Dear citternphiles, I am forwarding this message from Juan Sotomayor who is the web master for the Cuatro Project (http://www.cuatro-pr.org). He is searching for connections between the Puerto Rican Cuatro and the cittern-family of instruments.
Please read his request for help below. As he is not currently a member of this list, he will not receive messages sent to the list (though I am happy to pass them along). Thanks, Andrew >From: "John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Iberian cittern? >Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:52:21 -0400 > > >Dear Andrew: > >Thanks for the valuble information. I write big because I have poor vision. > >RE: an Iberian cittern. >I've been working on this problem since 1997. I founded the Cuatro >Project in 1990 and being a complete novice I started reading on >string instruments. >I discovered the 'cittern' and the 'citara'. In english its called >'cittern' and in spanish 'citara'. So we are talking about the same >instrument. Am I right ? I thought so. A few years ago I realized >that they were not the same instrument. >Minguet y Irol gives the tuning of <bade> (4321,intervals: 2-4-2). >But its Pablo Nassarre, 1724 that not only has the same tuning but >also wrties: has flat bottom, metal strings, played with a pic, and >the form is 'piramidal semicirculo, (PS), or like a pyramid and a >semi-circle. The pyrimid form is reversed. >I tried finding a Ren.cittern that would resemble a 'citara' and found none. >Both the cittern and the citara come from the citole and 'citaras' >were various flat back and metal string instruments. It was a >'family' of instruments (from what I have read). >The Ren or english cittern appears in the history I have researched >as an instrument popular in the UK,France and Italy.. The spanish >cittern or citara was a different instrument that kept the >characteristics of the citole, 'wings, waist and round lower >bout'. You found small scrolls where the neck meets the body and >they seem to disappear (Nordberg). The spanish citara keeps the >wings, waist and rd.LB (Nassarre,1724) and im 1880 it has 6 dbl. >courses, tuned in 4ths, 1st string in <E> (Rey/Navarre). The >4th,5th,6th are in octaves. There is also a 4 course triple string >citara, 19c. There were also 4 triple string bandurrias (Rey/Navarro). >The citara is replaced by the 'nuevo kaud' (Rey/Navarro) circa mid >19c. The nuevo laud is the spanish lute also called the tenor >lute. It has two tunings: one in <A> one octave lower than the >bandurria and the other in <E> as the modern 12 string citara. With >this tuning the 6th is in octaves. With this tuning it was used to >play the baritone part in orquestras. > >In Puerto Rico, Manuel Alonso in his book El Gibaro, 1849, gives the >same description for a 'jibaro' (hill-billy) instrument called a >'cuatro' (keyhole,antique cuatro) because it had 4 strings made of >gut. The gut strings and instruments were made by the >players. The 'cuatro' was tuned <Aead'> (4321) in the intervales of >5-4-4, one of the tunings used in the 'citole' (Citole Project). >We get the modern 5 dbl. string cuatro circa 1900 influenced by the >modern citara,nuevo laud and the mandolin craze (1895-1920). Its >tuned Bead'g' (54321). >I would love to find the shape of the Mexican citara, mid >17c. Maybe you can post this to see what ideas other members might have. >Thanks. >Juan Sotomayor >Cuatro Project >cuatro-pr.org > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
