DOCSLIB.ORG

Musical Instruments All Rights Reserved

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INSTRUMENTS Ibietotic IRare anb IHnique THE SELECTION, INTRODUCTION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY A. J. HIPKINS, F.S.A. Lond. AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE "PIANOFORTE" IN THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA ILLUSTRATED BY A SERIES OF FORTY-EIGHT PLATES IN COLOURS DRAWN BY WILLIAM GIBB A. AND C. BLACK, LTD. 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. I 192 I First published in 1888. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION Page vii. BURGMOTE HORNS Plate I. QUEEN MARY'S HARP . n. THE LAMONT HARP . in. CORNEMUSE. CALABRlAN BAGPIPE. MUSETTE IV. BAGPIPES . • . V. CLAVICYTHERIUM OR UPRIGHT SPINET VI. OLIPHANT ' VII. QUEEN ELIZABETH'S VIRGINAL . VIII. QUEEN ELIZABETH'S LUTE IX. THE'RIZZIO GUITAR .... X. POSITIVE ORGAN .... XI. REGAL . ' . XII. PORTABLE ORGAN AND BIBLE REGAL XIII. CETERA XIV. LUTE XV. THEORBO . XVI. DULCIMER XVII, VIRGINAL . XVIII. VIOLA DA GAMBA XIX. DOUBLE SPINET OR VIRGINAL XX. The Woodcuts at the head of this page (from the British Museum) represent Sir Michael Mercator, of Venloo, Musical Instrument Maker to King Henry VIII, VI CONTENTS THREE CHITARRONI . XXI. SPINET XXII. QUINTERNA AND MANDOLINE XXIIL WELSH CRWTH. RUSSIAN BALALAIKA XXIV. VIOLIN—THE HELLIER STRADIVARIUS, and two old Bows noted FOR THE Fluting XXV. VIOLINS—THE ALARD STRADIVARIUS, THE KING JOSEPH GUARNERIUS DEL GESU XXVI. VIOLA D'AMORE .... XXVII. CETERA, BY ANTONIUS STRADIVARIUS . XXVIII. GUITAR, BY ANTONIUS STRADIVARIUS XXIX, BELL HARP AND HURDY-GURDY XXX. SORDINI XXXI. CLAVICHORD XXXII. THE EMPRESS HARPSICHORD XXXIII. PEDAL HARP XXXIV. STATE TRUMPET AND KETTLEDRUM . XXXV. CAVALRY BUGLE. CAVALRY TRUMPET. TRUMPETS XXXVI. LITUUS AND BUCCINA. CORNET. TRUMPETS XXXVII. TWO DOUBLE FLAGEOLETS, A GERMAN FLUTE, AND TWO FLUTES DOUCES . XXXVIII, DOLCIANO. OBOE. BASSOON. OBOE DA CACCIA. BASSET HORN XXXIX. SITARS AND VfNA XL. INDIAN DRUMS XLI. SAW DUANG AND BOW. SAW TAI AND BOW, SAW 00 AND BOW KLUI. PEE .-..•.. XLII. RANAT EK. KHONG YAI. TA'KHAY .... XLIII. HU-CH'IN AND BOW. SHENG. SAN-HSIEN. P'l-P'A XLIV. CHINESE TI-TZU, SO-NA, YUEH-CH'IN. JAPANESE HIJI-RIKI CHINESE LA-PA XLV. JAPANESE KOTO XLVI. SIAMISEN, KOKIU, BIWA XLVII. MARIMBA OF SOUTH AFRICA XLVIII. INDEX .... Page 117 INTRODUCTION. r is claimed for this book, intended to illustrate rare historical and beautiful Musical Instruments, that it is unique. Classical, Mediaeval, Japanese, and other varieties of Decorative Art, Weapons, and Costumes, have found worthy illustration and adequate description, but hitherto no attempt has been made to represent in a like manner the grace and external charm of fine lutes and harps, of viols, virginals, and other instruments. Engravings have been produced, in historical or technical works ; but the greater number of these are mere repetitions continued from one to the other, and have no specially aesthetic interest. Beauty of form and fitness of decoration demand more than the commonplace homage paid to simple use, and while we should never lose sight of the purpose of a musical instrument, its capacity to produce agreeable and various sounds, we can take advantage of its form and material, and, making it lovely to look upon, give pleasure to the eye as well as the ear. It is hardly necessary to say that the love of adornment or ornament is an attribute of the human race. It is to be found everywhere and in every epoch when life is, for the time being, safe and the means of existence secure. Some favourite manner of decoration is the characteristic stamp of a people, a period, or a country. The earliest monuments we can point to that represent musical instruments, show a tendency to adorn them or to place them with decorative surround- ings. The Egyptians, the Assyrians, the ancient Greeks supply a record that has been continued by the Persians and Saracens, in the Gothic age and the Renaissance, always repeating, as it were, in an ineffaceable script, the precept that the hand should minister to the gratification of the eye, and satisfy it by alternating excitement with repose. And so it was, until the marvellous mechanical advance in the present century has not only caused us to forget, by its over- whelming power, what our predecessors so steadfastly continued, but vn viii INTRODUCTION has induced us to regard the ugly as sufficient if the mere practical end is served. By thus chilling the appreciation and pursuit of decorative invention, that faculty has been numbed for the time being, and there is danger of its being lost altogether. It may be answered that real artistic work is occasionally done, and there are examples of it to be found in musical instruments ; a good organ case is sometimes made, sometimes a fine decoration for a piano case. If there is any hope of an awakening of the love