This one is still in storage. Stuart described a French one.
RT
______________
Roman M. Turovsky
http://polyhymnion.org/swv
 
> Last I knew, the English guitar in question was not on the floor, but in
> the archived collection.  Did you go "behind the scenes" while at the Met
> or is the piece now on the display floor?
> 
> The piece to which I was referring has a tortoise fingerboard edged in
> engraved mother of pearl with a floral motif, lute-like tuning pegs set in
> a sickle-shaped pegbox that terminates in a finial decorated like the
> fingerboard, a bowl shaped back of gloriously figured maple in excellent
> condition, and an ornate, elevated, almost harpsichord-like rose gilded in
> gold.  Other than the lute-like back and odd rose, the instrument was a
> stereotypical English guitar complete with that freaky, 10-string/6-course
> configuration and the typical holes through the neck for the screw-on
> capotasto.
> 
> Best,
> Eugene
> 
> 
> At 05:48 PM 9/20/2004, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> I went to the Met and saw this instrument - I think we?re talking about
>> the same one. I tried to take a picture but, without flash (which is
>> forbidden), it was impossible. I made notes - and have mislaid them!
>> 
>> I thought the instrument might be what J. Carpentier, writing in the
>> 1770s, calls a ?cythre en luth?. Cythres were normally wire-strung, with
>> the top four doubled but Carpentier mentions gut-strung, lute-shaped ones
>> too. These French instruments were normally tuned  in A rather than C and
>> so have longer string length than an 'English guitar'.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html



To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

Reply via email to