dsouza@waltz (09/17/85)
A while ago I found a record by Shiv Kumar Sharma (the santoor virtuoso) in a used record store, and bought it. I played it for an American friend who remarked on how much it sounded like (and looked like) certain kinds of dulcimers. We tried to speculate on the reasons for this similarity and could find no answers. Does anyone have any ideas about this? Do the santoor and the dulcimer have a common heritage or is this some massive coincidence of history? If there is a common root for both instruments, as I suspect, did the dulcimer evolve from the santoor or vice versa? Are there any other such instruments that are alike? regards, dilip. dsouza@ti-csl TI/Austin.
phaedrus@eneevax.UUCP (Praveen Kumar) (09/28/85)
Recently I had the chance to meet Shiv Kumar Sharma (he performed
here at U. Maryland) and, I asked him a similar question. He said
that the Santoor is originally a Persian instrument. He said that
he had no idea what the origins of the hammer dulcimer are but, he
does not think they are of similar origins. He thinks they were just
parallel developments. Apparently, the hammer dulcimer sounds quite
different to him.
--
Praveen Kumar
Don't bother me! I'm on an emergency third rail power trip.
phaedrus@eneevax.arpa or {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!eneevax!phaedrusjayasim@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU (09/30/85)
A few months back Shivkumar Sharma gave a concert here. He remarked
that the closest "Western relative" to the santoor is the dulcimer. But he
did not elaborate on the common origins of the two instruments. BTW, the
santoor is a folk instrument from the Kashmir area. People are free to
speculate from hereon.
D.N.Jayasimha,
Uof Illinois, Champaign-Urbana,
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