for musical instruments that finds expression in their adornment, its promise lies in the beautiful designs that have been, of late years, so meri- toriously carried out for pianos—the invention of Mr. Alma Tadema, Mr. Burne Jones, Mr. Fox, and Miss Kate Faulkner. Good decora- tion need not be a privilege of the rich ; the old Antwerp clavecin- makers, who were all members of the guild of St. Luke, the artists' guild, knew how to worthily decorate their instruments at little cost, as may be seen in the Ruckers Virginal, Plate XVIII. They painted their sound-boards with appropriate ornamentation, and used bright colour to heighten the effect of their instruments when open. The Italians went even farther in richer details, and beautified other stringed instruments besides those with key-boards. The persist- ence of noble traditions is shown in the exquisite ornament of the Siamese instruments (Plates XLII. and XLIII.) and of the Japanese Koto (Plate XLVL). It would be grievous if this Eastern inherit- ance were lost through the engrafting of Western ideas and reception of our material civilisation. The incentive to all such work is the pleasure found in it, and without pleasure in work the life of the worker is aimless and sad. In describing musical instruments we can refer to no begin- those that nings ; may be discerned dimly in the glimmering of the historic dawn present a certain completeness that marks an intel- lectual advance already accomplished. The well-known Egyptian Nefer, a spade-like guitar, or rather tamboura, invited by its long neck the stopping of various notes upon its strings. As early as the Third Dynasty, it had already been so long in use as to have become incorporated in the pictorial language of the Hieroglyphics, in which its representation presented the concept or symbol of the INTRODUCTION ix attribute good. This stringed instrument, thus complex in its playing, must have been already grey with age when it was cut in stone in the monument of the beautiful Princess Nefer-t, now in the museum at Bulaq. We cannot conjecture when it was discovered that more tones than one could be got from a single string by taking advantage of the expedient of a long neck or finger-board, or from a single pipe hy boring lateral holes in it, and closing those holes to produce different notes with the fingers. Even these remote inventions, certainly prehistoric, seem to require that there should be yet older inventions—those which placed pipes or strings of different lengths, or strings of the same length but of different thicknesses and tension, side by side, as in the syrinx or Pan's pipes, or the harp and lyre. The late Carl Engel, Music of the Most Ancient Nations (London, 1864), has formed a kind of Development theory for musical instruments, giving the earliest place to the drum, and the latest to the stringed instruments; those of the latter with key- boards having been invented almost in our own time. This theory has lately been reconstructed upon a more scientific basis by Mr. ^Qm\iQ>'iV2xa.KHistory of Music, vq\. i., London, 1885). The drum and tambourine, and other clashing and mere time-marking instruments, as sistrums, cymbals, castagnettes, and triangles, are on the limit of musical sound and noise, inclining, for the most part, to the latter. The drum is widely used in religious services in different parts of the world, and to play the sistrum was in ancient Egypt the prerogative of a high order of priesthood. The various Buddhist gongs resemble the kettledrums in this respect, that they have a more definable musical element in them, and we find these sonorous metal instruments widely used in China and the Indo-Chinese countries, in Java, and the Indian Archipelago. The Indian drums (Plate XLL), according to the theory just mentioned, should be aboriginal, but the most ancient, the M'ridang, is attributed to the god S'iva, and is therefore Aryan. Her Majesty here adorned with a the Queen's State Kettledrum (Plate XXXV.) highest point richly embroidered silk banneret, serves to show the a much higher the drum has yet attained in estimation and use. On X INTRODUCTION in those instru- level is that arrangement of wooden or metal bars ments classed generally as Harmonicons, which are especially at from the home in Java, Siam, and Burma, and are known to be used Hill country of India in the one direction, to Africa in the other. The beautiful Siamese Ranat and Khong (Plate XLIII.) andthe Zulu Marimba (Plate XLVIII.) are examples of this wide distribution, and the in the latter the gourd resonators attached to the bars show simplest form of sound reinforcers, which, perfected in various Eastern instruments, such as the Indian Vinas and Sitars (Plate XL.) has in Europe attained its crowning artistic development in the beautiful pear-shaped Resonance bodies of the Lute and Mandoline.
Recommended publications
  • The Science of String Instruments

