Conical shawm of North India. It is historically linked to an aerophone which entered South Asia as a member of the Central Asian naubat ensemble. It is approximately 50 cm long and its medium-sized double reed, of cane, is fashioned from a hollow cylindrical section by constricting one end and pressing the opposite end into a flat ovoid opening; the reed is mounted on a conical metal staple. The staple, wrapped with string to ensure an airtight fit, is inserted into a wooden resonator containing seven equidistant finger-holes; there is no thumb-hole. A moderately flared brass bell is attached to the distal end of the resonator. Several reeds and a protective guard, which keeps the reeds pressed into their proper shape when not in use, plus a few staples and a metal mandrel, are strung together and can be seen dangling in front of the musician during performance. A lip disc – present but by no means ubiquitous in Indian local traditions – whereby the reed is fully inserted into the oral cavity of the performer is not used by musicians who perform within the Hindustani tradition. The lips are here in direct contact with the reed.
Performing technique over the two-octave range of the Hindustani śahnāī depends on the satisfactory interplay of several factors: breath support; tongue movement without touching the reed (used for certain types of ornamentation); tonguing the reed; embouchure control; and fingering technique. The fleshy part of the finger (often of the second phalanx), not the tip, covers the appropriate finger-hole, with the proximal hand (either right or left) using three fingers and the distal four. When the fingers are gently rocked to open and close the finger-holes the performer is able subtly to shade the pitch, and also to produce extended glissandos which, together with intricately tongued phrases are characteristic of the instrument. Other characteristics include the rich timbre, considered to be auspicious, and the instrument’s ability to play sustained notes. The śahnāī is sometimes accompanied by the sur, a drone shawm which is essentially a śahnāī without tuning holes. More commonly the sur is provided by a surpetī (drone box), in which bellows activate free reeds to provide a drone of multiple pitches. A similar drone produced electronically is used by some śahnāī ensembles.
Although certain local examples, found mainly in Uttar Pradesh, conform to the śahnāī as described above, others contain a resonator with an integral wooden bell. The finger-holes on folk instruments may range from six to eight in number, and some but not all have a thumb-hole.
K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968), 64–6
B.C. Deva: The Double-Reed Aerophone in India, YIFMC, vii (1975), 77–84
N.A. Jairazbhoy: The South Asian Double-Reed Aerophone Reconsidered, EthM, xxiv (1980), 147–56
A. Dick: The Earlier History of the Shawm in India, GSJ, xxxvii (1984), 80–98
R. Flora: Spiralled-Leaf Reedpiped and Shawms of the Indian Ocean Littoral: Two Related Regional Traditions, Musicology Australia, ix (1986), 39–52
R. Flora: Observations on the Hindustani Sahnāī: its structure and performance techniques, Von der Vielfalt musikalischer Kultur: Festschrift für Josef Kuckertz, ed. R. Schumacher (Salzburg, 1992), 207–16
R. Flora: Styles of the śahnāī in Recent Decades: from naubat to gāyakī ang, YTM, xxvii (1995), 52–75
REIS FLORA