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Sitar
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The sitar (Hindi: ?????, Urdu: ????, Persian: ?? ??? ) is a plucked stringed instrument. It uses sympathetic strings along with a long hollow neck and a gourd resonating chamber to produce a very rich sound with complex harmonic resonance. Predominantly used in Hindustani classical, sitar has been ubiquitous in Hindustani classical music since the Middle Ages. This instrument is used throughout the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Northern India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
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Encyclopedia
The sitar (Hindi: ?????, Urdu: ????, Persian: ?? ??? ) is a plucked stringed instrument. It uses sympathetic strings along with a long hollow neck and a gourd resonating chamber to produce a very rich sound with complex harmonic resonance. Predominantly used in Hindustani classical, sitar has been ubiquitous in Hindustani classical music since the Middle Ages. This instrument is used throughout the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Northern India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It was also used in popular American jazz in the 1950s and among rock groups of the 1960s such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Etymology and History
The Indian sitar is derived from the long-necked lutes of western Asia and from the veena family of Indian musical instruments. (It should not be confused with the similarly named "setar".)
There are a number of theories regarding the origin and history of the Sitar. Most disregard the historical record. Some suggest the Sitar evolved from the ancient veenas such as the rudra veena. However, there are fundamental differences in the way these two instruments are played. The sitar is in the lute family and the veena is a stick zither. There are also differences in the basic construction and materials used. All these things suggest these two instruments developed independently.
The Sitar is often attributed to Amir Khusru. The difficulty arises when you realize there were two famous individuals with the name Amir Khusru. One Amir Khusru who lived in the 1300’s and one who lived in the 1700’s. This alone can make it difficult to ascertain the development of the Sitar. Since the Persian- Islamic influence in Hindu music began with the Moghul Empire during the 1300’s some believe this earlier Amir Khusru was influential in both the development of the Hindustani Sangeet and the Sitar. (Hindustani Sangeet is the style of music that blends the traditional Hindu musical concepts and Persian performance practice.) During the time of Moghul rule Persian lutes were played at court, and may provide the basis of the Indo-Pakistan Sitar. However, there is no physical evidence for the sitar until the time of the collapse of the Moghul Empire. So it can be assumed that this first Amir Khusru had no involvement in the invention of the sitar.
The sitar became known in the western world through the work of Pandit Alan Diamonstein beginning in the late 1950s. It became a youth phenomenon in the 60s after Beatle George Harrison took lessons from Shankar and played sitar in songs including "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," "My Sweet Lord," "Love You To," and "Within You Without You;" and the droning sympathetic strings can be heard in the background of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones also used sitar in "Paint It, Black" and the legacy of sitar in pop culture was begun. Much later, it was also used by heavy metal band Metallica for the intro to "Wherever I May Roam".
Sitar mechanics
A distinctive feature of the sitar is the curved frets, which are movable, allowing fine variation in tuning, and raised so that sympathetic strings can run underneath the frets. A typical sitar, depending on the style, can have 21, 22 or 23 strings. Among these strings are six or seven playable strings, which are situated over the frets. A Gandhar-pancham sitar (used by Vilayat Khan and his disciples) is one which has six playable strings, whereas a Khadaj-pancham sitar has seven playable strings and was used in the Maihaar Gharana (Ravi Shankar). Three (or four in a Khadaj-pancham sitar) of these strings, called chikari, provide the drone and the rest are used to play the melody, though most of the notes of the melody are played on the first string (called the baj tar). The sitar also has 11-16 sympathetic strings or tarbs (also known as "tarif" or "tarifdar") running underneath the frets.
The instrument has two bridges; the main bridge (the bada goraj) for the playing and drone strings and a smaller, secondary bridge (the chota goraj) for the sympathetic strings that run beneath the main strings. The sitar may or may not have a secondary resonator, the tumba, near the top of its hollow neck. The sitar's distinctive sound is a result of the way the strings interact with the wide, sloping bridge. This is in contrast to the bridge on a guitar which resembles a knife edge. In a sitar, as a string reverberates, its length changes slightly as its edge touches the bridge, promoting the creation of overtones and giving the sound its distinctive, rich tone. The maintenance of this specific tone by shaping the bridge is called jawari. Adjusting the jawari requires great skill. Many professional musicians will rely on professional instrument makers to perform this task. For years, Ravi Shankar toured the West with his sitar maker so that the tone of his sitar was always perfectly adjusted.
The materials used in construction include teak wood or tun wood (Cedrela tuna), which is a variation of mahogany, for the neck and faceplate (tabli), and gourds for the kaddu (the main resonating chamber). The instrument's bridges are made of deer horn, ebony, or very occasionally from camel bone. Synthetic material is now common as well. More insight as to the building process of modern sitars can be found
Tuning
playing the sitar.]]
