It’s a Sitar, Not Just a Lute: THoughts on the History of the Sitar, The Lute, and A Song Called ‘Psalm 63’ From the Y2K Era

That might be a strange title, but it’s relevant for today because today (on all digital music platforms) I released a new (old) song called “Psalm 63.” The song was something I wrote and recorded in college near the beginning of the millennium (early 2000s) and released locally in California and also released it through a digital platform that existed at that time. The song features one of my friends during those college years. Her name is Sunitha Chandy and she plays sitar on the track. She was kind enough to jam with me on this song while I was recording it, and it turned out fantastic. I think she might have done the whole thing in one take, if I remember correctly. It was very impressive.

This fall I remixed and remastered the song and am releasing it today. It was awesome to hear Sunitha play the sitar again on the recording.

And now let me explain why I’m talking about lutes in the article title.

As I was submitting all the track details to the distributor that sends my songs to all the digital music platforms, their online form in that particular spot did not have a sitar as an option for an instrument on the track and there was no way for me to do a custom “write-in” for the track instrumentation. I had to choose from their menu. The closest instrument they had on the list was a lute.

Technically, a sitar is in the lute family as far as how instruments have evolved and are organized, so the information is not incorrect, it’s just vague.

The History of the Sitar

This got me thinking about the history of the sitar, of the lute family in general, and when sitars came on the scene in music history. I did a little research and discovered the instrument came to be sometime in the 1700s at the end of India’s Mughal era, which is also sometimes called the Moghul era.

Indrajit Banerjee, sitarist and teacher at Antara School of Indian Classical Music, wrote an article about the history and origin of the sitar. Here’s a sample quote from it:

It is clear that the sitar as we see it today developed in at the end of the Moghul era.. The “Sangeet Sudarshana” states that the sitar was invented in the 18th century by a fakir named Amir Khusru. This of course was a different Amir Khusru from the one who lived in 1300. This latter Amir Khusru was the 15th descendent of Naubat Khan, the son-in-law of Tansen. It is said that he developed this instrument from the Persian Sehtar.

Amir Khusru’s grandson Masit Khan was one of the most influential musicians in the development of the Sitar. He composed numerous slow gats in the dhrupad style of the day. This style is referred to as Masitkhani Gat. The Masitkhani gats were further popularized by his son, Bahadur Khan. Masit Khan was a resident of Delhi; therefore Masitkhani Gats are sometimes referred to as Dilli Ka Baaj.

What was the Mughal Era in India?

This got me wondering about the Mughal Era and how long that lasted in India’s history. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a summary of what the Mughal era was:

The Mughal dynasty (1526–1858) was among the richest and longest ruling in India, and at its peak controlled large portions of the Indian subcontinent. The Mughals were Muslims of Central Asian origin, and Persian was their court language. Their intermarriage with Hindu royalty and establishment of strong alliances with the diverse peoples of the subcontinent led to profound cultural, artistic, and linguistic exchanges.

The Mughal dynasty claimed descent from the Mongols ("Mughal" is from the Arabized transliteration of "Moghol," or Mongol). The Mughal emperors were among India's greatest patrons of art, responsible for some of the country's most spectacular monuments, like the palaces at Delhi, Agra, and Lahore (in present-day Pakistan) and the famous mausoleum, the Taj Mahal ...

Here are some pictures by Jovyn Chamb on Unsplash of the breathtaking Taj Mahal.

A Very Brief History of The Lute Family

The Met has yet another excellent article that I will quote. They sum up the history of the lute succinctly:

The origin of the lute (It.: leùto, liuto; Gr.: laute; Sp.: laúd; Fr.: luth) cannot be pinpointed to a specific date, but its close relationship to the Arab ‘ud is without doubt. The ‘ud has a pear-shaped body with a bowled back, made of numerous ribs (thin strips of wood), a wooden soundboard, rosettes (decorative soundholes), plucked gut strings, and a peghead that is bent back in a curved shape (1982.143.1). The name al ‘ud literally means “the wood,” and was most likely used to distinguish instruments with wooden soundboards from those with soundboards made of animal skin. Examples of ‘uds first appear on illustrations and manuscripts in the pre-Islamic Arabic peninsula in the sixth century.

The earliest evidence of the Arab ‘ud in Europe can be found in numerous carvings and depictions dating back to the ninth century, when it was introduced by the Moors to Spain. However, it is not until the thirteenth century that the Western lute can be distinguished from the Arab ‘ud in iconography. One of the first depictions of the European lute—an illustration of a musician playing the instrument at a chess game—can be found in the Libro de Juegos (Book of Games) commissioned by Alfonso X in 1283. This illustration demonstrates the similarity of the form of the European lute with that of the ‘ud, although the latter has frets and its peghead is bent back like a lute (not curved as on a typical ‘ud). The instrument is shown being played by a Christian woman, whereas all previous depictions of similar instruments were played by Arab performers.

I think it’s fascinating the musician was playing the lute in a chess game! Perhaps it aided concentration. Or maybe the player didn’t care about the chess game. Either way, now I will always think of the lute whenever I see a chess board.

Re-Discovering the Song ‘Psalm 63’

It’s always amazing to re-discover an old creative project that one hasn’t worked on for a long time. In this case, it has been more than 24 years since I’ve worked on the mixing and mastering of “Psalm 63.” Below is my cover art (photo by me) for “Psalm 63” which is now available on all streaming music platforms as well as YouTube. (Just search for “Kevin Ott Psalm 63” and it should come up.)

And I’d like to thank Sunitha again for jamming with me on her sitar on that bright, sunny afternoon at UC Santa Barbara in the early 2000s. All the impromptu, fun musical collaborations I did with friends during my college years are some of my happiest memories from that era.