Starting yet another thread on this topic... ;-)
I've had a closer look at Bellman's cittern and also re-read Michel's
article on the Hamburger citrinchen and here is what I've found so far:
1. Tuning
The "Moravian" GCEGBE tuning Andrew Rutherford asked about, is mentioned
by Michel as one of the two known 17th C. citrinchen tunings (only of
course as a five course tuning without the low G). I suppose the exact
tuning would be G-c-e-g-b-e' since neither an octave higher nor lower
would make much sense in this context.
(The Moravian instrument turns out to be a lute-cittern. Until now
there doesn't seem to have been any information about its tuning.
Establishing a connection between it and the Hamburger citrinchen is a
noticeable achievement. Thanks Andy and Lanie!)
Michel also mentions a five course variant of Storm's
(Bb-)F-bb-d'-f'-a'-d'' tuning - not a note lower but a seventh *higher*
than the (G)CEGBE tuning!
The other tunings mentioned by Michel are:
f-a-c'-e'-a' (the other 17th C. tuning)
d-g-c'-e'-a' (18th C., same intervals as a baroque guitar)
f-bb-d'-f'-bb' (18th C. - that one is *really* weird)
The curious open maj7 tunings of the bell cittern opens up for some wild
speculations about the possible origins of various sittern tuning but
that'll have to wait.
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2. Courses
There definitely were bell citterns with more than five courses!
I found a photo of Bellman's cittern:
http://www.stadsmuseum.stockholm.se/samlingar.php?artikel=17
larger view:
http://www.stadsmuseum.stockholm.se/samlingar.php?artikel=17&bild=1
No question about painters being unable to count tuning pegs anymore.
The instrument certainly has seven courses - four double and three single.
(Digression: it also has a scalloped fretboard - is there actually a
connection between the "sawblade shape" fretboards of renaissance
citterns and the scalloped fretboards of 20th C. Germand and Swedish lutes?)
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3. Sizes
The rather extreme differences between the various citrinchen tunings
seems to suggest that the instrument came in at least two distincitvely
different sizes. I understand that idea is a new one(?) (still haven't
finished doing my Hamburger citrinchen homework..)
The cittern Bellman holds in Krafft's painting
(http://www.bellman.net/krafft.html) still looks much larger than a
regular Hamburger citrinchen and now that we know the instrument is
presented anatomically correctly (that is: it actually has that many
strings), the painting becomes a much more credible source.
I have written Stockholms Stadsmuseum asking for more information
about the size of the cittern. Hopefully they'll reply.
Right now my working hypothesis is that there was two different bell
citterns, the fairly well-known Hamburger citrinchen (scale length c.
15-16 cm - c. 14") and a larger one that perhps should be called the
Hamburger cister. Scale length might have been similar to the
lute-cittern, that is about 47 cm (18.5"), possibly a bit longer.
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4. Playing technique
The painting of Bellman seems to show him playing fingerstyle.
The Storm ms. is clearly written for fingerstyle playing. We still don't
know what kind of cittern the music was written for but with the tuning
and stringing issue sorted out, the Hamburger citrinchen is definitely
the favourite option.
The Moravian painting posted by Lanie Graf at the cittern ning shows
lute-citterns played fignerstyle. If the lute-cittern got its tuning
from the bell-cittern, it's likely the playing technique came from there
too.
All things considered, I think we can be 99.9 percent certain that it
was common during the 18th C. to fingerpick the Hamburger citrinchen.
Frank Nordberg
http://www.musicaviva.com
http://www.tablatvre.com
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