[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 To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[CITTERN] Re: Cittern in Crete
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 To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[CITTERN] Re: Cittern in Crete
Hi Damien, I hope this works. I attach a photo of a postcard sent me some ten years ago from Crete by Patrick Delaval. It seems to be evidence that citterns were at least still a folk-memory, even if not still in use. Best wishes, Peter On 28 Nov 2008, at 20:13, Damien Delgrossi wrote: 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 To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
[CITTERN] Re: Cittern in Crete
To my knowledge, The Dartmouth list does not support attachments... The Ning site is a good place for them, and I am always willing and happy to post them via my cittern site if needed. -A: Hi Damien, I hope this works. I attach a photo of a postcard sent me some ten years ago from Crete by Patrick Delaval. It seems to be evidence that citterns were at least still a folk-memory, even if not still in use. Best wishes, Peter On 28 Nov 2008, at 20:13, Damien Delgrossi wrote: 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 To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
