Music F200X - Larsen

 The Sitar is a traditional Indian instrument that has between 18-21 strings dating back to the 16th century. It is a staple in traditional and modern Indian music, and is a fairly unique instrument. It is unique in that only 6-7 of the strings are pluckable, whereas the other 12-14 are called sympathetic strings. These are not played, but rather resonate with the other strings, giving a more full feeling to the instrument.  It is theorized that the Sitar was first invented around 1200 A.D, but this is disputed. In the 1500s, the first Sitar type instrument, typically called a Tambur, was beginning to be used in India. Tamburs typically had 4 strings and no sympathetic strings, but the body shape is vaguely the same. However, it wasn't until the 1700s that the modern Sitar began to take it's shape. In the 1700s the first 5 string Sitars, with up to 13 sympathetic strings, were created. This is also when the name Sitar was first used. The string count has gradually risen to the...

 Misty Mountains, also known as Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold, is a song performed in the 2012 film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It, like the rest of the music in the film, was composed by Howard Shore. However, the song itself was written by the author of the book, J.R.R. Tolkien, as a poem. As it appears in the movie, the song is an excerpt of this poem, consisting of two stanzas. The film was released on November 28, 2012 in Wellington, New Zealand, which is the country of origin. The book was released in 1937 in England.   To give a little background on the song, in case anybody has not seen the movies/read the books, the Misty Mountains are a fictional mountain range in The Hobbit. This mountain range is between the dwarves and their home, which is a single mountain in a different area. The dwarves, in Tolkien's series, are characterized by their greed. These dwarves had collected a lot of gold, which belonged to a dragon. The dragon came and took the gold bac...