Another couple to ponder - the little lute-shaped instrument on top of
the Italian virginals has nine pegs I think - so another illustration
of a 5-courser.
[1]http://sdrv.ms/WcD8fZ
Then there's the famous engraving by Durer (1525) showing a lute. Up
until now I'd assumed it was a 6c lute, but counting the pegs there
only seem to be seven of them. Would Durer get that wrong? I
wouldn't have thought the meticulous Durer would be careless like
that. So here we have a 4c lute-shaped instrument at a very early
date.
Bill
From: WALSH STUART <[email protected]>
To: William Samson <[email protected]>
Cc: Lute List <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 12:51
Subject: [LUTE] Re: 4c guitar in Italy (= Italian gittern?)etc
On 29/01/2013 09:45, William Samson wrote:
> By the way, for what it's worth, I've attempted to measure the
string
> length of the 4c instrument the boy is playing in the first image,
> assuming a pupil separation of about 7cm. It comes out at
something
> like 55 - 60 cm. Not accurate, but a ballpark figure.
>
> Bill
>
> --
>
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> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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The chitarra Italiana on p.91 of 'The Lute in Europe 2' has: 59.5 cms.
I thought that this was overall length but I think it means string
length. This instrument has nine pegs and presumably five pegs. Bill's
latest find is also a five-course lute-like instrument (next to a
rather dodgy looking psaltery). Bill's earlier image - the rather
androgynous-looking boy (liminal instrument for a liminal creature) -
is a four-course instrument. All three are not exactly small...
It helps me, anyway, to think of chitarra Italiana as 'Italian
gittern'. I'm sure that this is what R.Meucci is arguing: that the
chitarra Italiana is a descendent of, or a part of a continuing
tradition, of gittern making and playing going far back.
Well, I can see how he (and others) will say that the mandore is quite
different from the chitarra Italiana. Mandores are piddlers and these
three examples (if they are so) of the chitarra Italiana are much
larger.Mandores came in different sizes - but they are all much, much
smaller than thse three instruments.
But: what is the story of the fact that they are so big, that they go
so big? Medieval gitterns came in different sizes too - small and tiny.
My lute in G has a string length of 60cms. So the chitarra Italiana is
about the same size as a Renaissance lute? That seems very odd.
If the chitarra Italiana is related in some way to the old medieval
gittern, how is it related?
Stuart
--
References
1. http://sdrv.ms/WcD8fZ
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