    The Science of String Instruments

    The Science of String Instruments Thomas D. Rossing Editor The Science of String Instruments Editor Thomas D. Rossing Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Stanford, CA 94302-8180, USA [email protected] ISBN 978-1-4419-7109-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-7110-4 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7110-4 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer ScienceþBusiness Media (www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction............................................................... 1 Thomas D. Rossing 2 Plucked Strings ........................................................... 11 Thomas D. Rossing 3 Guitars and Lutes ........................................................ 19 Thomas D. Rossing and Graham Caldersmith 4 Portuguese Guitar ........................................................ 47 Octavio Inacio 5 Banjo ...................................................................... 59 James Rae 6 Mandolin Family Instruments........................................... 77 David J. Cohen and Thomas D. Rossing 7 Psalteries and Zithers .................................................... 99 Andres Peekna and Thomas D.
  • Electric & Acoustic Guitar Strings: a Recording of Harmonic Content

    Electric & Acoustic Guitar Strings: a Recording of Harmonic Content

    Electric & Acoustic Guitar Strings: A Recording of Harmonic Content Ryan Lee, Graduate Researcher Electrical & Computer Engineering Department University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign In conjunction with Professor Steve Errede and the Department of Physics Friday, January 10, 2003 2 Introduction The purpose of this study was to analyze the harmonic content and decay of different guitar strings. Testing was done in two parts: 80 electric guitar strings and 145 acoustic guitar strings. The goal was to obtain data for as many different brands, types, and gauges of strings as possible. Testing Each string was tested only once, in brand new condition (unless otherwise noted). Once tuned properly, each string was plucked with a bare thumb in two different positions. For the electric guitar, the two positions were at the top of the bridge pickup and at the top of the neck pickup. For the acoustic guitar, the two positions were at the bottom of the sound hole and at the top of the sound hole. The signal path for the recording of an electric guitar string was as follows: 1994 Gibson SG Standard to ¼” input on a Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) 896 to a computer (via firewire). Steinberg’s Cubase VST 5.0 was the software used to capture the .wav files. The 1999 Taylor 410CE acoustic guitar was recorded in an anechoic chamber. A Bruel & Kjær 4145 condenser microphone was connected directly to a Sony TCD-D8 portable DAT recorder (via its B&K preamp, power supply, and cables). Recording format was mono, 48 kHz, and 16- bit.
  • Breedlove Owner's Manual