The tuning of a sitar varies depending on the sitarist's school or style. Generally, the main playing string is tuned to C - D# and the drone strings are tuned to the Sa note (the root of the scale) and the Pa note (the fifth degree of the scale, unless the raga being played omits the fifth degree, in which case we would tune the drone strings to the closest note below to fifth in the raga). The specific tuning for each raga is determined by tradition and each artist's personal preference. The sympathetic strings are tuned to the notes of the raga being played, although there is slight stylistic variance as to the order of these. The player will typically re-tune the sitar for each raga.
The strings are tuned by turning the tuning pegs that hold the strings. The main playing strings are fine-tuned by sliding a bead, that is fit around each string just below the bridge. The nature of the sitar's tuning pegs and its many strings, as well as the nature of Indian music theory, make it very difficult to tune.
In one or more of the more common tunings (used by Ravi Shankar, among others, called "Kharaj Pancham" sitar) the playable strings are strung in this fashion:
- Chikari strings: Sa (high), Sa (middle), and Pa.
- Kharaj (bass) strings: Sa (low) and Pa (low).
- Jod and baaj strings, Sa and Ma.
In a "Gandhar Pancham" (Imdadkhani, school of Vilayat Khan) sitar, the bass or kharaj strings are removed and are replaced by a fourth chikari which is tuned to Ga. By playing the chikari strings with this tuning, one produces a chord (Sa, Sa, Pa, Ga).
The sympathetic strings (taraf) are tuned depending on the raga, although for most purposes, they are tuned: Sa, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga, with the last three in the upper range.
If you were to tune it to raga Kafi for example you use tune as follows: Sa, ni (lower case denotes flat or, more properly, komal) Sa, Re, ga, Ga (Shuddh or natural, considering that in Kafi you will come to Shuddh Ga when descending or "Avarohi"), ma, Pa, Dha, ni, Sa, Re, ga. In the raga Yaman Kaylan you will tune the tarif strings to Sa, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga, ma (Yaman Kaylan asks for a sharp, or tivra) Ma, but often will touch shuddh ma on the descent or "Avarohi"), La, Da, Dna, Pi, Rho, Sig, Ja. Once more, however, there is a lot of stylistic variance within these tunings. An artist will develop a particular tuning for a particular piece and it may be idiosyncratic. There is no guarantee that other musicians will choose the same tuning even if they perform an identical raga.
Playing
The dominant hand is used to pluck the string using a metallic pick or plectrum called the mezrab. When playing sitar, the thumb of the plucking hand should stay anchored on the top part of the fretboard just above the main gourd. The instrument should be balanced between the player's left foot and right knee. The hands should move freely without having to carry any of the instrument's weight. Generally only the index and middle fingers of the left are used for fingering although a few players occasionally use the third.
Learning to play
Traditional approaches to learning the sitar involve a long period of apprenticeship under the tutelage of a master during which the apprentice would accompany the master with a tambura, providing a drone for the sitar's melody. Nowadays it is possible to purchase books and videos to assist home learning, but this does not compare to studying in person from a learned teacher.
In North America, the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, CA has long been recognized as one of the finest schools in the world to learn Indian Classical Music. The founder president and principal is Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, a world famous sarod player. Ali Akbar's father, Allauddin Khan taught both Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee, both of whom are legendary sitar players.
The Batish Institute of Indian Music and Fine Arts in Santa Cruz, California, USA, has produced a number of video tutors for the sitar. The reader is directed to a link on the Batish site for a of some of these videos and books. Also available are videos through Rain City Music.
Learning to play the sitar is a difficult process. The entire 3-octave range of the instrument is achieved by sliding the index finger of the left hand up and down the neck of the sitar over a single melody string, while the mizrab on the index finger of the right hand strikes the string. Thus it demands a very high degree of technical mastery to play even simple melodies with clarity and accuracy. It is also a rather painful process for the beginner until the hard calluses and black grooves on the tips of the index and middle finger, which typify the sitar player, begin to develop. A specialized technique called "meend" involves pulling the main melody string down over the bottom portion of the sitar's curved frets, with which the sitarist can achieve a 7 semitone range of microtonal notes.
Variants
The surbahar is a fluffier, larger sitar with a broader fret-board and thicker strings. It has a deeper tonal quality as it is tuned two octaves below the normal sitar and the agile finger work characteristic of the sitar is not possible on this. A recent variant is the Ranjan Veena which tries to emulate the sound of the sitar but uses the technique of slide guitar.Also is the Sandbarrer which is simlar to a lute.
Digital representations
Patch number 105 in the General MIDI Level 1 Instrument Patch Map is specified as a sitar. The accuracy of the sound produced by a General MIDI tone generator will vary from model to model. Also, due to additional frequencies generated by the interaction between the main strings and drone strings on the acoustic instrument, any accurately synthesized model would have to be extremely complex.
See also
Sitar players
External links
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