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82-468: Ravi Shankar ( Bengali pronunciation: [ˈrobi ˈʃɔŋkor] ; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury , sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury ; 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 music in the second half of the 20th century, and influenced many musicians in India and throughout

164-706: A Polar Music Prize and four Grammy Awards , including Album of the Year for The Concert for Bangladesh in 1973 . Shankar was born on 7 April 1920 in Benares (now Varanasi), then the capital of the eponymous princely state , in a Bengali Hindu family, as the youngest of seven brothers. His father, Shyam Shankar Chowdhury , was a Middle Temple barrister and scholar who originally from Jessore district, East Bengal (now Bangladesh ). A respected statesman, lawyer and politician, he served for several years as dewan (Prime Minister) of Jhalawar , Rajasthan , and used

246-583: A jatra party where he was exposed to a variety of folk genres: jari, sari, baul, bhatiyali, kirtan, and panchali. Khan went to Kolkata, where he met a physician named Kedarnath, who helped him to become a disciple of Gopal Krishna Bhattacharya (also known as Nulo Gopal), a notable musician of Kolkata in 1877. Khan practiced sargam for twelve years under his guidance. After the death of Nulo Gopal, Khan turned to instrumental music. He learned to play many indigenous and foreign musical instruments like sitar, flute, piccolo, mandolin, banjo, etc., from Amritalal Dutt,

328-799: A book about her father, Bapi: Love of My Life , in 2002. After George Harrison's death in 2001, Shankar performed at the Concert for George , a celebration of Harrison's music staged at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2002. In June 2008, Shankar played what was billed as his last European concert, but his 2011 tour included dates in the United Kingdom. On 1 July 2010, at the Southbank Centre 's Royal Festival Hall , London, England, Anoushka Shankar , on sitar, performed with

410-744: A composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray , and was music director of All India Radio , New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for scoring the blockbuster Gandhi (1982). In 1956, Shankar began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison . His influence on Harrison helped popularize

492-617: A concert recorded and released in 2012 as Tenth Decade in Concert: Ravi Shankar Live in Escondido , Shankar introduced a new percussive sitar technique called Goonga Sitar , whereby the strings are muffled with a cloth. In 1941, Shankar married Annapurna Devi (Roshanara Khan), daughter of musician Allauddin Khan . Their son, Shubhendra "Shubho" Shankar , was born in 1942. He separated from Devi in 1962 and continued

574-568: A concerto with sitar . Concerto for Sitar & Orchestra was performed with André Previn as conductor and Shankar playing the sitar . Shankar performed at the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, held at Madison Square Garden in New York. After the musicians had tuned up on stage for over a minute, the crowd of rock-music fans broke into applause, to which the amused Shankar responded, "If you like our tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy

656-521: A cousin of Swami Vivekananda and the music director of the Star Theatre. He learnt to play sanai, naquara , tiquara and jagajhampa from Hazari Ustad and pakhawaj , mridang and tabla from Nandababu. Ali Ahmed referred Allauddin to veena player Wazir Khan . Khan became court musician for the Maharaja of Maihar . Here he laid the foundation of a modern Maihar gharana by developing

738-420: A famous Sufi inventor, poet and pioneer of Khyal , Tarana and Qawwali , during the 13th century. However, the tradition of Amir Khusrow is considered discredited by scholars. Whatever instruments he might have played, no record exists from this period using the name "sitar". An ambiguous statement made in a 19th century work by Captain N. Augustus Willard may have resulted in the incorrect association of

820-620: A generation many of his students, across different instruments like sitar and violin, dominated Hindustani classical and became one of the most famous exponents of the form ever, including his son Ali Akbar Khan . Khan was born to a Bengali Muslim family in Shibpur village in Brahmanbaria (in present-day Bangladesh ). His father, Sabdar Hossain Khan, was a musician. Khan took his first music lessons from his elder brother, Fakir Aftabuddin Khan . At age ten, Khan ran away from home to join

