The shehnai is a North Indian wind instrument now familiar in the performance of classical music but originally associated with ceremonial occasions. It is a double-reed instrument with a wood body and brass bell and has six to eight holes. The shehnai is accompanied by a second shehnai that plays the first note of the octave. Percussion is provided by a small drum called a tikara and not ordinarily by the more standard tabla. The shehnai team used to be known as raushanchauki or nahabat in northern India. Like its southern counterpart, the nadaswaram, the shehnai was a feature of festivals, celebrations, temples, and royal courts. The contents of the music associated with such specific occasions came from Indian classical music but not in its most skilled or refined form. The traditional use of the shehnai has not completely disappeared, but its reputation greatly increased in the late twentieth century due to a few musician families, two of them hailing from Benares (Varanasi), who succeeded in establishing the shehnai in the concert hall. The greatest living exponent of classical shehnai, Bismillah Khan (b. 1908), belongs to one of the Benares families.
Further Reading
Krishnaswamy, S. (1965) Musical Instruments of India. Delhi: Publications Division, Government of India.
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