Hi Stuart,
Yes, the terms for plucked instruments are confusing all the
time. Even
this day - if you say guitar, some people think of the electric,
other
of the jazz, folk or even other instruments... However, I believe
you
mixed up something in my argument. The English guit(t)ar I simply
mentioned as an example of confusing names for instruments - which
point you clearly got.
However, I'm not linking that (English) "guitar" but the
cittern-type
by the name "gittern" to the medieval gittern. If you're really
interested, I might dig up my original article about it - where I
link
it to the Praetorius section of the "klein Englisch Zitterlein".
Ward's
book is a good starting point in any case, to trace it's first
introduction to England in 1550 and later developments.
Kind regards,
Pieter
_______________________________________________________________________
Van: "WALSH STUART" <[email protected]>
Verzonden: dinsdag 29 januari 2013 20:35
Aan: "William Samson" <[email protected]>
Onderwerp: [LUTE] Re: 6c guittar
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
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References
1. http://youtu.be/N3YaFJxWCXk
2. http://youtu.be/N3YaFJxWCXk
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