| Swarpeti, Surpeti |
| The Surpeti, or Shruti Box is not an original instrument. It is heavily influenced and based on another Indian instrument called the Harmonium, which is a reed organ with hand pumped bellows (tubes). The only obvious difference between the harmonium and surpeti is that the surpeti is keyless, unlike the Harmonium which has keys. This modified version of the Harmonium was simply made for producing a drone sound to accompany singing, chanting, or any other type of voice. The surpeti has changed a lot from its original version. There used to be strictly acoustic Surpetis, but now there are electric ones as well. Because of this significant change the way the instrument is being played and how it sounds is also changing. The Surpeti or shruti box was not originally used in India but it soon became the most popular in India by far. |
This instrument is still very popular in India but it has spread to other countries such as Ireland and Scotland. The first famous person to play the Surpeti was the poet, Allen Ginsberg, using it to to go along with his poetry readings. The modern version, however, is a compact battery-powered electronic device. It consists of an integrated loudspeaker and the necessary electronics to produce the drone. Almost all of these electronic instruments allow adjustments and fine-tuning. In a concert, the sruti box's sound is fed via a microphone to the audio mixer. Rarely does one come across a sruti box which can be wired directly into the input of the mixer unit. In the early 1990s, traditional Irish singer Noirín Ní Ríain brought the sruti box to Ireland, giving it a minor place in traditional Irish music. |