902-630: A heart attack in Chicago, causing him to miss a portion of the tour. Harrison, Shankar and members of the touring band visited the White House on invitation of John Gardner Ford , son of US president Gerald Ford . Shankar toured and taught for the remainder of the 1970s and the 1980s and released his second concerto, Raga Mala , conducted by Zubin Mehta , in 1981. Shankar was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for his work on

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984-423: A metallic pick or plectrum called a mizraab . The thumb stays anchored on the top of the fretboard just above the main gourd. Generally, only the index and middle fingers are used for fingering although a few players occasionally use the third. 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

1066-478: A number of ragas , combining the bass sitar and bass sarod with more traditional instruments and setting up an orchestra. Before becoming a court musician, he had come to Maihar and met one Suraj Sahai Saxena in a penniless state. Taking pity on him Suraj Sahai took him in his shelter where lived for two odd years and practiced music with Shehnai. When Suraj Sahai used to visit Sharda Devi temple in Maihar climbing all

1148-634: A relationship with dancer Kamala Shastri , a relationship that had begun in the late 1940s. An affair with Sue Jones, a New York concert producer, led to the birth of Norah Jones in 1979. He separated from Shastri in 1981 and lived with Jones until 1986. He began an affair in 1978 with married tanpura player Sukanya Rajan, whom he had known since 1972, which led to the birth of their daughter Anoushka Shankar in 1981. In 1989, he married Sukanya Rajan at Chilkur Temple in Hyderabad . Shankar's son, Shubhendra, often accompanied him on tours. He could play

1230-470: A second autobiography, Raga Mala , with Harrison as editor. Shankar developed a style distinct from that of his contemporaries and incorporated influences from rhythm practices of Carnatic music . His performances begin with solo alap , jor , and jhala (introduction and performances with pulse and rapid pulse) influenced by the slow and serious dhrupad genre, followed by a section with tabla accompaniment featuring compositions associated with

1312-453: A seven- semitone range of microtonal notes (however, because of the sitar's movable frets, sometimes a fret may be set to a microtone already, and no bending would be required). This was developed by Vilayat Khan into a technique that imitated the melisma of the vocal style, a technique known as gayaki ang . Sometimes, sitar could played with a bow . Its sound is similar to sarangi , but raspier Adept players bring in charisma through

1394-557: A sitar on " Paint It Black ", while another English guitarist, Dave Mason , played it on Traffic 's 1967 hits " Paper Sun " and " Hole in My Shoe ". These and other examples marked a trend of featuring the instrument in pop songs , which Shankar later described as "the great sitar explosion". Speaking to KRLA Beat in July 1967, he said: "Many people, especially young people, have started listening to sitar since George Harrison, one of

1476-1448: A while. In 1955, Khan established a college of music in Maihar. Some of his recordings were made at the All India Radio in 1959–60. Khan was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1958 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1971, India's third and second highest civilian honours, and prior to that in 1954, the Sangeet Natak Akademi awarded him with its highest honour, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime contribution to Indian music . Khan's son Ali Akbar Khan , daughter Annapurna Devi , nephew Raja Hossain Khan and grandson Aashish Khan went on to become musicians. His other disciples include Ravi Shankar , Nikhil Banerjee , V.G. Jog , Vasant Rai , Shripad Bandopdhyay, Pannalal Ghosh , Bahadur Khan , Rabin Ghosh , Sharan Rani , Nalin Mazumdar , Jotin Bhattacharya , Rajesh Chandra Moitra, David Podiappuhami aka Siyambalapitiyage Don David Podiappuhami and W. D. Amaradeva . Khan's house

1558-411: Is a lot of stylistic variance within these tunings, and like most Indian stringed instruments, there is no default tuning. Mostly, tunings vary by schools of teaching ( gharana ) and the piece that is meant to be played. The instrument is balanced between the player's left foot and right knee. The hands move freely without having to carry any of the instrument's weight. The player plucks the string using