    Breedlove Owner's Manual

    1 BREEDLOVE Owner’s MANUAL Breedlove Owner’s Manual TABLE OF CONTENTS A Note From Kim Breedlove 4 How To Experience Breedlove 7 Humidity, Temperature and Solid Wood Instruments 8 Neck Truss Rod Adjustment 10 Breedlove Bridge Truss 12 Adjustment Bolt Sizes for Breedlove Instruments 14 Steel-String Acoustic Guitar Set Up Specifications 15 Changing Strings on your Breedlove Guitar 16 Breedlove Mandolins 17 Electronics Configurations for Acoustic Guitars 19 Cleaning Your Breedlove Instrument 19 Breedlove Factory String Specifications 22 Breedlove Warranty 22 Keep a record of your Breedlove Guitar 25 5 THANK YOU Thank you for purchasing your new Breedlove instrument. You are now the caretaker of a fine stringed instrument. Every instrument we produce is special to us and we hope it will bring you many years of enjoyment. To preserve the remarkable tone and playability of your Breedlove we have some simple suggestions to help ensure that your instrument will be making beautiful music for years to come. Should you ever have questions or concerns please send us an email at: [email protected] Sincerely, Kim Breedlove 5 DISTINCTIVELY CRafted SOUND. We love what we do. After all, it’s in our name. We are master luthiers who create instruments of true distinction. It’s in our DNA to push the boundaries of design and craftsmanship. Being different is never the easy path. But in our view, it has far greater rewards. And while we respect tradition, we simply choose not to make instruments of yesterday. Imagination compels us to make instruments of tomorrow. 7 Welcome to the Breedlove family where you are about to experience the highest quality craftsmanship, customer service and an unmatched passion for music and fine instruments.
  • A Brief Survey of Plucked Wire-Strung Instruments, 15Th-18Th Centuries - Part Two

    A Brief Survey of Plucked Wire-Strung Instruments, 15Th-18Th Centuries - Part Two

    The Wire Connection By Andrew Hartig A Brief Survey of Plucked Wire-Strung Instruments, 15th-18th Centuries - Part Two Wire-Strung Instruments in the 16th Century ment and was used in a multitude of countries and regions. Al- Most of the wire-strung instruments from the 15th century though most players today think of the cittern as a single type of discussed in part one — such as the harpsichord, psaltery, and instrument, there were in fact many different types, each signifi- Irish harp — continued to be used on a regular basis throughout cantly different enough from the others so as to constitute separate the 16th century (and they would continue to be used into the 18th). instruments. However, almost all citterns have in common a tuning The major exception to this was the Italian cetra, which disap- characterized by the intervals of a 5th between the third and second peared at the end of the 15th century only to evolve into many dif- courses and a major 2nd between the second and first courses, and ferent forms of citterns. one or more re-entrantly tuned strings. Historically, the 16th century heralds the beginning of ma- jor shifts in thinking that led to experimentation and innovation Diatonic 6- and 7-Course Cittern in many aspects of life. Times were changing: from the discovery This was the earliest form of cittern used, possibly devel- of the “New World” that had begun at the end of the 15th century, oped from the cetra late in the 15th or early in the 16th century, and to the shifts in politics, power, religion, and gender roles that oc- it was definitely still in use into the 17th century.
  • Antonio Stradivari "Servais" 1701

