On 29/01/2013 18:11, William Samson wrote:
What a gorgeous sound!
Now are you SURE it's a 'guittar'? Not a Gittariglia? Or a
Kitherone? Or a Banjino Scotsese? Or a Mandolele Giorgio Formbyana?
Or a Strattolino Hankus B. Marviniensis?. . .
I've just left a compliment to Rob on youtube. So, now, to get back to
arguing. I think Pieter was hinting at an argument that the 'English
guitar' (dunno how Rob how got himself to actually write those words
out!) is a descendant of the medieval gittern. He (Pieter) might have
been suggesting that even as late as the 18th century, the terms guitar,
guittar, gittern etc etc etc for people in Britain didn't simply, or
only, or even most naturally, mean the figure-of-eight thing. (The
insistence, today, of the double tt spelling of 'guittar' rather than
'guitar' to somehow show that the English guitar isn't really a guitar,
would, I think have baffled people at the time of its popularity.)
Today we think it is so odd that 18th century Brits called the English
guitar (a sort of cittern) a common guitar, a lesser guitar, a guitar,
guittar (and quite a few other names).At the time, though, they might
not have thought it so odd because they didn't have the concept that the
only possible thing an instrument called a guitar, guittar, gittern etc
etc must be the figure-of-eight, 'Spanish' guitar.
It's arbitrary that we have settled on one spelling (in English) -
"guitar", and one form, the figure-of-eight body type, from all the
names in the past with which it stood on equal footing - guitern,
gittern, guittar, gytron etc etc etc which might have meant at different
times, lute-like things, cittern-like things and figure-of-eight
thingies. So today, when we see the word 'guitar' we are apt to think
the instrument 'must' be a figure-of-eight instrument (at the very
least). But this can mislead us about the past.
And this is what I understand R. Meucci to be saying about the Italian
word, 'chitarra' (and variant spellings of it).
Stuart
Looking forward to hearing it in the flesh on Saturday at the Scottish
Lute and Early Guitar Society meeting!
Bill
From: Rob MacKillop <[email protected]>
To: Lute <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 17:37
Subject: [LUTE] 6c guittar
Just to get us away from all the bickering...
[1][1]http://youtu.be/N3YaFJxWCXk
Rob
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References
1. [2]http://youtu.be/N3YaFJxWCXk
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References
1. http://youtu.be/N3YaFJxWCXk
2. http://youtu.be/N3YaFJxWCXk
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
