And, in 1990, he collaborated with minimalist composer Philip Glass on Passages, a recording of works he and Glass composed for each other. In 1988, his seven-movement Swar Milan was performed at the Palace of Culture in Moscow by an ensemble of 140 musicians, including the Russian Folk Ensemble, members of the Moscow Philharmonic and the Ministry of Culture Chorus, as well as Shankar’s own group of Indian musicians. In addition to his frequent tours as a sitarist, Shankar, the father of the singer Norah Jones and the sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, was a prolific composer of film music (including the score for Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi in 1982), ballets, electronic works and concertos for sitar and western orchestras. By the summer of 1967, the sitar was in vogue in the rock world.Īt first Shankar revelled in the attention his connection with popular culture brought him, and he performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and at Woodstock in 1969. The Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Byrds and other rock groups quickly followed suit, although few went as far as Harrison, who recorded several songs on Beatles albums with Indian musicians rather than with his band mates. He soon learned its rudiments and used it that year on a Beatles recording, Norwegian Wood. It has six melody strings and 25 sympathetic strings, which are not played but resonate freely as the others are plucked. Harrison was intrigued by the instrument, with its small rounded body, long neck and resonating gourd.

But western interest in his instrument, the sitar, exploded in 1965 when George Harrison of the Beatles encountered one on the set of Help!

He collaborated with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and the flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and was a mentor to the jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane. Shankar, who died last Tuesday in a hospital near his home in San Diego aged 92, was a soft-spoken, eloquent man whose virtuosity transcended musical languages. We've arranged the synonyms in length order so that they are easier to find.RAVI SHANKAR:Ravi Shankar was a sitarist and composer from India whose collaborations with western classical musicians as well as the Beatles and other rock stars helped foster a worldwide appreciation of his country’s traditional music. Synonyms, crossword answers and other related words for IMPROMPTUWe hope that the following list of synonyms for the word impromptu will help you to finish your crossword today. Spontaneous-sounding musical piece mastered by Schubert (9)Īd hoc spontaneous-sounding musical piece mastered by Schubert (9) IMPROMPTU 'IMPROMPTU' is a 9 letter word starting with I and ending with U Crossword clues for 'IMPROMPTU' Clue

Sitar improvisation crossword