Doc Rossi wrote: > I had a look at my copy of Galpin's Old English Instruments of Music > (1932) while unpacking, and he calls the EC a type of cittern. If > you have a look at Plate VIII, you'll see a cittern by Peter Wisser > dated c.1700 that clearly shows a uniformly deep body on a four- > course instrument. > > > >
Doc, I mentioned this instrument in a message in April in reply to Pedro. Here's the context:.... Pedro Caldeira Cabral wrote: > Hi, > > Can you read french? > Consult the "Methode de Cytre ou Guitthare Allemande" de Mr.Abbé > Carpentier, and you will find part of the answer to that problem of > the origins. > Some names of german makers working in Britain: > Remerius Liessem,Frederick Hintz, Michael Rauche, etc. > Do you know about the Cologne citterns of Michael Bochum? those were > tuned CGceg in 1726. > Their inner structure (nº and disposition of bars) clearly indicates > they predecessors of the "English" Guittar. > Andreas Michel "Zistern" is very advisable bibliography too. > > Pedro Caldeira Cabral And I replied:.... ..... Thanks. My French is not good but I can't find anything about the origins of the instrument in either of the 2 parties of Carpentier's 'Methode'. I've probably missed the references. Carpentier does explicitly mention origins in his 'observations' at the beginning of his Premier Recueil (a year earlier than the 'Methode', I think.) He says that the instrument is of the highest antiquity and that it has many variations of form over time. Then he says that at last a definite tuning, universally accepted, has emerged and used in Germany and Flanders amongst others. He gives this tuning as mi, ut#, la, mi - i.e. four courses ( but then goes on to describe his favoured tuning). Carpentier comes across as a rather eccentric person and I wonder how reliable he is. He (and his pupil, DeMesse) describe the instrument as a 'cythre', not a cistre. Carpentier has an 8 page attack on Christophe Unguelter's methode for the instrument in Partie 1 of his Methode and there are more attacks in Partie 2. Unguelter's methode (which doesn't survive, as far as I know) was for the C tuning and a smaller instrument than Carpentier's cythre - probably a typical English guitar. Although there are passing references to the guitharre angloise or cythtre angloise he doesn't indicate that many instruments were made in Britain and much music published for it in the 1750s and 1760s. Probably his attack on Unguelter is really an attempt to discredit the smaller, C-tuned instrument (the English guitar) and to promote the larger French instrument. Even the tuning Carpentier gives (more than once) for the guitharre angloise is odd: CDGCEG. (There is at least one reference to this tuning in the English guitar repertoire but, of course, the usual tuning is CEGCEG)). Carpentier's tuning for the cythre is for an 8-course instrument, with a low D. This too is different form other cistre/cythre composers/arrrangers like the prolific C.F.A. Pollet who write for a seven-course instrument or for a seven-course instrument with several extra bass strings. So when Carpentier talks about the origins in Germany and Flanders, I wonder whether this is just one more oddity. You mention some German makers working in Britain (there were British makers too!). I've come across a maker's name that is new to me, Hoffman. Art Robb is restoring this intriguing instrument: http://www.art-robb.co.uk/EG.html (scroll down to the bottom instrument) I know nothing about the citterns you mention by Bochum, tuned CGceg. Do you have any more details? I don't understand what you mean by saying that their inner structure shows them to be predecessors of the English guitar. Can you say a bit more about that? Galpin's old 'Textbook of European Musical Instruments' has an illustration of an instrument by P. Wisser (1708) which looks like a prototype English guitar. It has 8 pegs, presumably four courses. It still has the 'wings' at the neck-body joint of the traditional cittern but it seems to have the deeper body which I think characterises the new form of eighteenth century cittern. ......... And Pedro didn't reply! Pedro seems to think that EGs have a very definite barring - but I thought there was a lot of variation. Mine only has two bars (maybe three) on the table, I think. And some have more andare morecomplicated. The tuning CGceg sounds more like a waldzither? And there were English makers too - what about Preston for a starter? The trouble with the Wisser instrument in Galpin is that there are no details about the instruments. There is another German cittern by a J. Wisser here: http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/5048.htm But this is from the second half of the 18th century. It's got the deep body but otherwise is much more like a traditional cittern. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
