Thank you - showing my ignorance I'm afraid. It's such a long time since I discussed this instrument that I've lost touch with some of the good sources. Is Ann Ford's tutor available (preferably free!) on any website? I'm still doubtful about Eph's findings, I'd like to know the sources of the strings he measured - I'll ask. rgds Martyn
doc rossi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi, Way behind again on answering emails, but here goes... Martin, Ann Ford published a tutor for the cittern in the middle of the 18th century. I think here portrait was painted by Reynolds. The tutor draws a lot on Mace's 17th-c lute tutor for ornaments and things like that, and she talks about playing with the fingers, not a pick. I don't know of any tutors that talk about using a pick - does anyone else? Even in the 17th c. Playford - whose music is all pretty much single line stuff (full of errors, too) he talks about playing with the fingers instead of a pick, which he calls old-fashioned. He had his reasons, and it may have caught on or not, but the norm in the 18th c. for the so-called English guittar (cittern) was to play with the fingers; at least this is what we can glean from the existing tutors. As far as light stringing is concerned, I think Eph Segerman has examined original instruments with, let's say "old" strings, to come up with his recommendations for tension at between 3.5 and 4 kilograms. I have actually tuned much higher without any structural problems, but the feel of the instrument is totally different, and not really suitable for finger picking. The timbre was totally different as well. About string material, iron is totally different from steel in terms of feel, tension and tone. At the optimum tension for tone, iron is much closer to breaking point, whereas steel has much more "stretch" and so can go much higher than optimum before breaking. The feel under the fingers is softer, too. I've never got a tone I was satisfied with using modern steel strings; iron has a warmer, sweeter sound, less metallic. I know these aren't very clear terms, but describing timbre is like wine tasting... Doc To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com --
