Plucked stringed instrument used in Hindustani classical music
This article is about the South Asian musical instrument. For the Persian classical instrument, see Setar. For the Indonesian zither, see Siter. For other uses, see Sitar (disambiguation).
Sitar
String instrument
Classification
Necked bowl lutes
String instruments
Hornbostel–Sachs classification
321.321 (Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum)
Developed
18th century
Related instruments
List
Setar
Pandura
Surbahar
Rudra veena
Saraswati veena
Chitra veena
Vichitra veena
Sarod
Sursingar
Tambouras
Tanpura
Sitarla
Sound sample
The sitar (English: /ˈsɪtɑːr/ or /sɪˈtɑːr/; IAST: sitāra) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau Khan, an 18th-century figure of the Mughal Empire has been identified by modern scholarship as the inventor of the sitar. According to most historians, he developed the sitar from the setar, an Iranian instrument of Abbasid or Safavid origin. Another view supported by a minority of scholars is that Khusrau Khan developed it from Veena.[1][2][3][4]
Used widely throughout the Indian subcontinent, the sitar became popularly known in the wider world through the works of Ravi Shankar, beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s.[5] The advent of Psychedelic culture during the mid- to late 1960s created a trend for the use of the sitar in Western popular music, with the instrument appearing on tracks by bands such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Metallica and many others.[6]
^Vedabala, Samidha (2021-06-14). Sitar Music: The Dynamics of Structure and its playing Techniques. Wizard Publisher. ISBN 978-93-91013-13-4.
^Miner, Allyn (April 2004). Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 978-81-208-1493-6.
^Lavezzoli, Peter (2006-04-24). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-1815-9.
^The Sitar: Origin, Culture, and More: Featuring Dr. Usman Chohan. The Intelligentsia. Interviews: Episode 4. 11 April 2023.
^Julien Temple (2011-07-18). "BBC Four – Dave Davies: Kinkdom Come". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-15.
^Jenkins, Mark (May 28, 1996). "Sitar Jam! From The Beatles to Eddie Vedder, Rock and Roll Has Long Sought The Spice of Indian Music". The Washington Post.
The sitar (English: /ˈsɪtɑːr/ or /sɪˈtɑːr/; IAST: sitāra) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani...
An electric sitar is a type of electric string instrument designed to mimic the sound of the sitar, a traditional musical instrument of India. Depending...
7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert of North Indian classical...
Jeff Sitar was a locksmith living in Clifton, New Jersey who specialized as a safe-cracker and who has won the Lockmaster's International Safecracking...
Anoushka Hemangini Shankar (born 9 June 1981) is a British-American sitar player and musician of Indian descent, as well as occasional writer and actor...
While the sitar had earlier been used in jazz and Indian film music, it was from the 1960s onwards that various pop artists in the Western world began...
Indian-style recordings under his own name, Sitar Beat (1967), and one as "Lord Sitar", Lord Sitar (1968). He played sitar on a musical interpretation of the Kama...
Sitar in Petersburg is the annual non-commercial music festival first held in 2008 on the initiative of a group of musicians under the guidance of Aleksandr...
from a series of improvisational melodies played by Brian Jones on the sitar, the song features all five members of the band contributing to the final...
Indian instruments, such as the sitar, which he had become acquainted with on the set of the film Help! He played sitar on numerous Beatles songs, starting...
Damjan Sitar (born August 17, 1981 in Maribor) is a Slovenian decathlete. He set both a national record and a personal best score of 7,718 points, by...
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (founded in 1972.) is a classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. They have won several Grammy Awards, and...
Sound of the Sitar is an LP by Hindustani classical musician Ravi Shankar. It was released in 1965 on vinyl. It was later released on CD by BGO Records...
instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for...
Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928[1] – 13 March 2004) was an Indian classical sitar player, considered by many to be the greatest sitarist of his age. Along...
The history of the sitar in jazz, that is the fusion of the sounds of Indian classical music with Western jazz, dates back from the late-1950s or early-1960s...
traditional Chinese: 譚維維; pinyin: Tán Wéiwéi; born 8 October 1982), also known as Sitar Tan, is a Chinese singer and actress. She was the runner-up of the third...
chitrali sitar (Urdu: چترالی ستھار) is a long-necked lute played in northern area, Chitral of Pakistan. It is not related to the Indian sitar and its name...
Pandit Nayan Ghosh (born 28 April 1956) is an Indian tabla and sitar maestro. He is a tabla player from the Farrukhabad Gharana. Born on 28 April 1956...
construction, its timbre, or its use of Indian musical instruments, such as the sitar, tambura, and tabla. The term "raga" refers to the specific melodic modes...
and features Indian instrumentation such as sitar and tabla. Following Harrison's introduction of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" in...
This is a list of musicians who have contributed to the Arjen Anthony Lucassen's rock opera project known as Ayreon. Armand van der Hoff (ex-Bodine) Jan...
creating the tarana style. Khusrau is credited for the invention of the sitar. At the time, there were many versions of the Veena in India. He modified...
Shankar was the son of the surbahar virtuoso and teacher Annapurna Devi and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. Hailing from a gifted Hindustani classical music background...
Global Information