Andrew Hartig wrote:
Dear all,
Some time back Andy Rutherford had told us about a manuscript book
(BMB4) in the Moravian Archives of Bethlehem, PA (USA) for 6-course
cittern, tuned GCEgbe. Andy managed to get over there to take some
photos, and after quite a few emails with the folks at the Moravian
Archives, I am pleased to announce that Andy's photographs of the
book are now available for public download from my web site.
I have compiled all of his photos into a single PDF (25 MB). You can
get to it from the "Music Files" page of the Renaissance Cittern
Site, http://cittern.theaterofmusic.com/musicfiles/ (scroll down to
the "box" for 18th century music), where perhaps you may also find
something else of interest.
Special thanks again to Lanie Graf and all the other fine people of
the Moravian Archives and Andy Rutherford for working together to
make this possible!
-Andrew
Very interesting and a great resource. Thanks Andrew. There's lots to
ponder. For example the funny little 11 sign, which is perhaps an
ornament. And these settings include the tune, as sung?
The chorale settings seem (after a quick look) quite full, with voice
leading etc. No 40 sounds vaguely familiar. Here's a quick recording on
a factory-made Russian guitar, but in the GCEgbe tuning. A lot of the
pieces are in C major, even though the tuning isn't fully chordal.
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/No40.mp3
And here's one of the little dance tunes at the end (with a rather
glaring mistake in the repeat of the second strain!):
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/Men3.mp3
I think it was Rob who said that James Tyler claimed that the English
guitar (guittar) has its origins in Germany. I haven't seen his
(Tyler's) Evora paper. I looked at a link to the Evora papers but it was
dead. Anyway, I think Germany is a likely contender for what got makers
in Britain going in the 1750s. But the cittern in Germany itself seems
not to have got involved in the 'guittar' fashion. And the music that
exists (as far as I know) is in 'old-fashioned' tablature. Boetticher
(if I've spelt his name correctly) mentions some four-course music
c.1750s and there's the Bunsold tablature and now this.
Stuart
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