Hi Damien,
there is a considerable body of literature from venetian Crete, especially
theatre plays but also poems. Most of it got printed in Venice back in the 17th
century and there are modern editions around as these texts are still
appreciated. I can't remember of the top off my head of any reference to cetra.
There are lots of references in "lagouto" in the long poem Erotokritos
http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%95%CF%81%CF%89%CF%84%CF%8C%CE%BA%CF%81%CE%B9%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%82
which could be either the renaissance/baroque lute, the modern laouto or some
intermediate instrument.
Given the island's turbulent history I doubt any instruments would have
survived. Corfu and surrounding islands would be a better place to look for
them, as they stayed under venetian control till the end, and had strong
italian ties even after that.
Cheers
Stelios
----- Original Message ----
> From: Damien Delgrossi
> Subject: [CITTERN] Cittern in Crete
>
> Dear all,
>
> Two weeks ago I spent some good times with a Cretan group who was on tour in
> Corsica. They played many Cretan and Greek flutes, Laouto (Cretan wire-strung
> lute similar to italian mandoloncello), Bulgari (built by ning member
> Dimitris
> Rapakousios), Lavta (Constantinople Lute, more or less fretted arabic oud to
> explain it simply) etc etc...
>
> The plucked instruments player from Crete, Vangelis Tsagarakis, told me a
> very
> interesting thing : A long, long time ago Crete also had the "cetra". He told
> me
> that because I had my cetera with me and he said that they used to have
> exactly
> the same instrument on the island of Crete. I was wondering if they used to
> have
> the same 8 course cittern or the renaissance 4 or 6 course cittern, popular
> in
> Italy and Europe during the Renaissance and after. He told me that the cetra
> in
> Crete probably had 4 courses.
>
> So I have my own idea about this without any information nor sources except
> this
> oral one.
> Candia (the old name for Crete) was administrated, colonised and directed by
> the
> Venitian Republic after the taking of Constantinople by the crusaders from
> 1204
> to 1669. The Venitian Republic held Crete for about 4 and a half centuries.
> I think that the cittern was in Crete because of this strong Italian
> influence.
>
> Does anybody have any information, sources or anything to say about this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Damien
>
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