“Calassical music is not for entertainment. It is to take you on a meditative journey, ye toh mehsoos karne ki cheez hai (it needs to be felt)”.
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was an Indian maestro who straddled classical and popular music and adapted the Indian santoor (hammered dulcimer), into a major instrument of Indian classical music, giving it pride of place from the misty hills of Kashmir to esteemed concert halls across the world.
Shivkumar hailed from a musical priestly family. When five, he learnt the tabla and vocals from his father, Uma Dutt Sharma, an accomplished Hindustani vocalist. He performed on radio, aged 12.
In the early 1950s, his father researched the santoor, with roots in ancient Persia that integrated Sufi notes with traditional Kashmiri folk music, but was foreign to Hindustani tradition. He bought a 100-string santoor and encouraged his son to try playing it as he saw an opportunity to master an instrument new to North Indian classical music. Initially Shivkumar had reservations, but his father assured him his name and the santoor would become synonymous.
In February 1955, a dreamy-eyed 17-year-old Shivkumar made his maiden visit to Bombay, looking for music-based jobs in the film industry. Participating in his first major public performance at the Haridas Sangeet Sammelan, he played the tabla for half an hour, winning instant appreciation and then played the santoor for another hour, leading to wide applause.
Traditionalists however believed that the percussive fixed-pitch instrument was ill-suited to the melodic nuances of Hindustani music. Shivkumar persevered.
But the path to fit it into the complex world of ragas, riyaaz and relentless critique, while creating slides and embellishments like other string instruments but not imitating them, was arduous.
Playing the santoor wasn’t easy given its small mallets created out of walnut wood. It was harder to produce the exactness of microtones, the hallmark of classical music unlike other classical string instruments.
But he was the first to play the instrument, weighing eight kilograms, on his lap for hours at a time. He proved that tradition was not set in stone, but was dynamic and accepted new contributions, experiments and forms from those able to wear down orthodoxy walls.
Shivkumar struggled before he recorded his first solo album in 1960. He provided the background music for one scene in V. Shantaram’s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje (1955) with Gopi Krishna doing a seminal Kathak dance piece.
For years, Shivkumar was a sessions musician in films. He played the tabla for the popular song Mo Se Chhal Kiye Jaaye in the 1965 film Guide. He later teamed up with flautist Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia for an album, Call of the Valley (1967), a unique experiment because santoor and flute were considered lower down in the classical music pecking order.
Under the professional name Shiv-Hari, the duo then scored music for films like Silsila, Faasle, Chandni, Lamhe, and Darr, and were nominated five times for Filmfare award.
In 1967, with Chaurasia and guitarist Brij Bhushan Kabra, he produced a highly atmospheric and evocative concept album, Call of the Valley. In 1998, the duo became the first Indian musicians to play at a Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo. They also performed in the Central Hall of India’s Parliament.
Shivkumar released numerous albums of Hindustani santoor music, such as The Last Word in Santoor (2009), as well as many experimental works, including The Elements: Water (1995).
He was the recipient of national and international awards, including an honorary citizenship of the city of Baltimore, USA (1985), the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1986), the Padma Shri (1991), the Padma Bhushan (2001) and the Pandit Chatur Lal Excellence Award (2015). He published his autobiography, Journey with a Hundred Strings: My Life in Music (with Ina Puri), in 2002.
Shivkumar died of cardiac arrest in Mumbai aged 84 and was given a state funeral! He is survived by his wife Manorama, and sons Rahul and Rohit.