Shivkumar Sharma (1938-2022) inspired India and the West with the sounds of the santoor

Shivkumar Sharma at The All India Monsoon Music Festival in Mumbai in 2007.Image Getty

India is deeply mourning the death of one of its greatest musicians. Shivkumar Sharma, the most famous player of the santoor, a 100-string dulcimer played with wooden mallets, died of a heart attack in Mumbai on Tuesday at the age of 84. A state cremation was immediately announced. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sitar player Anoushka Shankar, anyone who loves Indian music was ready to say what a great Sharma was.

His greatest achievement is that he gave the santoor a place in the classical music tradition of Northern India. Before Shivkumar Sharma celebrated his successes with it, the instrument was held in low esteem. The santoor was associated with folk and Sufi music, it was an instrument of the far north: Jammu, where Sharma came from, and Kashmir.

When his father (himself a singer and tabla player) was researching the santoor for a radio program, he became fascinated by the instrument. Son Shivkumar had to learn how to do it. He did so reluctantly at first. The tabla was his preference, and he was good at it too, as he was already playing with sitar legend Ravi Shankar at the age of 17. But Father’s prediction would come true: he insisted that the name Shivkumar Sharma and the santoor would become synonymous once more.

Sharma, with luscious hair, became a superstar. He let the santoor, good for at least eight kilos, rest on his lap for hours on end. With his rhythmic variations, Sharma showed that the santoor also came into its own in the ragas, the melodic frameworks of North Indian classical music, and was not inferior to the sitar.

When the hippies took an interest in the sounds of India, aided by Beatle George Harrison, Sharma became a household name outside of India and the Hindu diaspora. With bansuri player (the bansuri is a bamboo flute) Hariprasad Chaurasia he made in 1967 for the label EMI Call of the Valleya fusion concept album about a shepherd boy from Kashmir. It became a cult hit in the West and for many was the first introduction to Indian music.

Together with Chaurasia, he also provided soundtracks for eight Bollywood films. For example, he had one foot in popular music, but due to the religious association of the ragas, the division remained clear.

In 2017 he would perform with Chaurasia at the Zuiderstrandtheater in The Hague, for a ‘jugalbandi’, a session with two soloists. Only when the audience was seated did the organizers deliver the painful message: Shivkumar Sharma’s health did not allow it, he had stayed in India. Fortunately, Chaurasia was able to join the podium with a new santa hero: Shivkumar’s son Rahul Sharma. One of the countless players who would copy Shivkumar’s art, but probably the dearest.

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