1640-583: Is a system of social organisation in the Indian subcontinent, linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship. Notable gharana include: Allauddin Khan Ustad Allauddin Khan (8 October 1862 – 6 September 1972), was an Indian sarod player and multi-instrumentalist, composer and one of the most notable music teachers of the 20th century in Indian classical music . For

1722-506: Is derived from the Persian word sehtar , meaning ' three-stringed ' . According to Curt Sachs , Persians chose to name their lutes around the word tar , meaning string, combined with a word for the number of strings. Du + tar is the 2-stringed dutār , se + tar is the 3-stringed setār, čartar (4 strings), pančtār (5 strings). It was theorized that the sitar was invented, or rather developed by Amir Khusrow ( c.  1253–1325),

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1804-408: Is in the absolute dark. According to Allyn Miner, the evidence for this hypothesis is too weak for any conclusion and these hypotheses represent a prominent yet obsolete late 19th-century idea: that many of India’s modern cultural innovations are actually products of pre-Muslim Sanskritic traditions. According to Alastair Dick, the "modern view that ... invading Muslims simply changed into Persian

1886-403: Is no evidence for the existence of long-necked lutes in the Indian subcontinent prior to the era of Muslim expansion into the region. A sitar can have 18, 19, 20, or 21 strings; 6 or 7 of these run over curved, raised frets and are played strings; the remainder are sympathetic strings ( tarb , also known as taarif or tarafdaar ), running underneath the frets and resonating in sympathy with

1968-430: Is now common as well. There are two popular modern styles of sitar: the fully decorated "instrumental style" (sometimes called the "Ravi Shankar style") and the "gayaki" style (sometimes called the " Vilayat Khan " style). The instrumental style sitar is most often made of seasoned toon wood , but sometimes made of Teak . It is often fitted with a second resonator, a small tumba (pumpkin or pumpkin-like wood replica) on

2050-529: Is that of Lord Hanuman , the monkey god. The city is also where one of the miracles that have happened in my life took place: I met Ma Anandamayi, a great spiritual soul. Seeing the beauty of her face and mind, I became her ardent devotee. Sitting at home now in Encinitas, in Southern California, at the age of 88, surrounded by the beautiful greens, multi-colored flowers, blue sky, clean air, and

2132-569: The 2013 Grammy Awards for separate albums. Shankar was a Hindu , and a devotee of the Hindu god Hanuman . He was also an "ardent devotee" of the Bengali Hindu saint, Sri Anandamayi Ma . Shankar used to visit Anandamayi Ma frequently and performed for her on various occasions. Shankar wrote of his hometown, Benares (Varanasi), and his initial encounter with "Ma": Varanasi is the eternal abode of Lord Shiva , and one of my favorite temples

2214-600: The Beatles . In 1967, Shankar performed a well-received set at the Monterey Pop Festival . While complimentary of the talents of several of the rock artists at the festival, he said he was "horrified" to see Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar on stage: "That was too much for me. In our culture, we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God." Shankar's live album from Monterey peaked at number 43 on Billboard ' s pop LPs chart in

2296-672: The Indian People's Theatre Association , for whom he composed music for ballets in 1945 and 1946, Dharti Ke Lal , 1946. Shankar recomposed the music for the popular song " Sare Jahan Se Achcha " at the age of 25. He began to record music for HMV India and worked as a music director for All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi, from February 1949 until January 1956. Shankar founded the Indian National Orchestra at AIR and composed for it; in his compositions he combined Western and classical Indian instrumentation. Beginning in

2378-526: The Kinnara School of Music in Mumbai in 1962. Shankar befriended Richard Bock , founder of World Pacific Records , on his first American tour and recorded most of his albums in the 1950s and 1960s for Bock's label. The Byrds recorded at the same studio and heard Shankar's music, which led them to incorporate some of its elements in theirs, introducing the genre to their friend George Harrison of

