On 18/02/2011 11:52, Monica Hall wrote:
Those of you who belong to the Lute Society will have received the
latest number of Lute News. (Apologies to those of you who aren't
members). This has a reproduction of the portrait of the actress
Dorothy Jordan playing an arch-cittern - which looks a bit
like an English guitar with additional diapasons. There is a
commentary by Peter Holman.
It's not an arch-cittern, which would typically have four pairs of wire
strings at the top and descending single basses. As the article says,
'lutes' were around at the time and would mean indicate something tuned
to a major chord. There were 'lutes', harp-lutes (not to be confused
with later harp-lutes!), harp-lute-guitars, but now with single gut
strings, not wire. Some instruments were tuned to an E flat major
chord, but the music is written in C.
The other question is about the music on p.7. I'm assuming that both
parts are supposed to be played on a single instrument. If so the
notes on the lower stave will occasionally overlap with those on the
upper stave. Are we supposed to read the lower stave an octave lower?
This looks exactly like a song arranged for TWO instruments - two
English guitars (guittars) or equivalents And at the same pitch). The
music for these later instruments with extra basses around 1800, or the
music I've seen, is very simple and uses some of the simplest music
originally arranged for the English guitar, now out of fashion.
Stuart
Hope I have made myself clear.
Monica
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