Many of the city’s noted musicians have over the years, collected and cared for hundreds of rare musical instruments. Mridangist Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma has an eclectic collection of 300 percussive instruments. Dr. Thomas Chandy’s collection includes rare 14 century instruments while Dr. Anusuya Kulkarni has an assortment of rural and folk bamboo instruments.
These professional musicians are not mere ‘collectors’, but possess the knowledge to use and maintain their instruments. Dr. Chandy, a Western music vocalist and instrumentalist, has a humidity-controlled 1,800 sq ft space above his residence to house his collection.
Dr. Kulkarni, who plays the angklung, and Mr. Sharma make it a point to play the instruments in their collection to preserve their melodies. “If we don’t play on some of the rare instruments that are not even seen on stage, we will lose their presence and identity,” says Anoor Sharma.
What drives these musicians to collect instruments? A peek into their music rooms holds the answer.
Four hundred and counting Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Chandy first sang in a church choir when he was barely seven. He later learnt to play the guitar, saxophone and the piano. After graduating from St. John’s Medical College, he moved to the U.S. for post-graduate studies and returned to India in 1993 to start the Hospital for Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine, Arthritis & Trauma (HOSMAT). He’s the lead vocalist of his 14-year-old band, Jazz Revival. Over the years, he has amassed 400 music instruments from Africa, China, Europe, Japan, South America and the U.S. They are neatly stacked and some are labelled. He stops and plucks on the strings of a psaltery, an instrument from the zither family that resembles a giant violin. Most of the stringed instruments are replicas of those from the Middle Ages, he says.
Some of the lesser-known and weirdly shaped instruments left the local authorities flummoxed. He had a lot of explaining to do at the airport when he brought a didgeridoo because it looked like a missile. The aboriginal wind instrument, native to Australia, resembles a straight wooden trumpet, and is made from a hollow tree branch.
Dr. Chandy’s collection includes 14th century pre-piano instruments such as the baroque harpsichord and the clavichord, several varieties of harps, a 100-year-old lute from Germany, a South American marimba (resembling a Xylophone with resonators), a pedal steel guitar used in country music, a Steinway piano, the percussion instrument vibraphone and stringed Chinese Koto.
“I have 75 guitars and 20 saxophones, Western flutes, several clarinets and percussion instruments and the Indonesian angklung,” says Dr. Chandy.
Beating heart of music Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma, or Shivu as he is popularly called, is the son of legendary violinist Anoor Ramakrishna. He is a hero among percussionists. He is not only popularising percussion ensembles around the world, but is also known for his ingenuous and dynamic sessions of global beats.
“Wherever I travel, the first thing that catches my attention is the percussion instrument native to that place,” says Shivu. He ensures that his students — nearly 500 — learn to play the 300 beat instruments he possesses. He uses most of his instruments in his ensembles, including ‘Laya Lavanya’ and ‘Laya Lahiiri’.
Among others, he has a nagari, tamate, the Celtic frame drum bodhran, the Indian dholak, dikki tarang, udukke, frame drums and dhamdi set, coconut shell karata vadhya and the sammela.
“You would be surprised to hear the diverse tones inherent in each of our percussion ensembles,” says Shivu. He often includes household utensils like steel, copper and bronze vessels, plates, tumblers and spoons ‘for the shrill blend that brings about the right aural synthesis’ in his compositions.
A museum of memories Over the years, Dr. Anusuya Kulkarni, who has a PhD in Comparative Studies of Musical Instruments, has amassed a treasure trove of instruments from across the globe. She not only plays the Indonesian angklung, but is also a vocalist in both Carnatic and Hindustani classical styles. Many of the 300 musical instruments in her collection are tastefully displayed on the walls of her house. She is the only Indian to play classical Carnatic music on the angklung.
During her early years of musical studies in Kabul, she received the swarmandal, an Indian zither. When her husband, a former United Nations official, was posted to Mongolia, she was drawn to the plucked and bowed instruments of the Mongolian nomads.
In Kabul, she learned the rubab. In East Africa, it was earthen drums. The thumb piano in South Africa and the erhu (a spike fiddle) in China.
In Indonesia, she was bowled over by the enchanting sound of angklung, the traditional rattle percussion instrument made from bamboo pipes of differing length and pitch.
Her collection includes wind instruments from Tibet, Thailand and Sri Lanka, bow instruments from Ethiopia, the pluck from Uganda, vessel flutes shaped like birds and fishes from Mexico and marching instruments from Indonesia.
“I want to expose our people to other cultures through melodic instruments,” says Anusuya.