2460-581: The London Philharmonic Orchestra , conducted by David Murphy, which was billed the first Symphony by Ravi Shankar. The Beatles ' guitarist George Harrison , who was first introduced to Shankar's music by the American singers Roger McGuinn and David Crosby , themselves big fans of Shankar, became influenced by Shankar's music. Harrison went on to help popularize Shankar and the use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout

2542-623: The Sanskrit spelling of the family name and removed its last part. Shyam was married to Hemangini Devi who hailed from a small village named Nasrathpur in Mardah block of Ghazipur district , near Benares and her father was a prosperous landlord. Shyam later worked as a lawyer in London , England, and there he married a second time while Devi raised Shankar in Benares and did not meet his son until he

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2624-666: The South Indian Carnatic music in his performances, and recorded his first LP album Three Ragas in London, released in 1956. In 1958, Shankar participated in the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the United Nations and UNESCO music festival in Paris. From 1961, he toured Europe, the United States, and Australia, and became the first Indian to compose music for non-Indian films. Shankar founded

2706-605: The Soviet Union in 1954 and Menuhin invited Shankar in 1955 to perform in New York City for a demonstration of Indian classical music, sponsored by the Ford Foundation . Shankar heard about the positive response Khan received and resigned from AIR in 1956 to tour the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. He played for smaller audiences and educated them about Indian music, incorporating ragas from

2788-781: The Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California . On 9 December 2012, Shankar was admitted to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla , San Diego, California after complaining of breathing difficulties. He died on 11 December 2012 at around 16:30 PST after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery. The Swara Samrat festival , organized on 5–6 January 2013 and dedicated to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan , included performances by such musicians as Shivkumar Sharma , Birju Maharaj , Hariprasad Chaurasia , Zakir Hussain , and Girija Devi . Sitar Used widely throughout

2870-453: The Vox Wah wah pedal , which touted the effect's ability to make an electric guitar sound like a sitar. Donovan's personnel on his 1966 album Sunshine Superman included Shawn Phillips on sitar. Phillips also played sitar on one song on Donovan's next album Mellow Yellow , produced in 1967. Starting in the late 1970s, Pakistan International Airlines in-flight music featured

2952-482: The Woodstock Festival in August 1969, and found he disliked the venue. In the late 1960s, Shankar distanced himself from the hippie movement and drug culture. He explained during an interview: It makes me feel rather hurt when I see the association of drugs with our music. The music to us is religion. The quickest way to reach godliness is through music. I don't like the association of one bad thing with

3034-626: The raga rock trend. As the sitar and Indian music grew in popularity, groups such as the Rolling Stones , the Animals and the Byrds began using it in some of their songs. The influence even extended to blues musicians such as Michael Bloomfield , who created a raga-influenced improvisation number, "East-West" (Bloomfield scholars have cited its working title as "The Raga" when Bloomfield and his collaborator Nick Gravenites began to develop

3116-503: The sitar and surbahar , but elected not to pursue a solo career. Shubhendra died of pneumonia in 1992. Ananda Shankar , the experimental fusion musician, is his nephew. His daughter Norah Jones became a successful musician in the 2000s, winning eight Grammy Awards in 2003 and overall nine Grammy Awards as of 2024. His daughter Anoushka Shankar was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2003. Anoushka and her father were both nominated for Best World Music Album at

3198-561: The use of Indian instruments in Western pop music in the latter half of the 1960s. Shankar engaged Western music by writing compositions for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992, he served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha , the upper chamber of the Parliament of India . He continued to perform until the end of his life. He was a recipient of numerous prestigious musical accolades, including

3280-594: The 1960s. Olivia Harrison explains: When George heard Indian music, that really was the trigger, it was like a bell that went off in his head. It not only awakened a desire to hear more music, but also to understand what was going on in Indian philosophy. It was a unique diversion. Harrison became interested in Indian classical music, bought a sitar and used it to record the song " Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) ". In 1968, he went to India to take lessons from Shankar, some of which were captured on film. This led to Indian music being used by other musicians and popularised

