Hi Stuart,
That is what I thought, it is probably a mistake of Carpentier about the
english guitar. But I don't understand well the tuning you write, you mean
it is french? The cistre is tuned : E-A-D-E-a-c#-e for a seven course
cistre. I don't know the tuning you write Stuart, but in France Le Blond,
Deleplanque, Renault & Chatelain etc... used to build also 6 course cistre,
often with 5 double course and one single bass which is very similar to the
english guitar. Maybe the 6 course cistre is the french version of the
english guitar tuned C-E-G-c-e-g ? I have no documents and that is a topic i
really don't know. What do you think?
Ritter could be the english translation of Reithre, you're right. But this
Mr Reithre lived in Paris and I think was probably French. But this idea is
interesting, if we have time we should serach further and deeper around this
question.
Carpentier is not talking about its origins but about its popularity, he
says that the cistre was very popular in Germany and Flanders. He's talking
about english guitar in another book if I remember well.
Damien
He mentions this tuning a couple of times both in words and in musical
notation and he repeats it in his 'Methode'. I've only ever seen this
tuning in Carpentier.
The tuning that would be like the French cistre would be: C-F-G-C-E-G and
this is mentioned in a British publication of music by D. Ritter (who, I
wonder, may be the same as the Mr Reithre mentioned by Carpentier?)
Damien, my French isn't very good. What do you think Carpentier is saying
about the origin of the cistre? He talks about its existence in Germany
and Flanders but doesn't mention Britain.
Stuart
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