Watch this video, made by my friend Denis on 29/05/1997 at my home in Bierbeek. At that time I’ve been inviting Hari Chand for the first time in Belgium and we temporarily turned the living room into a small improvised sitar workshop.
On this video Hariji is doing jiwari and I am watching carefully. Join us…
Read more about doing jiwari here…
A very special and most beautiful series of sitars and surbahars made by Dieter Zarnitz.
The tumba is replaced by a wooden construction as used in traditional western lute making. Neck and body are made from flamed maple, with old air-dried pine soundboard. The head and curl are made of rosewood, the tuning pegs are made from ebony.
But, all I’ve ever heard about the man who builds these beauties is this flyer, taken by my friend Bert Cornelis at a concert in Aachen (Germany).
Sitar, Surbahar & Tanpura
Dieter Zarnitz
Gutenbergstr. 40
31139 Hildesheim
Tel: 05121/2043815
dieter.zarnitz@htp-tel.de
Anyone ever seen this one in real ?
The Rajah Zeetar is an instrument made in the 1960’s in the likeness of a sitar. Supplied with an electronic amplifier. Made in Japan. It comes with 2 eye-catching big magnetic pickups and the body is made of papier-mache with a wooden soundboard, lenght is 112 cm.
Today I added a small article about “doing jiwari” to the maintenance page. This seems for so many an insurmountable task, for others it remains a sacred secret on which sometimes insiders make profit by doing or pretending that this is only to be touched by a lucky few.
Of course it is not an easy task to do, and surely it is not a good idea to experiment with your one and only finest staghorn jiwari immediately but look out for a piece of cheap camel bone, leftover ebony or fiber and make your own ghodi from scratch. It might take some time, but once you succeed to create a good sound with a self-made jiwari… a new world opens.
Doing jiwari is a question of practice. No written rules exists on how where and when to start filing or sanding. Just take your time to gently create a slow but steady, exponentially inclined curve. At regular times, create a finishing stroke with fine sandpaper and try out on your instrument. Remove it again and work further, step by step.
If you should ever see the jiwari which came first out of my hands 15 years ago, I think you will never alow me to even come close to your sitar… 😉
Feel free to read the article, and succes!!
Towards the end of last year Hiren Roy company came with their version of the “compact sitar”.
At first sight a regular sitar with an original slotted head, but …
…they simply cut the tumba by half.
It looks very similar to Sanjay’s “studio travel model“, which has a full wooden body. This very successful concept has been copied and sold by many other sitar makers.
Further pics and details of the Hiren Roy Compact sitar are available at http://www.india-instruments.de/pag/stringinst/sitar/hr_full_com_e.html. Pictures courtesy of www.india-instruments.de.
Jay Scott Hackleman and late Kartar Chand Sharma
21 years ago Jay Scott Hackleman was so very lucky to be able to spend a whole year in the very special company of some of the world’s finest traditional sitarmakers, Kartar Chand & Hari Chand Sharma.
He wrote a profound article about his apprenticeship in the shop of Late Kartar Chand which has originally been published in The Journal of The Guilds of American Luthiers N°67 in 2002.
Hari Chand often talked to me about this “very fine young American person”. He showed me many pictures in his much used and thumb marked album. And during one of my last visits Hariji proudly presented me a beautiful copy from this unique article written by Jay. It’s a real extensive documentary (4,13Mb pdf), made with sincere care and love. Thank You So Much, Jay.
Today Tineke found a website about his present-day work.
Onze goede vriend Bert Cornelis op toernee in India, het bewijs…:
Een meer dan levensgrote affiche van Bert Cornelis & Pt. Uddhav Shinde, sitar & pakhawaj jugalbandi… in de straten van Latur, India.
Op de affiche met Hridaynath Mangeshkar, een broer van de wereldberoemde Lata Mangeshkar.
Een foto uit de krant met een verslag van hun concert in Aurangabad, ter ere van pakhawaj Master Padmashree Bapu Apegaonkar, wijlen de vader van Udhavji.
… net als haar baasje, in winterslaap.
In poezendromenland
Een hennep proefveld, bij ons in de buurt, ecologie een stap vooruit!!
Hennep is een uitermate milieuvriendelijk gewas.
Hennep verbouwen kan volledig organisch. De planten zijn vanuit zichzelf resistent tegen allerlei schadelijke insecten, waardoor pesticiden overbodig zijn.
Hennep bedekt zeer snel de bodem, onkruid krijgt geen kans en onkruidverdelgers verontreinigen de bodem niet.
Hennep is resistent tegen vele ziekten. De grootste belagers zijn vogels die na het inzaaien snel de weg vinden naar het heerlijke en enorm voedzame zaad. Maar omdat een oude boerenwijsheid zegt dat de vogels daarvan gaan fluiten, vinden wij dat geen enkel probleem.
Katoen, dat hennep wereldwijd verving in de textielindustrie, is één van de meest vervuilende gewassen. Het gebruikt 25% van het wereldaandeel in pesticiden en vraagt veel intensere voeding- en gewasbescherming (pesticiden, meststoffen, ed) dan hennep. De grootschalige monocultuur van katoen rond het Aralmeer in Rusland is er de oorzaak van dat het meer aanzienlijk kleiner is geworden.
De chemische stoffen, gebruikt bij de groei van katoen, kunnen niet allemaal worden verwijderd bij het verwerken tot textiel.
Een T-shirt van 55% hennep ipv 100% katoen, bespaart minimum 3000 liter water.
Dit, en nog veel meer info over hennep en hennepproducten op www.hempmade.be. Nu online!!.
