Beautiful Neduvangiyam also known as Nagasuram

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand one of the earliest known non-brass double-reed instrument called Nagasuram (Nadaswaram). Our ancestors while defining Tamil music grammar in parallel focused on sound engineering, which helped them to invent new musical instruments. Sangam era alone saw more than 30 percussion and wind instruments. Among them, few instruments like Veenai, Urumi and Nagasuram are worth mentioning since their design techniques were known only to a handful of families. Their performance really stands out due to their versatile and adaptable nature to all genres of music. Music instrument, like any other scientific invention goes through the same process of trial and error before getting standardized for general use. Instruments with strong adherence to scientific and acoustic principles gain prominence among the rest, as they undergo minimal structural changes. Nagasuram (Nadaswaram) is one such instrument, which was passed on to us for generations. This instrument readily complies with acoustic principles such as sound impedance, Helmholtz resonance, wave theory etc. to get the characteristic of a loudest non-brass wind instrument.