Beyond The Classroom: Asia and Middle East
Sitar
Something that really caught my eye during this unit was the sitar. The sitar is a string instrument that originated and popular in India. It is arguably the most popular instrument India. The sitar was invented during the medieval times, and flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries. Originally, the sitar took on a different form, but has evolved over time. Amir Khusrow is the first person accounted for that developed the sitar. When I first saw a video of people playing the sitar I thought it looked like a type of guitar or a banjo. The sound of the sitar is similar to those instruments, but also is very different. I really enjoyed learning and listening to videos about the sitar, and so far my favorite instrumentalist that played it was Ravi Shankar.
Ravi Shankar
After researching about the Sitar I really wanted to dive deeper in to the life of Ravi Shankar. I love Norah Jones, so of course I wanted to look into the life of the guy that raised her. Shankar was an Indian Sitarist that became a well known Indian musician worldwide. He was influential because brought Indian music to different parts of the world. Ravi Shankar was most famous for playing the sitar and founding the the National Orchestra in India. He founded The National Orchestra of India in 2006, and died six years later in 2012 at the age of 92. Ravi Shankar was so influential he won a fourth Grammy after he passed.
Raga and Tala
In India raga means “color” but in the musical world it portrays the mood and expression of the song. It is a combination of the seven misdial notes. The seven primary divisions of the raga are called “raag.” It is a collection of pitches that is defined by an ascending and descending pattern. There is also something called a tala that commonly gets mixed up with the raga. The tala is the rhythmic structure on which the melody is laid. Tala means “clap” or “tapping ones hand or arm. There is a lot of clapping and tapping in Indian music which helps keep a steady rhythm. Together the raga tala make beautiful sound.
hey colbie i found this blog very well done and i learned from this blog that the sitar was invented. looks very familiar to a banjo.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog! I also found the sitar very interesting, so I really loved getting to learn more about it!
ReplyDeleteI found the sitar as a really intimidating instrument to play, mainly because of the ability to change the frets to fit accordingly to different scales. I also like the fact that raga means color, but is used differently in music. I guess it can still apply to music since color is associated with different feelings as well as music.
ReplyDeleteThanks for finding videos of going more into detail about what we went over in class. The sitar is such a cool instrument and also sounds so cool.
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ReplyDeleteAlot of people wrote their blogs about Asia and the Middle east and i find everyone's super interesting because they are different in their own way. This blog was super fun to read and to watch. It really expanded our learning a good bit. Thanks !!!