I believe that the instrument you describe was a chittarone -- a bass
cittern. It is depicted and described in the late David Munrow's
"Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance" (great album and book,
now OOP). It was flat-backed and wire strung.
Best,
Leonard Williams
-----Original Message-----
From: jsl...@mail.cs.dartmouth.edu
To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Fri, Aug 21, 2020 9:24 am
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Metal stringing on historical instruments
Dear All,
There's a drawing in Praetorius' Syntagma of what looks like an
archlute set up with end pins like a giant cittern.
Cheers,
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Carlin <[1]lsaq.edi...@gmail.com>
To: [2]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Sent: Thu, Aug 20, 2020 6:20 pm
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Metal stringing on historical instruments
Orpharions and Bandoras are the main wire-strung instruments - I
suspect
they were more popular in the renaissance than they are in modern
times.
Citterns were also strung with wire. We just had an interesting
article
in the LSA Quarterly (translated from an article the German Lute
Society
published) on theorboed bandoras that were probably used as continuo
instruments. These could possibly be related to wire-strung archlutes
or
theorboes - a topic that needs lots more research. I think there
might
be a few of these instruments that have pins to attach the strings
rather than the usual lute-type bridges. Maybe some of the luthiers
on
the list can comment on them
Nancy
> Dear collective wisdom,
>
> A friend of mine asked me about this topic.
>
> He would like to know If there is any literature or historical
> evidence, such as instruments in museums that used metal strings,
> mainly guitars, theorbos, lutes and archlutes.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Ricardo Arnt
>
> Enviado do meu smartphone Samsung Galaxy.
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [1][3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
Nancy Carlin
Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
[2][4]http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org
PO Box 6499
Concord, CA 94524
USA
925 / 686-5800
www.groundsanddivisions.info
www.nancycarlinassociates.com
--
References
1. [5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
2. [6]http://lutesocietyofamerica.org/
--
References
1. mailto:lsaq.edi...@gmail.com
2. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
4. http://lutesocietyofamerica.org/
5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
6. http://lutesocietyofamerica.org/
