Re: Fw: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne
dear tadeusz - would you please tell me what tuning you use for your reconstructed quinterne? thank you - bill
Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne
dear ed - how wonderful! my german is non existent and i can't seem to copy the main part of the text in order to put it in the altavista babelfish translation service. the article mentions a scooped out korpus similiar to those instruments found in s.america. i assume they're talking about a charango. was the body of this instrument of single-piece construction - like a citole - or assembled from several pieces of wood? (the tastiera seems to be of the same grain of wood as the face but there is a split where the two meet.) i've never heard of a quinterne before. i assume that implies 5 courses but i count 7 tuning pegs. www.classicalguitarmidi.com mentions it in context with the mandolin family. is a date mentioned? could it be the oldest surviving, wooden stringed instrument in europe? (john mortimer said that english people living in tuscany know entirely too much about their drains. i'm 100% yankee but i have to go outside and do something - alas - that will place me very firmly ...knee deep, as it were... amongst their number. no further communiques on this subject will be issued...) i'd much rather talk about this. thank you for bringing that to our attention. very exciting. sincerely - bill On Martedì, apr 6, 2004, at 14:09 Europe/Rome, Ed Margerum wrote: For those interested in medieval non-lute instruments there is a brief article (in German) with photo of an intact quinterne found in Danzig at http://www.theiss.de/AiD/2002/6/europa1.php The quinterne/guiterne was found a few years ago in a latrine together with a medieval fiddle and blockflute, and with a baroque kit. Ed Margerum
Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne
Dear Bill, Ed and All: The quintern or gittern is a type of four- or five-course treble lute. There's a surviving instrument in Eisenach, and it's mentioned in detail in Keith Polk's German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages and by Crawford Young in the recent handbook on medieval music compiled by Ross Duffin. George Stevens makes a nice copy, which you can view on his Web site. They're fun to play, like medieval mandolins! Yours, Jim bill [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: Ed Margerum [EMAIL PROTECTED] irgilio.it cc: LUTELIST [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne 04/06/2004 09:55 AM dear ed - how wonderful! my german is non existent and i can't seem to copy the main part of the text in order to put it in the altavista babelfish translation service. the article mentions a scooped out korpus similiar to those instruments found in s.america. i assume they're talking about a charango. was the body of this instrument of single-piece construction - like a citole - or assembled from several pieces of wood? (the tastiera seems to be of the same grain of wood as the face but there is a split where the two meet.) i've never heard of a quinterne before. i assume that implies 5 courses but i count 7 tuning pegs. www.classicalguitarmidi.com mentions it in context with the mandolin family. is a date mentioned? could it be the oldest surviving, wooden stringed instrument in europe? (john mortimer said that english people living in tuscany know entirely too much about their drains. i'm 100% yankee but i have to go outside and do something - alas - that will place me very firmly ...knee deep, as it were... amongst their number. no further communiques on this subject will be issued...) i'd much rather talk about this. thank you for bringing that to our attention. very exciting. sincerely - bill On Martedì, apr 6, 2004, at 14:09 Europe/Rome, Ed Margerum wrote: For those interested in medieval non-lute instruments there is a brief article (in German) with photo of an intact quinterne found in Danzig at http://www.theiss.de/AiD/2002/6/europa1.php The quinterne/guiterne was found a few years ago in a latrine together with a medieval fiddle and blockflute, and with a baroque kit. Ed Margerum
Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne
At 08:09 06-04-2004 -0400, Ed Margerum wrote: For those interested in medieval non-lute instruments there is a brief article (in German) with photo of an intact quinterne found in Danzig at http://www.theiss.de/AiD/2002/6/europa1.php The quinterne/guiterne was found a few years ago in a latrine together with a medieval fiddle and blockflute, and with a baroque kit. Ed Margerum Fine, it all goes to show what a lute-pioneering town old Elbingen was. Drusina's birth-town. Arne Keller.
Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne
Dear All: I looked at the photo and it is definitely a gittern/quinterne. Note the separate fingerboard, probably a harder material than the top. But the bridge looks far too wide for a four-course instrument? Any ideas? Yours, Jim Arne Keller [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: Ed Margerum [EMAIL PROTECTED], LUTELIST [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2.dkcc: Subject: Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne 04/06/2004 02:05 PM At 08:09 06-04-2004 -0400, Ed Margerum wrote: For those interested in medieval non-lute instruments there is a brief article (in German) with photo of an intact quinterne found in Danzig at http://www.theiss.de/AiD/2002/6/europa1.php The quinterne/guiterne was found a few years ago in a latrine together with a medieval fiddle and blockflute, and with a baroque kit. Ed Margerum Fine, it all goes to show what a lute-pioneering town old Elbingen was. Drusina's birth-town. Arne Keller.
Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne
to me, the grain on the piece of wood covering the fingerboard is the same as that of the soundboard. difficult to explain that seam though. in relation to my charango, the sound hole seems way too large for the body. maybe this and the exaggerated size of the bridge indicates a lack of finesse in the art of instrument making at that point. what woke me up at 5:30 in the morning was the stubby tastiera and the fact that it starts to expand almost immediately after the nut. must have been uncomfortable to play. i don't see how frets could have been applied. i'm also curious to know if, and how, the strings were attached at the bottom. any ideas on the quint in quinterne? unless it lost some pegs over the centuries, i count 7. the carved face at the top of the peg box looks celt. and so to bed (II) - bill On Martedì, apr 6, 2004, at 23:28 Europe/Rome, James A Stimson wrote: Dear All: I looked at the photo and it is definitely a gittern/quinterne. Note the separate fingerboard, probably a harder material than the top. But the bridge looks far too wide for a four-course instrument? Any ideas? Yours, Jim Arne Keller [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: Ed Margerum [EMAIL PROTECTED], LUTELIST [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2.dkcc: Subject: Re: Not a lute. Medieval Quintern/Guiterne 04/06/2004 02:05 PM At 08:09 06-04-2004 -0400, Ed Margerum wrote: For those interested in medieval non-lute instruments there is a brief article (in German) with photo of an intact quinterne found in Danzig at http://www.theiss.de/AiD/2002/6/europa1.php The quinterne/guiterne was found a few years ago in a latrine together with a medieval fiddle and blockflute, and with a baroque kit. Ed Margerum Fine, it all goes to show what a lute-pioneering town old Elbingen was. Drusina's birth-town. Arne Keller.
