on 22/3/06 11:01 am, David Kilpatrick at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Peter Forrester wrote: > >> My article about the ceiling is in the Lute Society Journal for 1987. An >> earlier article was in the Recorder and Music Magazine 2, 1966 by Anthony >> Rowland-Jones. A poem concerning the Muses occupies the sides of the >> ceiling beams and twice contains the date 1599. The underside of the beams >> has a decorative pattern which is now different from that photographed in >> 1966. The paintings are executed in distemper directly onto the planks >> which form both the ceiling and the floor of the room above. >> > The ceiling was covered over, and rediscovered in 1877 when this was > removed. The National trust acquired the castle in 1951, and no date is > given for the restoration of the ceiling painting > >> The style is >> naive with simplified shapes and details - no tuning pegs for most of the >> instruments, etc. but the realism of the playing positions suggests that the >> artist was familiar with them. There is no reason to suggest that the >> cittern is not the usual instrument of this period. >> > So how does it relate to the cittern you made for Rob? It looks, to me, > to have a scale and shape far more similar to the fully chromatic, wider > necked, English guitar type cittern. I'm aware something was referred to > as the 'small English cittern' in the early 1600s
I've made both a diatonic cittern based on an instrument in Brussels circa 1600+, and an "English" guittar, a third low, based on Irish Gibsons in Dublin and Edinburgh, and some help from a Rudiman made in Aberdeen(!) The Crathes' body outline is not unlike the Brussels instrument, and has the carved head which as far as I know does not appear on guittars (although there are some on contemporary mandores, kits, etc). A treble cittern would approximate more closely to the proportions shown, but again it is dangerous to expect more information than given - the lute seems definitely to be large, but tuned as a bass would be useless for the consort music. Erato heir behalde and se, With soister set for galyardine, The law of love cum leir at me But nocht veneriall palyardine. > >> The use of a harp >> instead of a bandora seems Scottish, or perhaps reflects an earlier usage, >> but the similarity of the line-up to the Morley/Rosseter consort argues >> influence from England. There seems to be French influence in the verses - >> the spelling "soister" (cistre) instead of citheren or psithyrne, etc. for >> cittern, for example. >> >> There is one more, unfortunately even more simplified and worn, >> representation of a cittern locally to Crathes in the walled garden of >> Edzell Castle (1604). The low-relief of 'Musica' playing a lute also >> contains a music-book, clarsach, viol and cittern. Illustration in 'Tree of >> Strings', Sanger and Kinnaird, Kinmor Music, 1992. >> >> I can't check at the moment but think that the Crathes pic is on Andrew's >> site at http://www.theaterofmusic.com/cittern/ although it would be better >> to see it in context with the other instruments. >> >> I think that Rob is mistaken about the 'harmonium'. In the verses, Polymnia >> refers to her "monicordis". Monochord was a usual name for clavichord at >> this period, and some strings are visible on the painting. >> >> >> > It does look like a stringed instrument but the size is - unlike all the > others - unlikely. Also, she appears to be stopping the strings with one > hand while playing keys with the other, and there is a soundhole or rose > under the strings, which in turn seem to have bridges similar to a > cymbalom - I don't think that's meant to be music on top of an > instrument (it looks slightly like it) but a set of strings and some > associated mechanisms. Two interesting possibilities: a harmonium device > with a set of strings played with the hand (but how is the harmonium > pumped?) - or a keyed, treble, very short scale zither. Or she is tuning > the instrument. The black dots like bridges might be hammers or quills. > Their arrangement under the strings seems a bit unusual. > > Enlargement: > > http://www.iconpublications.com/harmonichord.jpg > > David > > I still think its a clavichord - primarily because of the associated verse. The size is not dissimilar to the smaller clavichord shown by Praetorius, and paintings. The dark marks on the left-hand side are vertical strokes suggesting wrest-pins; they are followed by a line of four which looks like a line of jacks. The more random blobs could be the felt used as damping? She looks as though she could be tuning, although with the apparent layout I suggest, her hands are reversed. However this would be a painting from memory, not life, is 'naive', and some clavichords were reversed, if only in prints. Polymnia the last of nyn, My monichordis may well expresse Quick memorie and scharp Ingyn, Abhoring still forgetfulnes. Think the verses are just understandable, but perhaps Rob could gloss them? Peter To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
