In einer eMail vom 06.03.2007 16:00:54 Westeurop=E4ische Normalzeit schreibt [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
> I like the statement on the RQ site that calls the cittern the > Renaissance banjo. Both are wire strung (except for the gut strung > banjos), the 4-course Italian has a re-entrant tuning based around a > g-chord, and seems to play in G all the time. And both get a certain > amount of disrespect. There's even a plectrum banjo, to complete the > similarity. > Yes, a nice analogy! I suppose the banjo is to the guitar today what the cittern was to the lute back then. Easier to play, but more limited in the choice of keys. A few years ago, tired of playing 3-chord accompaniments on my 5-string banjo, I got into classic finger-style playing. A couple of my instrumental party pieces are arrangements of Elizabethan or Jacobean songs. Playford's "All in a Garden Greene" in the key of C, for instance, goes very well on the banjo, making good use of the short 5th string. The timbre of the nylon-strung classic banjo is actually more lute-like, but I also have a zither-banjo, which is conventionally strung with a wire 1st, 2nd and 5th and nylon (formerly gut) 3rd and 4th, and this does sound more cittern-like. Cheers, John -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
