vibratory relationships. Some liken it to a prism, scattering pure white light to reveal the infinite shades within. Whatever you play, see what you can find in these curious, cascading sounds...”

• C#/Db Tanpura | ma-Sa-Sa-Sa (4-1-1-1=F#-C#-C#-C#) | Sa: ~138.6Hz

BASICS: India’s iconic droning lutes occupy a strange role. At Darbar we received countless tanpura-themed queries from post-concert audiences – though intrigued, newcomers were understandably confused as to quite what these towering fretless monoliths had been up to. Likewise, the artists who had sat amongst the drones would often lament the lack of awareness around their music’s cultural and historical roots.

ROLE: Crucially, the tanpura isn’t there to provide melody, rhythm, or any other ‘standard’ instrumental element. Instead, it adds a static texture – a sort of ‘colour framework‘ – resonating in set sequence rather than responding to the sounds around it. Its sparkling cascades both anchor and intensify the raga at hand, providing an unchanging vibrational context while also drawing out the power of particular overtones and intervals. As both the first and last sound heard in a classical concert, the tanpura will invariably reshade every note played inbetween. Thus, the drone is a double-edged sword, giving musicians sonic stability while also shining stark light onto even the smallest of their tonal inaccuracies. Unforgiving in its warmth, it illuminates the path towards perfection: in the words of Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna, “only a musician who has experienced this sanctity can be a true musical vehicle. In the internal absorption of the tanpura’s resonance, music happens.”

MYSTICISM: The omnipresent nature of its resonance has deep cultural foundations, pointing towards to the Vedic concept of nada brahma – ‘universe as sound’ – the belief that eternal cosmic vibration is the ultimate foundation of our reality. The drone, though overflowing with immediate, inherent motion, never offers up any kind of narrative sequence to follow. It has no clear start or endpoint, with a cross-resonance that fades in smoothly even as the strings are first strummed, as if the listener had just walked slowly towards a sound source that had been there all along. It’s easy to see how its ‘outside of time’ associations arise. Metaphysics aside, the idea certainly makes ‘sensory sense’: while a thick blindfold will essentially block out all light, there is no real equivalent when it comes to sound vibration...

DESIGN: Designed to maximise sustain in all the right places, the tanpura’s main air chamber (tumba) is made from a large, outdoor-grown pumpkin...each pumpkin used for the instrument weighs 40-45 kg, and has to be sun-dried...To this gourd is attached a resonant soundboard (tabli) – and the strings, made of brass, bronze, and steel, pass above a hardwood neck (dandi) made of tun or teakwood. Length varies by role, with models for male voices having a scale length of around 1 metre...The bridge (jawari) is often made from ebony wood, stag horn, or camel bone (the latter of which apparently has “a rather harsher sound”). It is precisely curved in such a way as to ‘graze’ the strings as they vibrate, which are in turn slightly elevated from its surface by thin cotton threads (jiva). This ‘nudges’ the end of the string’s oscillation path just enough to help separate out its overtones, creating the distinctive, ever-cycling ‘cascade’ effect. The tiny thread is absolutely crucial to the overall magic... | Full article: https://ragajunglism.org/tunings/tanpuras/ 

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—Rāga Junglism's World of Tuning: A global musical project aiming to reinvigorate our peg-twisting rituals, examining new tuning horizons from multiple angles: practical, harmonic, historic, social, scientific, spiritual, and so forth. We take a global view, incorporating ideas from a worldwide variety of string traditions – India, Hawaii, Mali, Madagascar, Java, New Guinea, and beyond. See the full project: https://ragajunglism.org/tunings/

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(rāga: ‘that which colours the mind’)