I don't know about the history, but it certainly is a cittern-family
instrument now. And on my short-list to acquire someday. Very
nice-sounding and looking, genuinely American (Puerto Rico is part of
America) instrument.
Andrew Hartig wrote:
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
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