> On Feb 1, 2018, at 11:09 AM, Nancy Carlin <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Several years back there was an interview with Peter Forrester in the LSA > Quarterly that included a picture of that type of cittern, which I believe is > also called for in some Monteverdi. When I was studying musicology back c1970 > I took a class on Montederdi and the professor had no idea what a theorbo > really was and assumed that the theorboed cittern was just a mis-spelled > chitarrone.
Your prof may have been half right. Page 88 of the printed score of L’Orfeo, the last page of Act 4, says, “Tacciono li [?] Cornetti, Tromboni & Regali, & entrano a sonare il presente Ritornelli, le viole da braccio, Organi, Clauicembani [sic], contrabasso, & Arpe, & Chitaroni, & Ceteroni, & si muta la Sena.” So, in this ritornello that covers the scene change from the underworld to ours, the brass and regals that played in the underworld scenes are gone, replaced by the strings, wood organs, harpsichords, harp, theorbos and “ceteroni.” This is the only mention of the ceterone in a score that has unusually specific instructions about continuo instrumentation: the next page specifies “Duoi Organi di legno, & duoi Chitaroni" accompanying Orfeo’s recitative. The list of instruments at the front of the score does not mention any ceteroni. The ritornello on page 88 has already been heard at the beginning of Act 1 and the end of Act 2, and there’s no obvious reason why there should be a different sound on page 88. So there’s some question about whether Monteverdi really wanted ceteroni. One theory is that the printer misinterpreted “& Cetera” by which Monteverdi might have meant recorders and a pair of “violini piccoli alla Francese” that play elsewhere. Another theory might be that he really meant ceteroni, and the printer, compiling the instrument list, missed the sole mention. The instrument list also has two chitarroni where the score in one place mentions three. Or it could be that the ceteroni were intended for the original Act 5, in which the Baccanti tear Orfeo apart. It’s highly improbable that “Ceteroni” on page 88 would be a misspelled “Chitaroni,” coming right after a correctly spelled “Chitaroni” on the same line. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
