Sorry for bringing up this topic again, but after reading all the comments, I couldn't resist dropping my own, even if mostly useless, testimony ;-)
I observed that some people misinterpreted Cabral's comments as portraying the complete dismissal of the influence of the English guitar on its Portuguese cousin for nationalistic reasons, which is obviously untrue. He used an English guitar to record the second disc (aptly labeled "A guitarra do seculo XVIII") of his LP "Memorias da Guitarra Portuguesa", which proves he does recognize its impact and importance on the development of the guitarra. He gives as much credit, however, to some sort of cittern in existence in Portugal at some point in time, and I do think that's a reasonable assumption, as it's shortsighted to concur that the Portuguese guitarra is solely a local descendant of the English guitar when it clearly borrows as much from the English guitar as it does from other kind of citterns in general. I think most of you will agree on that point. Onto the matter if the cittern was really brought to Portugal or its his imagination; for those that read his answer with attention, he listed some valid period documents that refer to the its presence in Portugal in several ways: they prove people built them there and also prove that there were proficient players and teachers aswell. We can't jump to the conclusion it was either popular or unpopular with the resources we've got at this point, but can assuredly say the cittern existed and was at least seemingly moderately known in Portugal, or parts of it, once upon a time. Might this cittern have any relation to the current guitarra? I wouldn't know :-) Before I finish, let me just say I'm surprised there hasn't been any further revival of the English guitar when compared to, for example, the lute, as its a wonderful and unique instrument that never quite reached what it could and unfortunately died before its time. Best regards To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
