Dear Monica,
Yes - I suspect it's a misprint. C below the bass clef is quite low
enough for gut strings of such modest length.
I also don't think it right to call it an arch-cittern: Jordan probably
called it a lute (she is described playing 'the lute' in contemporary
reports as Peter's paper points out). The instrument depicted is
similar to the large number of these extant theorboed type of
instruments which were invented (especially in France, as well as
England) during the final decades of the 18th century and continued
into the first few of the 19th primarily for Drawing Room use. Many of
these have the same basic characteristics: single strings, strings of
gut, typically 7 fingered strings - as Jordan's, varying nos of basses
from 4 to 14 eg see Baines Nos 326, 332, 334. Baines calls them by
various names including arch-guitar and harp guitar. And, of course,
by around 1800 the whole thing had degenerated into things like the
Harp-lute-guitar (most famously in England associated with Light and
Ventura - but other makers cashed in on the fad).
Baines thinks the early instruments (say 1770 1800) were tuned like the
English guitar with first six strings in a chord (of C) and this makes
sense, but I also think we tend to underestimate the importance of
these sort of instruments in continental, especially pre-revolutionary
French (and Flanders), culture and they might have also tuned the
highest courses in a chord but at a lower nominal pitch (say in A like
the contemporary French cistre which, of course did have metal strings
and double strings to each course and many also had free bases see
Baines again).
I think by c 1800 in France (and England) more of these were being
tuned like the newly popular guitar and, indeed, much music says it is
for lute or guitar. I think the best modern name for them is
lute-guitar combining the early notion of 'antick' instruments and the
modern style of play in a guitar fashion. For the latter see the
example of 'The Blue Bells of Scotland' which employs simple and
typical guitar arpeggios for a piece labelled as for 'GUITAR or LUTE'.
By chance I had a communication only yesterday with someone else on the
same sort of subject which is why, I guess, I'm writing at length. One
thing is clear: it took someone quite outside the lute and guitar world
to look at these instruments with a fresh eye - a good area for a post
grad paper with v little competition.
A later instrument, often called the 'bass guitar' is not really the
same at all (tho superficially similar and thus a good candidate to
confuse museum curators) since it developed from the 6 string guitar in
the 1820s through works of people like Mertz, Coste, Dubez et
al..........
Finally can you spot anything about Dorothy Jordan from the painting? -
she is painted with her mouth closed ( as so many people were
historically). I suspect this might be because she had few upper teeth
- see her upper lip line....... but she was not alone....
rgds
Martyn
--- On Fri, 18/2/11, Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
From: Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: [VIHUELA] Arch-cittern
To: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Friday, 18 February, 2011, 11:52
Those of you who belong to the Lute Society will have received the
latest number of Lute News. (Apologies to those of you who aren't
members). This has a reproduction of the portrait of the actress
Dorothy Jordan playing an arch-cittern - which looks a bit
like an English guitar with additional diapasons. There is a
commentary by Peter Holman.
There are one or two things which I think experts on these
instruments
might be able to clarify for me.
The first of these is where he mentions the possibility that the
colour
coded strings are harp strings and then says "this would mean that
Jordan tuned them in a diatonic sequence rising from CC.
According to both the Oxford Concise and Harvard Dictionaries there
is
no such thing as CC. C alone would indicate that the lowest
diapason
was tuned to the note C below the bass clef - i.e. with 2 leger
lines. C1 is an octave below that which seems a bit unlikely.
So what is the lowest note? Is "CC" a misprint for "C".
The other question is about the music on p.7. I'm assuming that
both
parts are supposed to be played on a single instrument. If so the
notes on the lower stave will occasionally overlap with those on the
upper stave. Are we supposed to read the lower stave an octave
lower?
Hope I have made myself clear.
Monica
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