There is one even more "unusual" lute-shape guittar or ... whatever ... that
I know about and it predates this Rauche and Hoffman 1758 instrument. I have
absolutely no doubts about its authenticity because I saw it with my own
eyes (examined, measured etc). It looks like what I would describe as a sort
of predecessor of French late 18th century arch-cistres, only with a lute
body. It has even more impressive number of pegs than Rauche and Hoffman's:
16 for the fingerboard strings and 10 for the extended diapasons (these I
would guess can be distributed in: 8 fingerboard and 5 bass courses). There
are 15 metal frets on the fingerboard that extends right to the soundhole.
The label says: "DABID, KYKAU, Lauten und / Geigen-macher fecit Koenigsberg.
AN. 1744". The instrument is in Ostankino palace (which is also museum),
Moscow. When I have time I upload a page with a couple pictures (not very
good quality I'm afraid, taken from a small brochure of that museum).
So German connection was definitely there, not to mention in Hamburger
Cithrinchen (like this one for example:
http://www.futuremuseum.co.uk/Default.aspx?Id=172&mode=object&item=3267)
which is, from the constructional point of view, virtually identical to the
guittar.
Alexander
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Walsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 9:38 PM
Subject: [CITTERN] Another Hoffman guittar
I was trying to find references to guittars made by Michael Rauche and came
across one made by Rauche and Hoffman. It has same date as the one
discussed earlier, 1758. And it's lute shaped too.
It's mentioned in a catalogue of instruments in the Royal Northern College
of Music. I've seen this before but hadn't noted the name, Hoffman. It's
here:
http://www.rncm.ac.uk/pdfs/collection_pdfs/coll_hwm10.pdf
on page 3, English guitar by Rauche and Hoffman, London 1758 written on
the end strip.
But this is a very strange beast indeed: 26 pins for ten pairs of strings
and six single courses.And 'originally with a theorbic head'. A
sixteen-course guittar..and in 1758! Maybe, possibly, but definitely not
like 'typical' instruments. And there are plenty of 'typical' instruments,
surviving. And plenty of music - for a six course instrument. Not sixteen!
Decades later there were experiments - but this is 1758. Unless this is
some sort of experimental thing, I wonder if one should doubt its
authenticity?
Here's a very long shot: Rauche and Hoffman sound like German names.
Rauche also published Straube. So we have a German connection. Wire-strung
instruments (tuned to a C major cord) were around in Germany at this
time - the strange-looking 'arch-citterns' of Klemm and Kram. Perhaps this
was an attempt to introduce these sort of instruments to Britain.(As
Lefevre tried to introduce the French 'arch-cittern in the 1790s). But
these German arch-citterns of the 1750s/1760s seem to have had four
double strings (on the first pegbox) and eight single strings on the
second. That's still only twelve courses.
(The preceding instrument also seems very fishy. Or it does to me, because
it looks like this French cistre pre-dates English guittars)
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