3362-722: The 1982 movie Gandhi . He performed in Moscow in 1988, with 140 musicians, including the Russian Folk Ensemble and members of the Moscow Philharmonic, along with his own group of Indian musicians. He served as a member of the Rajya Sabha , the upper chamber of the Parliament of India, from 12 May 1986 to 11 May 1992, after being nominated by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi . Shankar composed

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3444-611: The 552 steps, Allauddin Khan used to accompany him and practice Shehnai outside temple precincts. Suraj Sahai had a cousin named Chimmanlal Saxena who was diwan of Maharaja of Maihar. In 1907, Allauddin Khan established the Maihar Band , an orchestral group that taught music to orphaned children. On recommendation of Chimmanlal, he was appointed as court musician of Maharaja of Maihar. In 1935, he toured Europe, along with Uday Shankar 's ballet troupe, and later also worked at his institute, Uday Shankar India Culture Centre at Almora for

3526-543: The Beatles ' songs " Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) ", " Love You To " and " Within You Without You ", recorded between 1965 and 1967. The Beatles' association with the instrument helped popularise Indian classical music among Western youth, particularly once Harrison began receiving tutelage from Shankar and the latter's protégé Shambhu Das in 1966. That same year, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones used

3608-497: The Beatles, became my disciple ... It is now the 'in' thing." Led Zeppelin 's Jimmy Page talked about his love of Indian music , saying: "I went to India after I came back from a tour with the Yardbirds in the late sixties just so I could hear the music firsthand. Let's put it this way: I had a sitar before George Harrison got his. I wouldn't say I played it as well as he did, though..." Robbie Krieger 's guitar part on

3690-467: The Doors ' 1967 track " The End " was heavily influenced by Indian ragas and features melodic and rhythmic qualities that suggest a sitar or veena . Many pop performances actually involve the electric sitar , which is a solid-body, guitar-like instrument and quite different from the traditional acoustic Indian instrument. The Kinks ' 1965 single " See My Friends " featured a "low-tuned drone guitar" that

3772-431: 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. The advent of psychedelic culture during the mid-to-late 1960s set 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. The word sitar

3854-460: The Mughal court, named Khusrau Khan originated the sitar from the small persian three-stringed setar . In the late Mughal Empire, the instrument began to take on its modern shape. The neck got wider. The bowl, which had been made of glued lathes of wood was now made of gourd, with metal frets and a bone nut on the neck. Masid Khan added two more strings to the sitar. The modern seven string sitar

3936-563: The Pacific Ocean, I often reminisce about all the wonderful places I have seen in the world. I cherish the memories of Paris, New York, and a few other places. But Varanasi seems to be etched in my heart! Shankar was a vegetarian. He wore a large diamond ring that he said was manifested by Sathya Sai Baba . He lived with Sukanya in Encinitas, California . Shankar performed his final concert with daughter Anoushka on 4 November 2012 at

4018-640: The US, which remains the highest placing he achieved on that chart. Shankar won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for West Meets East , a collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin. He opened a Western branch of the Kinnara School of Music in Los Angeles, in May 1967, and published an autobiography, My Music, My Life , in 1968. In 1968, he composed the score for the film Charly . He performed at

4100-400: The age of 13 he had become a member of the group, accompanied its members on tour and learned to dance, and play various Indian instruments. Uday's dance group travelled Europe and the United States in the early to mid-1930s and Shankar learned French, discovered Western classical music, jazz, cinema and became acquainted with Western customs. Shankar heard Allauddin Khan – the lead musician at

4182-467: The arrival of Islam. Proponents of this hypothesis claim that Indian temple sculptures from the 9th and 10th centuries feature sitar-like instruments. However, according to author Samidha Vedabala, a researcher and professor of music at Sikkim University, none of the instruments depicted in these sculptures precisely resemble the sitar, and neither the word "sitar" nor any local equivalent appears in any texts referring to these instruments. So its authenticity

