Sitar
Alternate name(s)
- Long-neck lute
Date1940-1965 ca.
Place MadeIndia, Asia
Serial No.none
SignednoneDescriptionHollow neck with nineteen movable metal frets attached to a gourd resonator. Eighteen strings: four melody strings strung over the fretboard, three rhythm strings on the right side, and eleven sympathetic strings under the frets. The rounded frets allow the melody strings to be pulled up a perfect fifth in pitch on each fret; an important technique in sitar playing. Another demanding technique is the use of the rhythm strings, which are played, in addition to the melody strings, at extremely high speeds, in a wide variety of rhythmic patterns. The characteristic sound of the sitar is a result of the "buzzing" caused by the specially shaped bridge, the jawari, and the ringing of the sympathetic strings, which are tuned to the notes of the piece being played. The sitar is one of the predominant instruments in Hindustani music.
ProvenancePurchased in 1977 from William E. Gribbon, Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Published ReferencesThomas E. Cross, “Instruments of Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Tibet,” SMM Catalog Vol. II (1982), page 15.
Thomas E. Cross, Musical Instruments of Burma, MM Thesis, USD, May 1983, page 30, plate XII.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 29.
“Sitar,” The Music Connection, Level Four (Parsippany, New Jersey: Silver Burdett Ginn, 1995), p. 308.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1977
Object number01812
On View
Not on view
1950 ca.
1850-1875 ca.
1900-1920 ca.