small > > lute-shaped > > instruments (like in Kircher), that probably had the interval of a > > fifth. > > Don't you mean intervals of a third and fourth respectively? > >
As I understand it, it is supposed that the mandora in Kircher (as in Praetorius) is a chitarra Italiana. With Kircher the tuning of the 4th and 3rd courses is a fifth apart (like in the temple viejo of Bermudo's four course guitar). Conserto vago possibly asks for a re-entrant tuning (as in Cerreto) of the fourth course. Still the two courses are a (inverted-) fifth apart. Renato Meucci doesn't mention Millioni (....) but he supposes that the old tuning was replaced on the newly introduced mandola by a tuning in fifths (Kircher gives 5-4-5 as an option). I think that if we wish to define instruments it is not just the picture that counts, but also the tuning. The above tunings (of Cerreto and Conserto vago) don't match with Millioni's chitarra Italiana of 1631. It raises doubt about the instrument. We can only guess what the shape of his 4-course 'chitarrino' was. Now it is supposed that there has been a soprano (chitarrino) and a bass (chitarrone). Meucci shows one anonymous painting of a player with an instrument that looks like a four course lute, which he thinks may be a 'chitarra comune'. The problem with these instruments is that there seems to be no repertoire left at all. They probably have not been too successful. >From the research of Lynda Sayce I understand that the chitarrone started as a modified (bass) lute. The interesting thing is that iconography suggests that some chitarrini may have had single strings, like the chitarrone/tiorba sometimes had. I wonder if the fact that 'chitarrone' means 'large chitarra' could have anything to do with that. Considering how instruments are built however the chitarrone could well be a descendant of the lute. And of course there is the link with ancient mythology. Maybe the chitarrone is indeed a 'big kithara', rather than a 'big chitarra' (or 'big kuitra')? L. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