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4264-577: The court of the princely state of Maihar – play at a music conference in December 1934 in Calcutta , and Uday persuaded the Maharaja of Maihar H.H. Maharaja Brijnath singh Judev in 1935 to allow Khan to become his group's soloist for a tour of Europe. Shankar was sporadically trained by Khan on tour, and Khan offered Shankar training to become a serious musician under the condition that he abandon touring and come to Maihar. Shankar's parents had died by

4346-533: The creation of overtones and giving the sound its distinctive tone. The maintenance of this specific tone by shaping the bridge is called jawari . Many musicians rely on instrument makers to adjust this. Materials used in construction include teak wood or tun wood ( Cedrela toona ), which is a variation of mahogany, for the neck and faceplate ( tabli ), and calabash gourds for the resonating chambers. The instrument's bridges are made of deer horn, ebony, or very occasionally from camel bone. Synthetic material

4428-459: The dance drama Ghanashyam in 1989. His liberal views on musical co-operation led him to contemporary composer Philip Glass , with whom he released an album, Passages , in 1990, in a project initiated by Peter Baumann of the band Tangerine Dream . Because of the positive response to Shankar's 1996 career compilation In Celebration , Shankar wrote a second autobiography, Raga Mala . He performed between 25 and 40 concerts every year during

4510-432: The drones strings are tuned is referred to as pañcam , not samvād . The player should re-tune for each raga . Strings are tuned by tuning pegs , and the main playing strings can be fine-tuned by sliding a bead threaded on each string just below the bridge. 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: There

4592-489: The idea) for the Butterfield Blues Band in 1966. I think Ravi was rather taken aback, because he was a classical musician, and rock and roll was really out of his sphere. He thought it rather amusing that George took to him so much, but he and George really bonded. Ravi realised that it wasn't just a fashion for George, that he had dedication. Ravi had such integrity, and was someone to be respected, and at

4674-571: The late 1990s. Shankar taught his daughter Anoushka Shankar to play sitar and in 1997 became a Regents' Professor at University of California, San Diego . He performed with Anoushka for the BBC in 1997 at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham , England. In the 2000s, he won a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000 and toured with Anoushka, who released

4756-454: The manufacturer's name and not by looks alone or materials used. Some sitars by certain manufacturers fetch very high collectible prices. Most notable are older Rikhi Ram (Delhi) and older Hiren Roy (Kolkata) sitars, depending upon which master built the instrument. Nikhil Banerjee had a small extra bridge fixed at the top of the Sitar fingerboard for sustenance of sound. Tuning depends on

4838-417: The mid-1950s he composed the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray , which became internationally acclaimed. He was music director for several Hindi movies including Godaan and Anuradha . V. K. Narayana Menon , director of AIR Delhi, introduced the Western violinist Yehudi Menuhin to Shankar during Menuhin's first visit to India in 1952. Shankar had performed as part of a cultural delegation in

4920-853: The music. In October 1970, Shankar became chair of the Department of Indian Music of the California Institute of the Arts after previously teaching at the City College of New York , the University of California, Los Angeles , and being guest lecturer at other colleges and universities, including the Ali Akbar College of Music . In late 1970, the London Symphony Orchestra invited Shankar to compose

5002-486: The musical styles dhrupad , dhamar , and khyal , and was taught the techniques of the instruments rudra veena , rubab , and sursingar . He often studied with Khan's children Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi . Shankar began to perform publicly on sitar in December 1939 and his debut performance was a jugalbandi (duet) with Ali Akbar Khan, who played the string instrument sarod . Shankar completed his training in 1944. He moved to Mumbai and joined

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5084-442: The name of an existing Hindu instrument ... has no historical or musical foundation". Other scholars have contested the veena origin hypotheses of the sitar by pointing out that proponents of these hypotheses select the number of strings as the primary criterion in coming to their conclusions. Additionally, they attempt to trace the sitar back to a known Indian musical instrument with a Sanskrit name, while acknowledging that there

