SOUTHEAST ASIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Sitar, late 19th century India Wood, ivory, metal This small sitar has a body made of bent strips of wood. The strips are bent to form a bowl resonator that resembles the shape of small sitars that use ostrich eggs for the resonating champer.

Sitar, 1997 Made by Murari Adhikari Calcutta, India Teak, ebony, metal, bone, various materials This sitar with seven melody and thirteen sympathetic strings was made in 1997 by Murari Adhikari, son of Nityananda Adhikari, an early twentieth-century innovator of sitar construction. Murari continued to incorporate his father's improvements, which included elaborate engraving and carving, rounded frets, a concave neck, changes in bridge design, and adjustments that produce an even tone from high to low. Sursanga, 19th century India Wood, pearl, ivory Richly decorated musical instruments such as this sursanga were often given as gifts and used for display or wall decorations. This instrument is painted in the Mysore style and the belly depicts both Ganesha and Sarasvati.

Tambura, 20th century India Gourd, wood, bone, ivory, steel This tambura has a round, bowl-shaped resonator made of wood. Inlaid on its belly in ivory is a seven-pointed star radiating from a circle that surrounds the image of a god that could be a depiction of Rama. To each side is a peacock and a small tree. At the top of the pegblock, above the frontal peg, is an image of the goddess Shiva. Mrdangam, 20th century India Wood, leather, tuning paste The mrdangam is a conical barrel-shaped drum with the larger head approximately one and a half times the size of the smaller head. The drum is typically tuned to the tonic of the music, with the larger head tuned an octave lower than the smaller head. The mrdangam is primarily found in South India, where it serves as a rhythmic accompaniment in Karnatak music.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Drum model with four frogs, Dongson culture, 300 b.c.200 a.d. Vietnam Bronze The discovery in the late seventeenth century of large, elaborately incised drums in mainland and island Southeast Asia first alerted Western scholars to the existence in the region of distinctive early bronze-working cultures. Ghanti, second half of 19th century North India Brass The handle of this bell consists of a finely wrought figure of Hanuman, the monkey general who, in Hindu mythology, led the army that helped Rama rescue his wife, Sita, from Ravana. The body of the bell is richly engraved with additional figures and floral designs. Priests use ghanti of different sizes to worship and pay homage to a god. This worship may occur in a temple or privately at home before the household shrine. Mayuri (peacock), 19th century India Wood, parchment, metal, feathers Popular at nineteenth-century Indian courts, this bowed lute borrows features of other Indian stringed instruments, such as the body shape of the sarangi and the frets and neck of the sitar. Top of a bell in the form of a demon king or guardian, Eastern Javanese period, ca. second half of 12thearly 13th century Indonesia (Java) Bronze This finial from a hanging bell takes the form of an unusually lively and finely modeled rakshasaa demon king or guardian. He is depicted as a short, potbellied grimacing creature with fangs and large bulbous eyes and a serpent emerging from each armpit. Drum, mid-20th century Carved by Omas New Guinea, Papua Province, Asmat people, Pomatsj River, Sauwa village Wood, lizard skin, paint, fiber The principal musical instruments of the Asmat people of southwest New Guinea are hourglass-shaped wood drums. At virtually every significant ceremony and feast, one or more men gather to play the drums and sing the appropriate music. Performances often last many hours, beginning in the late afternoon and continuing all through the night, a process that can go on for days or weeks. Primarily a male instrument, drums are occasionally played by women.