SANTOOR
Santoor
is a stringed instrument which is popular in the middle East. It is of great
importance in Kashmir. Santoor is used there for accompanying a type of classical
music called 'Soofiana Kalam', along with other instruments.
Santoor
is made of a box of wood, trapezoid in shape. Over this there are thirty bridges,
arranged in fifteen rows, two in each row. A set of four strings of metal tuned
to the same note is stretched over each pair of bridges, thus the total number
of wires is sixty. The length and thickness of strings vary according to the
octave, the strings are thickest in the lower octave. It is played with a pair
of flat wooden pieces curved at the striking end.
