Melodeon.net Forums
Discussions => Other Free Reed Instruments => Topic started by: Roger Hare on November 19, 2017, 08:35:29 AM
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Strictly speaking, off-topic, but someone here is bound to know...
I had an instrument described to me in the pub last night - played by Julie Fowlis on the R2 folk
programme. The description made me think it was probably a portative pipe organ. I had a look
when I got home. Here it is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05mk7f1 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05mk7f1)
Is it a portative pipe organ does anyone know? I'm not absolutely sure because the ones I've
seen previously:
1) Have the longer pipes protruding above the top of the 'box'
2) Are held and played at right angles to the body.
Ta.
Roger
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1) It is free reed
2) It is a Shruti Box (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti_box)
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Yes. they are used by several people in Scotland, Siobhan Miller, and Emma Spiers, are two I know.
Note for Squeezy, that's spears, not spires ;)
SJ
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1) It is free reed
2) It is a Shruti Box (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti_box)
Coo! That was quick - less than two minutes! Thank you very much!
Roger.
Looking at the Wiki entry, it seems they also have a Streb version.
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It's an Indian instrument related to the harmonium. I suppose, if you strapped a shruti box and a harmonium back to back and worked out a way to operate the bellows (impossible?), you could have an accordion on which the right hand was a PA keyboard and the left hand was a melodeon bass.
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1) It is free reed
2) It is a Shruti Box (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti_box)
Coo! That was quick - less than two minutes! Thank you very much!
Roger.
Looking at the Wiki entry, it seems they also have a Streb version.
And there are Shruti apps available for both iOS and Android
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This appears similar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY2izR3fN_U), but has a full keyboard. I thought Shruti boxes normally had just a few chords & drones.
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Yes. they are used by several people in Scotland, Siobhan Miller, and Emma Spiers, are two I know.
Note for Squeezy, that's spears, not spires ;)
Don't worry ... there are plenty of other words that Scottish people pronounce wrong as well ;) >:E
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This appears similar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY2izR3fN_U), but has a full keyboard. I thought Shruti boxes normally had just a few chords & drones.
A shruti box just has valves you can open and close to produce different drones. The ones with a keyboard are Indian style lap harmoniums. The bellows on these differ from those found on accordions in that they only push (having a sprung valve on the pull) and they fill up a mid chamber, from which the pressure can sutstain continuous notes (a bit like the way the bellows fill the bag which supplies constant the air for Northumbrian pipes)
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This. https://www.shrutibox.co.uk/ is a Shruti box. You just open and close the external valves in a relevant key, and sing over it. The more accomplished amongst them, can manipulate the valves while singing, to augment the notes.
Sir John
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This. https://www.shrutibox.co.uk/ is a Shruti box. You just open and close the external valves in a relevant key, and sing over it. The more accomplished amongst them, can manipulate the valves while singing, to augment the notes.
Sir John
Here's a great example of that : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThsStP1qkuc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThsStP1qkuc)
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My favourite shruti box player is Jackie Oates and here it it used to great effect in a song called Past Caring (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZAXhHz1zJg).
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The first time I heard a shruti box being played, outside the Indian tradition, was by the Irish singer Nóirín Ní Riain at a singing session in Dublin in the early '90s, and I remember a wag commenting on her "electric handbag" at the time... ::)
I think she's inspired a few more singers to take it up.
The portable Indian harmoniums started out as European designs in the 19th century, and they're hugely popular in Indian music.