Friday, November 27, 2009

Illustration Friday: Music & NaBloPoMo: Day 26

© 2009 Radha Ramachandran

The sitar (Hindi: सितार, Bengali: সেতার, Urdu: ستار, Persian: سی تار ) is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages. It derives its resonance from sympathetic strings, a long hollow neck and a gourd resonating chamber.

Used throughout the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Northern India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the sitar became known in the western world through the work of Pandit Ravi Shankar beginning in the late 1950s, particularly after George Harrison of The Beatles took lessons from Shankar and Shambhu Das and played sitar in songs including "[1]Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Shortly after, The Rolling Stones used sitar in "Paint It, Black" and a brief fad began for using the exotic instrument in pop songs.

Source: Wikipedia

*****
(See Gita play the guitar here.)

5 comments:

Dear Fireflies said...

This is such a sweet illustration...the sitar looks amazing (^_^)

Chris said...

Great illustration! Love the mix of styles. Wish I could hear what she was playing

wordjunkie said...

Just spent an hour looking at your gorgeous illustrations. Lovely!

sketched out said...

This is gorgeous, Radha! I really like sitar music, (thank you Beatles.) I've also seen Ravi Shankar at a concert in the park in Ojai, CA. It felt like I was high, the music put me in such a wonderful trance.

Anyway, it's good to get back to visiting all my blogger buddies and congrats on your NaPloMo. You did a great job!

Jags said...

Its a very nice illustration. If you observe carefully no player would wear shoes or chappals when they play indian classical instruments especially sitar and tabla.

Related Posts with Thumbnails