I might be slightly wrong here, but it was my understanding that tortoiseshell became popular for plectrum making during the renaissance - with quill being the preferred plectrum material from medieval times till then. We know that cittern-type instruments of those times were somewhat lightly constructed and the strings were much more fragile than modern strings, so it stands to reason that the instruments would have generally been played gently rather than aggressively which would give a quill plectrum a better chance of survival. There is an old renaissance painting, by Vermeer maybe, which shows a cittern or cister being played by a young lady. On a table next to her is a small box or tray containing what appears to be some short lengths of quill. It is a fairly well known painting - I've seen it on more than one web site - so I'll try to find a link for a later post. Kevin.
> -----Original Message----- > From: Andrew Hartig [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 25 August 2005 04:55 > To: [email protected] > Subject: [CITTERN] plectra? > > > > Hi all, > > Discussion has been slow, so I thought I'd toss out a question > for you all: > > Do we have any historical evidence for the type of plectra > *actually* used > in the Renaissance? Would quill plectra be used with metal strings (it > seems that they would potentially break, but the fact that they "give" in > one direction would allow for the hard-soft-hard-soft attack just like in > thumb-under playing)? > > And incidentally, what plectrum do each of you use? (I am > currently using a > combination of "thin" and "medium" jazz guitar picks. Anyone > actually using > quill?) > > -Andrew > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
