In einer eMail vom 21.03.2008 08:37:17 Westeuropaische Normalzeit schreibt [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
according to him "Guitar is in reality a cittern which had lots of transformations during many centuries. This is not an instrument of the lute family." I don't have the organologic knowledges to be opposite at this affirmation, but i must say that I don't believed him very much. Can we talk on the list about this topic, I am very interested to read the others ideas on the question Hello, Damien, I don't believe this statement either. It just doesn't make sense. First of all, he says a guitar is not "an instrument of the lute family". I'm always very cautious with the word "family", because it suggests parents, children and grandchildren. There are three uses of the word "lute": 1. The Renaissance and baroque instument that John Dowland played, and that Bach wrote some pieces for; 2. A stringed instrument with a half-pear-shaped body, like 1. above. You could call a mandolin a "small lute-type" instrument; 3. Any stringed instrument that has a resonant body and strings stopped against a neck - as opposed to harps, psalteries or lyres. In this sense, Renaissance lutes, but also guitars, citterns, mandolins, sitars, and also banjos and samsens are "lutes". (Organologist's definition) By definition 3, the guitar is definitely is a lute. By definition 1, it is definitely NOT a lute - no discussion! So what does your informant mean? Definition 2? No, because the typical half-pear shape of the lute is not there. The "Lute" as in Definition 3 is a "configuration" for stringed instruments. Very abstract. Resonant body, neck and stopped strings. It is implemented in many cultures, with the materials available, and the details reflect the musical tastes of the respective culture. Here in Europe, we have a few indigenous ways of building a resonant body: 1. A softwood belly and a flat hardwood back, joined by verical hardwood ribs to form a box 2. A softwood belly with a bowl-shaped back built of hardwood staves 3. A mixture of these: a softwood belly with vertical ribs and a convex back built of staves 4. A softwood belly with a carved back forming the box The guitar and many types of cittern are of the first type. But not all citterns are of this type - some are types 3 or 4! Lutes proper, mandolins, etc. are of the second type. So guitars are in this respect more like citterns than like lutes. But then there are the strings. In Europe we have: Materials: 1. Gut or nylon 2. Wire Arrangement: 1. Single-course 2. Multiple-course Tunings: (Too numerous to mention!) Further interesting details are the form of bridge: floating (usually with wire strings) or fixed (usually with gut/nylon strings); and the body outline: tear-drop or figure-of-8; fret type; and the string length and overall size. Each of the instuments that have become established in musical life, now or in the past, has its own paradigm, which is built up with the features mentioned above. Like an Identikit picture that the police make of a suspect. Put together an Identikit picture of the lute and the cittern - now, does the guitar fit either of them? Lute: Bowl body, fixed bridge, gut strings, double courses, long string scale, tied frets, tuning in 4ths around a 3rd. Cittern: Flat/convex/carved back, floating bridge, wire strings, double courses, medium string scale, wire frets. Tuning re-entrant (earlier) / open-chord (later). Guitar (classical/Spanish form): flat back, fixed bridge, gut/nylon strings, single courses, long string scale, wire frets, tuned in 4ths around a 3rd. So, of 7 features, the guitar shares 2 with some citterns citterns (flat back, wire frets) and 4 with the lute (fixed bridge, gut strings, string scale and tuning type). So as an organologist, I'd have to say that the guitar is an independent sub-category of the fretted stringed instruments, on a level with the lute and the cittern. Two or four common features out of seven are not enough to call a "family likeness". But it has more similarity with the lute! Also as a player, I'd probably say that the guitar is more similar to the lute than it is to the cittern - which is the opposite of what your informant said! Hope this helps! Cheers, John -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
