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
I'm playing through the pieces, in the right tuning, but on a guitar.
I've got used to the tuning a bit more and I'm not pausing on the
fermata, so the line of the music is clearer (for me). At first I
thought that the music might be accompaniments but they're clearly hymn
tunes (apart from the minuets and polonaises at the end). A lot of
them sound almost familiar (but I haven't heard any hymns in decades),
some sound like carols and number 23 is 'In dulci jubilo'. They're
interesting to play - though you wouldn't want to play many at a time,
unless for devotional purposes. Presumably the player sang along?
I wonder if the MS is the work of a person producing arrangements for
his/her own interest or if the cittern could have been used for a small
number of people to sing along with?
I'm sure I've seen images from (roughly) the time of rather severe
looking people playing citterns and it's interesting to speculate
whether this was music they might have played.
Stuart
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