    Antonio Stradivari "Servais" 1701

    32 ANTONIO STRADIVARI "SERVAIS" 1701 The renowned "Servais" cello by Stradivari is examined by Roger Hargrave Photographs: Stewart Pollens Research Assistance: Julie Reed Technical Assistance: Gary Sturm (Smithsonian Institute) In 184.6 an Englishman, James Smithson, gave the bines the grandeur of the pre‑1700 instrument with US Government $500,000 to be used `for the increase the more masculine build which we could wish to and diffusion of knowledge among men.' This was the have met with in the work of the master's earlier beginning of the vast institution which now domi - years. nates the down‑town Washington skyline. It includes the J.F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts and the Something of the cello's history is certainly worth National Zoo, as well as many specialist museums, de - repeating here, since, as is often the case, much of picting the achievements of men in every conceiv - this is only to be found in rare or expensive publica - able field. From the Pony Express to the Skylab tions. The following are extracts from the Reminis - orbital space station, from Sandro Botticelli to Jack - cences of a Fiddle Dealer by David Laurie, a Scottish son Pollock this must surely be the largest museum violin dealer, who was a contemporary of J.B. Vuil - and arts complex anywhere in the world. Looking laume: around, one cannot help feeling that this is the sort While attending one of M. Jansen's private con - of place where somebody might be disappointed not certs, I had the pleasure of meeting M. Servais of Hal, to find the odd Strad! And indeed, if you can manage one of the most renowned violoncellists of the day .
  • Extracting Vibration Characteristics and Performing Sound Synthesis of Acoustic Guitar to Analyze Inharmonicity

    Extracting Vibration Characteristics and Performing Sound Synthesis of Acoustic Guitar to Analyze Inharmonicity

    Open Journal of Acoustics, 2020, 10, 41-50 https://www.scirp.org/journal/oja ISSN Online: 2162-5794 ISSN Print: 2162-5786 Extracting Vibration Characteristics and Performing Sound Synthesis of Acoustic Guitar to Analyze Inharmonicity Johnson Clinton1, Kiran P. Wani2 1M Tech (Auto. Eng.), VIT-ARAI Academy, Bangalore, India 2ARAI Academy, Pune, India How to cite this paper: Clinton, J. and Abstract Wani, K.P. (2020) Extracting Vibration Characteristics and Performing Sound The produced sound quality of guitar primarily depends on vibrational char- Synthesis of Acoustic Guitar to Analyze acteristics of the resonance box. Also, the tonal quality is influenced by the Inharmonicity. Open Journal of Acoustics, correct combination of tempo along with pitch, harmony, and melody in or- 10, 41-50. https://doi.org/10.4236/oja.2020.103003 der to find music pleasurable. In this study, the resonance frequencies of the modelled resonance box have been analysed. The free-free modal analysis was Received: July 30, 2020 performed in ABAQUS to obtain the modes shapes of the un-constrained Accepted: September 27, 2020 Published: September 30, 2020 sound box. To find music pleasing to the ear, the right pitch must be set, which is achieved by tuning the guitar strings. In order to analyse the sound Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and elements, the Fourier analysis method was chosen and implemented in Scientific Research Publishing Inc. MATLAB. Identification of fundamentals and overtones of the individual This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International string sounds were carried out prior and after tuning the string. The untuned License (CC BY 4.0).
  • Spring 2003 Issue (PDF)

    Spring 2003 Issue (PDF)

