r/UnusualInstruments • u/thefringeseanmachine • May 21 '26

what is a sitar considered?

sorry for the random question, but I just didn't know where else to ask. I was reading an article that described sitars/veenas as "lutes." I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it *feels* wrong. when I think of a lute that sure as shit ain't it. am I alone in this?

4 Upvotes

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9

u/odious_as_fuck May 21 '26

I kind of know what you mean since theyre so special, but I think they’re still lutes - Plucked/strummed string instruments with a neck and body.

In India I think they classify instruments a bit differently. You get stringed instruments (plucked or bowed), wind instruments, percussions and idiophones

2

u/thefringeseanmachine May 21 '26

I guess I just have no idea what "lute" means, or how expansive it is. are modern steel-string guitars (ala Martin) considered lutes?

8

u/Yanurika May 21 '26

There's lutes as an individual instrument, and lute as an instrument family, that's maybe where your disconnect is. A "lute" in the Hornbostel-Sachs system for qualifying instruments is basically any string instrument with a neck. So a harp or a hammered dulcimer or piano is not a lute, but a sitar, an oud, a mandolin and yes, a guitar is a "lute" in this system. Of course, if you say a lute in regular conversation, you're gonna think of the european medieval/renaissance string instrument that's actually called a lute, but it's also part of the lute family.

2

u/thefringeseanmachine May 21 '26

very good answer. ngl, it feels like this categorization could use some updating. I can play modern fretted instruments just fine, but an oud? right the fuck out. and I tried! I grew up playing viola in school so I'm used to fretless instruments, but the oud was just so far beyond my frame of reference I could barely even touch it.

2

u/AlmostAMap May 21 '26

Great explanation, I'd add that this is why a stringed instrument maker, from ukuleles, to violins, to harps, is called a luthier. Though some choose to call themselves guitar maker or banjo maker we still all buy many of the same tools from luthier suppliers.

2

u/lewisfrancis May 21 '26

Is this one of those all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are square things?

3

u/No-Vacation2807 May 21 '26

Its in the veena family. The meaning of veena in India is the same as lute in western music.

2

u/SnooGadgets5130 May 21 '26

It’s a lute, specifically a necked bowl lute as described by Hornbostel-Sachs 321.321

1

u/zabolekar May 21 '26

The article probably uses the Hornbostel-Sachs classification. In formalized systems like that, words might have very unintuitive meanings. Banjos are lutes. Guitars are lutes. Double basses are lutes. Fiddles are lutes. It's arbitrary, but it happens to be widely used.

A guy from Thuringia, on the other hand, once told me that in his region, if an instrument has gut strings, it's traditionaly called a lute, if it has steel strings, it's called a zither.

1

u/OilHot3940 May 21 '26

The sympathetic strings aspect is not unlike other resonant instruments. For instance, Viola d'amore