5166-438: The neck. This style is usually fully decorated, with floral or grape carvings and celluloid inlays with colored (often brown or red) and black floral or arabesque patterns. It typically has 13 sympathetic strings. It is said that the best Teak sitars are made from teak that has been seasoned for generations. The sources of very old seasoned wood are guarded trade secrets. Therefore, instrument builders look for old T eak that

5248-416: The other's soul in one of the world's supreme musical arts. It is a thing inimitable, beyond words and forever new. For, as Shankar explained, 90 percent of all the music played was improvised.  – Paul Hume , music editor for Washington Post In November and December 1974, Shankar co-headlined a North American tour with George Harrison . The demanding schedule weakened his health, and he suffered

5330-781: The performance of melodic passages. Shankar's interplay with Alla Rakha improved appreciation for tabla playing in Hindustani classical music . Shankar promoted the jugalbandi duet concert style. Shankar introduced at least 31 new ragas, including Nat Bhairav , Ahir Lalit , Rasiya , Yaman Manjh , Gunji Kanhara , Janasanmodini , Tilak Shyam , Bairagi , Mohan Kauns , Manamanjari , Mishra Gara , Pancham Se Gara , Purvi Kalyan , Kameshwari , Gangeshwari , Rangeshwari , Parameshwari , Palas Kafi , Jogeshwari , Charu Kauns , Kaushik Todi , Bairagi Todi , Bhawani Bhairav , Sanjh Kalyan , Shailangi , Suranjani , Rajya Kalyan , Banjara , Piloo Banjara , Suvarna , Doga Kalyan , Nanda Dhwani , and Natacharuka (for Anoushka) . In 2011, at

5412-413: The planet" by 1966. George Harrison organized the charity Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, in which Shankar participated. During the 1970s, Shankar and Harrison worked together again, recording Shankar Family & Friends in 1973 and touring North America the following year to a mixed response after Shankar had toured Europe with the Harrison-sponsored Music Festival from India . Shankar wrote

5494-418: The played strings. These strings are generally used to set the mood of a raga at the very beginning of a presentation. The frets, which are known as pardā or thaat , are movable, allowing fine tuning. The played strings run to tuning pegs on or near the head of the instrument, while the sympathetic strings, which have a variety of different lengths, pass through small holes in the fretboard to engage with

5576-410: The playing more." which confused the audience. Still, the audience well received the subsequent performance. Although interest in Indian music had decreased in the early 1970s, the live album from the concert became one of the best-selling recordings to feature the genre and won Shankar a second Grammy Award. As for Shankar and the sitar, they are extensions one of the other, each seeming to enter into

5658-416: The playing string and his sound creation through stops and strikes on the main playing string. Narayana Menon of The New Grove Dictionary noted Shankar's fondness for rhythmic novelties, among them the use of unconventional rhythmic cycles. Hans Neuhoff of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart has argued that Shankar's playing style was not widely adopted and that he was surpassed by other sitar players in

5740-437: The prevalent khyal style. Shankar often closed his performances with a piece inspired by the light-classical thumri genre. Shankar has been considered one of the top sitar players of the second half of the 20th century. He popularised performing on the bass octave of the sitar for the alap section and became known for a distinctive playing style in the middle and high registers that used quick and short deviations of

5822-415: The renowned poet Amir Khusrau with a later individual, potentially named Khusrau Khan, who lived during the 18th century. The earliest mention of Sitar dates back to 1739 AD. The " Muraqqa-i-Dehli ", written by Dargah Quli Khan during the reign of Muhammad Shah Rangila , gives the earliest reference to the sitar. Oral and textual evidence analysed by historians indicate that an eighteenth-century figure of

5904-670: The same time huge fun. George hadn't really met anyone like that, and he really encouraged his interest. – Patti Boyd Harrison met Shankar in London in June 1966 and visited India later that year for six weeks to study sitar under Shankar in Srinagar . During the visit, a documentary film about Shankar named Raga was shot by Howard Worth and released in 1971. Shankar's association with Harrison greatly increased Shankar's popularity, and decades later Ken Hunt of AllMusic wrote that Shankar had become "the most famous Indian musician on

