Shivkumar Sharma imparted classicism to santoor music

Musicians pay tribute to the master who took a Kashmiri folk instrument and adapted it to raga exploration

Santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma, who died of a cardiac arrest on May 10, will be remembered for his pioneering work in popularising the santoor. He was 84.

Here is what well-known classical musicians in Karnataka say about his accomplishments in a career spanning six decades.

Pravin Godkhindi
Flautist

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma can be called the godfather of santoor music. He was the first to take the Kashmiri folk instrument to the classical stage. He made it popular worldwide.

His acute sense of rhythm or layakari has fascinated musicians like me. Having formally trained in tabla playing, he brought its rhythmic patterns into santoor playing.

The santoor doesn’t have meend or gamakas which are very essential to performing Hindustani classical ragas, but he performed with great acumen despite this limitation. He played with the unique timbre of the instrument using subtle hand movements.

While attending his concerts in my childhood, I observed how he immersed himself in a raga and carried audiences to a trance state.

He introduced many south Indian ragas into Hindustani music and came out with many compositions which became standards for instrumentalists to play.

With flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, he composed music for many films. They called themselves ‘Shiv-Hari’ and made memorable songs for Yash Chopra films such as Silsila and Faasle.

Always humble, Shivkumar Sharma was active well into his 80s.

Nagaraj Rao Havaldar
Classical vocalist

The santoor cannot play glides like the sitar and the sarod. Yet, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma adapted the santoor to perform ragas. He had tremendous control over the instrument and achieved speed and precision.

He chose ragas which had complex movements, and yet never struck a wrong note.

We were featured together at the Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh in Banaras and the Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival in Delhi a few years ago. I can say that he was gentle with younger artistes. He would say that the quality of good music becomes evident when people forget to clap at the end of concerts and instead enter into a trance state. This is the nature of a true artiste.

His songs in films achieved a fine confluence of folk, film and classical music. I like the song ‘ Jeevan ki bhagiya mehekegi’ sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar, in which he has played some passages to perfection.

He will be remembered as one of the greatest musicians of our times.

Sangeetha Katti
Classical vocalist and playback singer

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was born in the golden era along with maestros such as Bhimsen Joshi and Kishori Amonkar. They reached great heights, with no modern-day technology to support them.

He rose to fame after being part of the 1967 light-classical album ‘Call of the Valley’ with Hariprasad Chaurasia and Brij Bhushan Kabra. He performed not just khayal music in well-known ragas but also thumris in ragas like Mishra Khamaj, Manjh Khamaj, and Mishra Pilu.

We performed on the same stage at the Mysuru Dasara in 2008. The entire music fraternity will miss this stalwart of classical music.

Parameshwar Hegde
Classical vocalist

If the sitar is associated with Pandit Ravishankar, and the shehnai with Ustad Bismillah Khan, the santoor is associated with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.

I got to hear him at a 13-day music festival in Ahmedabad a few years ago. He travelled across the world and popularised the Kashmiri folk instrument on the classical music stage.

Though he has performed in some film songs, his objective was always to take classical music to greater heights.