> The simple answer, because it looks like that. 200 years earlier they would > have made a proper conversion, i.e. with a canted top!
Have you studied how the strings of early citterns were fixed? Very much like this, as I understand it. I was not thinking of conversions. And a canted top is not needed to play on wire. I know they did that in the 18th c. And they shortened the necks of existing instruments. All to reach a loud tone and high string tension. In the 16th and 17th centuries there were Citterns, Orpharions and Bandore/pandore with wire, also with long stringlengths. None of those needed canted tops since the string tension is not higher than with gut. The guitar has for a part been used quite much in the same way as the cittern, accompaniment in strummed chordal textures. In the same environment, probably. There seems to be very little physical reasons to prevent that wire strings were also used on the guitar. That in itself is no proof it actually was, indeed. > > Or rather, like Monica says, mandola/mandora. Yes that would be possible. > > I > > still think that a wire strung chitarra would not have to be very > > different. > > We know of several other instrument families that existed both with wire > > and > > gut. I see it as another possible way of stringing, not so much as a > > completely different instrument. > > I'm quite OK with what Monica has suggested. Also some large size Neapolitan > Mandolines were almost as big as guitar (in terms of string length). The mandola/mandora debate is still open. There is an article about it by Renato Meucci from 2001: 'Da "chitarra italiana" a "chitarrone": una nuova interpretazione.' Enrico Radesca da Foggia, atti del convegno, a cura di Francesca Seller, Lucca, LIM: 37-57. (thanks for sending, Monica) It's quite much a matter of conviction. I'm not sure on what side I am. The 'Chitarra Italiana' existed, and it was certainly different from its more successful Spanish relative. It (usually?) only had 4 courses, was sometimes strummed (Millioni) and sometimes plucked (conserto vago?). Has very little (extant) repertoire of its own. Wire strung? L. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
