> From: Doc Rossi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:12:28 +0100 > To: Cittern NET <[email protected]> > 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
No-one seems to have mentioned "Ceterone" yet, a theorboed-cittern, twelve or fourteen courses, pretty well documented since the early 1600's according to the article at Wikipedia, one tuning is given below http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceterone http://www.cittern.theaterofmusic.com/new/rb_ceterone.html " . . Monteverdi scored the 1615 edition of his 'Orfeo' for two 'ceteroni' as well as two 'chitarroni' which is clear evidence for a distinction between the qualities of sound of the two instruments at that time. Praetorius also mentions the instrument in his Syntagma Musicum, describing its 'strong and magnificent sound like a harpsichord.' In the Syntagma Musicum (Wolfenbüttel, 1619), he lists one illustrated example of ceterone as a "Zwölfe Chorige Dominici Cister," with re-entrant bass string tunings of eb, Bb, f, c, g, d, a, e, and treble strings tuned to b, g, d' and e'. Either twelve, or fourteen courses of strings seem to have been used. . . . Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
