SSC
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was an exponent of which musical instrument?
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Answer: Option B — Santoor
Detailed Solution
Explanation
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (1938-2022) was the musician who made the santoor a respected instrument of Hindustani classical music. Before his work, the santoor was mainly a folk instrument of Kashmir, used to accompany Sufiana music.
Shivkumar Sharma was born in Jammu. His father, Pandit Uma Dutt Sharma, a singer and tabla player, began teaching him vocal music and tabla when he was five, and later encouraged him to take up the santoor and to make it a classical instrument. Shivkumar Sharma modified the instrument, increasing its range and changing its playing technique so that it could produce the continuous, flowing sound needed to play the slow, meditative alap of a raga. He gave his first public performance in Mumbai in 1955. He is famous for the album "Call of the Valley" (1967), which he recorded with the flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and the guitarist Brij Bhushan Kabra, and which became one of the best-selling Indian classical albums. With Hariprasad Chaurasia, he also composed music for Hindi films under the name "Shiv-Hari", such as "Silsila" (1981), "Chandni" (1989) and "Lamhe" (1991). His son Rahul Sharma is also a santoor player. He received the Padma Shri (1991) and the Padma Vibhushan (2001). He died in Mumbai on 10 May 2022.
The santoor is a trapezoid-shaped box zither with about 100 strings, arranged in groups, which are struck with a pair of light wooden mallets (mezrab). It is related to the hammered dulcimer and the Persian santur. Other famous santoor players include Bhajan Sopori, Tarun Bhattacharya and Rahul Sharma.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Sarod is linked with Amjad Ali Khan and Ali Akbar Khan.
- ✗Sitar is linked with Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan.
- ✗Shehnai is linked with Bismillah Khan.
💡 Exam tip
Link Shivkumar Sharma with the santoor, Jammu and Kashmir, "Call of the Valley" (1967) and the film music duo "Shiv-Hari" with Hariprasad Chaurasia.💬 Discussions on this question
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Music & Musical Instruments — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Music & Musical Instruments, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers Indian classical music, its two main traditions (Hindustani and Carnatic), gharanas, ragas and talas, folk music styles, and the musical instruments of India along with the artists who are famous for playing them. It also includes the four classes of instruments: string (tata), wind (sushira), percussion (avanaddha) and solid (ghana). Exam questions usually pair an instrument with its maestro, such as the sitar with Pandit Ravi Shankar, the shehnai with Ustad Bismillah Khan or the santoor with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Other common questions ask about the origin of a gharana, the instrument a folk style uses, or the class an instrument belongs to. Making a two-column list of instruments and artists is the quickest way to revise. Practise the music and musical instruments questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.