Hi Martyn,
Thanks. I had forgotten about the small Praetorius cittern. I was
thinking of the Playford gittern/guitar tuning and wondering why
people would use that, but now that you've reminded me of Praetorius,
it's all clear.
What I understood is that people are using a gittern tuning for the
broken consort repertoire. For my ears, a high tuning like that -
higher than modern mandolin - is simply too high, and would perhaps
sound rather choppy as well. I am willing to be convinced, though. In
the Bacheler Consort - which, granted, is three lutes and a cittern -
I'm already extremely loud - the cittern just seems to cut through
rather well. I think an octave lower - in the same area as the lute -
would be fine. The sound and parts are so different from the lute
that I don't think there would be any interference.
I can understand the attractions of the gittern tuning for someone who
is used to guitar and/or lute - it would certainly make things a lot
easier. However, the re-entrant tuning has its own logic - especially
the diatonically fretted one in French tuning, with octaves on the
lower two courses. It takes some getting used to, but there are
idiomatic elements that I think would be lost with the gittern
tuning. I haven't got a chromatic cittern, so I can't really say
whether things would be that different. I have often thought, though,
how convenient it would be to have a top g.
All the best,
Doc
On Oct 5, 2008, at 6:17 PM, Martyn Hodgson wrote:
A few sources that come to mind include:
1. LS Booklet by Gill (1977)page 7:
Praetorius small english cittern string stop c. 35cm tuned
f" bflat' d" g" or f" a' d" g" Also same tuning for 'gittern' an
octave lower as below: evidence of 'gittern' in Payford's 1652
publication as suggesting mid/late 17thC citterns tuned as four
course guitars and name gittern applied to them
2. NRI current historical notes on cittern strings extract In 1602
"Meuler was able to produce an even stronger wire, which allowed the
small cittern to tune up to g" and some English players tuned it to
gittern or ocatave- lute tuning"
Segerman then goes onto to speak about Payford's later instrument
using the same intervals similar to outlined in 1 above.
3. Ward 'Sprightly and Cheerful Music' 1981 tunings page 11, 12.
Ward's extended paper contains a number of references to cittern/
gittern (eg Sir Peter Leycester's remarks " we...do call a gitterne,
which is only a treble Psittyrne.." and similar such as Rowbotham's
1569 publication)
I hope you didn't read to earlier email that I was advocating such
an instrument in this repertoire! My own knowledge of the cittern
is limited and if you've anything to add, or correct, on cittern
sizes, tunings, pitches etc for the 'Rroken Consort' I'd be
delighted to hear it.
MH
--- On Sun, 5/10/08, Doc Rossi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Doc Rossi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Broken consort
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: "Lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Sunday, 5 October, 2008, 10:14 AM
On Oct 5, 2008, at 10:08 AM, Martyn Hodgson wrote:
More recently the gittern tuning (with highest string
on the first
course at g') seems to have found favour
Which tuning is this?
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