5986-712: The sitar to evoke feelings of nostalgia for the homeland among the Pakistani diaspora . Steve Howe of the British progressive rock band Yes played a Danelectro sitar guitar on their album Close to the Edge as well as the song "To Be Over" from their 1974 album " Relayer ". Deepak Khazanchi played sitar and tanpura on the song " It Can Happen ", from Yes' 1983 album 90125 . Paul Young ’s 1985 #1 Hit cover of Hall & Oates ’s song Everytime You Go Away included an electric sitar played by John Turnbull . A gharana

6068-419: The sitarist's school or style, tradition and each artist's personal preference. The main playing string is almost invariably tuned a perfect fourth above the tonic, the second string being tuned to the tonic. The tonic in the Indian solfège system is referred to as ṣaḍja , ṣaḍaj , or the shortened form sa , or khaṛaj , a dialectal variant of ṣaḍaj , not as vād , and the perfect fifth to which one or more of

6150-417: The smaller tuning pegs that run down the instrument's neck. The instrument has two bridges : the large bridge ( badaa goraa ) for the playing and drone strings and the small bridge ( chota goraa ) for the sympathetic strings. Its timbre results from the way the strings interact with the wide, rounded bridge. As a string vibrates, its length changes slightly as one edge moves along the rounded bridge, promoting

6232-533: The time he returned from the Europe tour, and touring the West had become difficult because of political conflicts that would lead to World War II . Shankar gave up his dancing career in 1938 to go to Maihar and study Indian classical music as Khan's pupil, living with his family in the traditional gurukul system. Khan was a rigorous teacher and Shankar had training on sitar and surbahar , learned ragas and

6314-486: The use of special techniques like Kan, Krintan, Murki , Zamzama, etc. They also use special Mizrab Bol-s, as in Misrabani. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Ravi Shankar , along with his tabla player, Alla Rakha , began a further introduction of Indian classical music to Western culture. The sitar saw use in Western popular music when, guided by David Crosby 's championing of Shankar, George Harrison played it on

6396-566: The world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna , in 1999. He is also the father of American singer Norah Jones . Shankar was born to a Bengali Brahmin family in India, and spent his youth as a dancer touring India and Europe with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar . At age 18, he gave up dancing to pursue a career in music, studying the sitar for seven years under court musician Allauddin Khan . After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as

6478-415: Was created by Allauddin Khan . Sympathetic strings on sitar were first added by Ustad Imdad Khan . The earliest compositional style specifically for the sitar emerged in the mid-eighteenth century, attributed to Firoz Khan, who was either the son or nephew of Khusrau Khan. Another, discredited hypothesis is that the sitar is derived from locally developed Indian instruments, such as the veena , prior to

6560-584: Was eight years old. Shankar shortened the Sanskrit version of his first name, Ravindra, to Ravi, for "sun". Shankar had five siblings: Uday (who became a choreographer and dancer), Rajendra, Debendra and Bhupendra. Shankar attended the Bengalitola High School in Benares between 1927 and 1928. At the age of 10, after spending his first decade in Benares, Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his brother, choreographer Uday Shankar. By

6642-505: Was used in old colonial-style villas as whole trunk columns for their special sitar constructions. There are various additional sub-styles and cross mixes of styles in sitars, according to customer preferences. Most importantly, there are some differences in preferences for the positioning of sympathetic ( taraf ) string pegs (see photo). Amongst all sitar styles, there are student styles, beginner models, semi-pro styles, pro-models, master models, and so on. Prices are often determined by

6724-413: Was widely mistaken to be a sitar. Crosby's band, the Byrds , had similarly incorporated elements of Indian music, using "only Western instrumentation", on their songs " Eight Miles High " and " Why " in 1966. Psychedelic music bands often used new recording techniques and effects and drew on non-Western sources such as the ragas and drones of Indian music. The Electric Prunes appeared in early ads for

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