[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > (Bellman is a huge figure in 18th C. Swedish culture and he played a guittar-like instrument. But the many songs he published � often just popular melodies but with Bellman�s highly distinctive lyrics - just have a simple bass line, not an idiomatic, plucked string accompaniment.)
A little bit more than a bass line actually, but basically you're right. Bellman's songs were all published in piano arrangements (by Olof �hlstr�m) and his own versions were never written down. From descriptions we know that he kept his accompaniments very simple (even by that time's standard) and it's also clear that he kept on changing things around to fit the occasion (being a performer first and foremost). It's safe to assume he didn't play continuous bass lines to his songs. Facsimiles of all of Bellman's published books can be found at http://bellman.net btw. > So in this concert Lindberg is playing a �cister� and presumably he has got a more authentic, local, instrument than a French (18th C) cistre. It's hard to think of anything more authentic than a French 18th C cistre for this really. Bellman's music has a very strong French connection and if his cittern wasn't actually built in France, it was at least closely modelled after French instruments. > There was a discussion a while ago on the lutelist about Bellman, with some people claiming that the Bellman�s instrument was a bell cittern. The famous portrait of Bellman only shows a bit of the instrument � not enough to clearly identify it. That's not a problem since both of Bellman's citterns still survive today. I'm not sure, but I think they're even in somewhat playable condition. One of them is a bell cittern he apparently inherited from his grandfather, the other is a smaller one - if memory serves me right he had it specially built for his needs when grandpa's old cittern started to show its age. It's the latter one Bellman holds in the picture you're probably referring to. I have a photocopy of a picture of them somewhere. I'll see if I can find it if you're interested. > Kenneth Sparr thought that the instrument probably was a cistre-like instrument and the fragments of music on his website for the �Swedish cittern� is for an A-tuned instrument. It seems the "sittra" Kenneth Sparr refers to appeared towards the end of Bellman's carreer and there's no evidence suggesting that he played it (thought it's of course more than likely he at least tried one once or twice) - nor can I find Sparr making such a claim. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a connection going the other way though. The fact that Bellman played the cittern might well have helped considerably in popularising this new Swedish variant. Frank Nordberg http://www.musicaviva.com http://www.online-guitarist.com http://www.gitar-siden.com http://www.tablatvre.com http://www.mandolin-player.com http://www.blues-harmonica.com http://www.irish-banjo.com http://www.blues-banjo.com http://www.folk-banjo.com http://www.roarogfrank.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
