> From: "Roger E. Blumberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 05:58:19 -0700 > To: Brad McEwen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Stuart Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > <[email protected]> > Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Origin of the Portuguese guitarra > > I might even take a > 12 string wire-strung English guitar and tune it like a Spanish guitar and > still call it mine, and still call it a guitar too, or maybe even a short > scale Orpharion?
It occurs to me that English bandora/orpharion were in fact the first "English Guitars", literally. i.e. There appears to have been very few gut strung vihuela/viola guitars in 16th century England. In England they primarily used wire-strung fretted fourths "Guitars". There appear to have been three largely interchangeable instruments, same tuning, lutes and viols in gut, and orpharions (or bandora) in wire. Thomas Ford's "Musicke of Sundrie Kindes", London, 1607, highlights this. The front-piece reads; "Aries for four voices, to the Lute, Orpharion, or Bass Viol". http://www.TheCipher.com/ThomasFord_Musicke-of-sundrie-kindes_Lute-Orpharion -BassViol_London_1607_deta.jpg I have quite a few pictures of short scale bandura/orpharion, which with their deeper bodies look more like the later English Guitars than any cittern. http://www.TheCipher.com/orpheoreon_orpharion_DavidVinckboon_1610_deta.jpg http://www.TheCipher.com/orpheoreon_orpharion_FransII_LeJeune_c1581-1642_det a.jpg http://www.TheCipher.com/orpharion_LeonardBramer_c1640_Dutch_med-deta.jpg If any of those links break due to length you'll have to copy/paste the two-line url into your browser. Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
