Steve Schaper wrote: > Sounds a lot like the Ukrainian national instrument, the name of which > escapes me at the moment. >
No it's definitely one of these things: http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/0632.htm I've come across a few of them from time to time, illustrated in books. J. Godwin in 'The Survival of the Theorbo Principle' (JLSA 1973) found eleven of them from around 1750s-1780s. They all had four fretted courses and 8-10 basses. I think I've seen some with triple courses on the trebles. The main makes are Klemm and Kram. They are rather strange looking, almost primitive instruments. At least one contemporary source confirms one of the tunings Doc mentioned (the C major one). It looks like the German cittern at this time had a completely independent existence to what might be called the then pan-European cittern. Compare the German arch-cittern (possibly 'mandorina') with this French arch-cittern from c.1780. http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/0629.htm The Ukrainian torban is discussed here. http://www.polyhymnion.org/torban/ And that really is extremely strange. Stuart > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>> Subject: [CITTERN] 12-c Saxon cittern >>> >>> A builder in Germany has just contacted me about a commission they >>> have received to build a 12-course cittern based on an existing >>> instrument. There are four courses on the fingerboard; the rest are >>> free. He is looking for more information on tuning. He's found two >>> possibilities: [high to low] e' d' g b e a d g c f Bb es [I assume es >>> = Eb] and g' e' c' g f e d c B A G F C [13 courses, but who's counting]. >>> >>> As you can see, the former uses the Italian 4-course tuning on the >>> finger board with circle of fifths tuning on the free basses; the >>> latter uses an open chord with diatonic basses, similar to tunings >>> used in 18th-century France, Germany, etc. Apparently both were still >>> found in 20th-century Saxony. >>> >>> Does anyone have any thoughts I could pass on? >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> Doc >>> >>> >> Sounds like one of those German arch-citterns of the mid-late 18th century >> (but there seem to have been some earlier ones too) - made by Klemm and >> Kramm. >> >> I'm at work at the moment but I'm sure they were tuned to GCEG and then >> descending diatonically. >> >> I've got some notes somewhere on these instruments and for some inexplicable >> reason they might sometimes have been called 'mandorinas' and I think I've >> got some music (in tablature, not ordinary music notation like in Britain >> and France etc) for them. >> >> >> >> ----------------------------------------- >> Email sent from www.ntlworld.com >> Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software >> Visit www.ntlworld.com/security for more information >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> >> > > > >
