Thanks for the clarification. Eugene
At 01:14 PM 3/18/2007, Lex Eisenhardt wrote: >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