    N O T E S F R O M ZAMIR SPRING 2003 THE M AGAZINE OF THE Z AMIR C HORALE The Food of Italian Jews, page 27 OF B OSTON Zamir’s Mission to Israel, page 31 The Jews of Italy: A Paper Symposium MUSICA EBRAICA In 1622 the Venetian rabbi Leon Modena wrote, “No longer will arrogant opponents heap scorn on the Hebrew folk. They will see that it too pos- sesses talent, the equal of the best endowed.” What kind of scorn had Modena experienced? In 1611 Thomas Coryat published a book about his impressions of Venice. He referred to the sing- ing in the synagogue as “exceeding loud yelling, indecent roar- ing, and as it were a beastly bellowing.” What was the basis for Modena’s optimism? “There has arisen in Israel, thank God, a very talented man, versed in the singer’s skill, who has performed music before princes, yea, dukes and nobles. He set the words of the psalms to music or- ganized in harmony, designating them for joyous song before the Ark.” Salamone Rossi, That man was the Jewish composer Salamone Rossi, who, the Mystery Man of Jewish Art Music Composers in 1622, produced the first book of its kind: a stunning setting by Don Harrán 5 of the synagogue service. “He is more talented than any other Rabbis, Politics, and Music: man, not only those of our own people, for he has been com- Leon Modena and Salamone Rossi pared with, and considered the equal of, many of the famous by Howard Tzvi Adelman 8 men of yesterday among the families of the earth.” Lord & Tailor: As we listen to Rossi’s music we become aware of the ex- Fashioning Images of Jews in Renaissance Italy traordinary accomplishments of the Jews in Renaissance Italy.
  • The Lute Society Microfilm Catalogue Version 2 12/13 the List Is Divided by Instrument. Works for Renaissance Lute with Voice A

    The Lute Society Microfilm Catalogue Version 2 12/13 the List Is Divided by Instrument. Works for Renaissance Lute with Voice A

    The Lute Society Microfilm Catalogue Version 2 12/13 The list is divided by instrument. Works for Renaissance lute with voice and in ensemble are separated because of the size of the main list. The categories are: Renaissance lute Renaissance lute with voice Renaissance lute in ensemble (with other instruments) Lute in transitional tunings (accords nouveaux) Vihuela Baroque lute Renaissance guitar Baroque guitar Bandora Cittern Mandore Orpharion Theorbo Musical scores without plucked instrument tablature Theoretical works without music The 'Other instruments' column shows where there is music in the work for other listed instruments. The work also appears in the other list(s) for ease of reference. The list is sorted by composer or compiler, where known. Anonymous manuscripts are listed at the end of each section, sorted by shelf mark. Date references are to HM Brown Instrumental Music printed before 1600. Where the date is asterisked the work is not in Brown. Tablature style is shown as French (F), German (G), Italian (I), Inverted Italian (II) or Keyboard (K) The Collection and MCN fields identify each reel and the collection to which it belongs. Renaissance Lute Other Composer/ Compiler Title Shelf Mark or HMB Tab Format Coll MCN Duplicates Notes Instrument(s) Intabolatura di Julio Abondante Sopra el Julio Abondante 1546 I Print MP 59 Lauto Libro Primo 1 Julio Abondante Intabolatura di Lauto Libro Secondo 15481 I Print MP 60 GC 195 Intabolatura di liuto . , novamente Julio Abondante ristampati, Libro primo 15631 I Print MP 62 GC 194,
  • December 1984

    December 1984

    MODERN DRUMMER VOL. 8, NO. 12 Cover Photo by Layne Murdock CONTENTS FEATURES TERRY BOZZIO Although his work with such artists as Frank Zappa, the Brecker Brothers, and UK established Terry Bozzio's reputation as a fine drummer, his work with Missing Persons has revealed that there is more to Bozzio than was demonstrated in those other situations. Here, he talks about the hard work that went into starting his own band, explains his feelings that drummers should be more visible, and details his self-designed electronic drumset. by Rick Mattingly 8 OMAR HAKIM The fact that Weather Report and David Bowie have been sharing the same drummer says a lot about Omar Hakim's versatility, especially when one considers the wide range of styles that each of those situations encompasses. But Hakim's background prepared him well for the many diverse musical settings he has encountered, and he recounts that background in this amiable discussion of his life and career. by Robin Tolleson 14 INSIDE CALATO by Rick Van Horn 18 IAN PAICE The drummer for Deep Purple reminisces about the group's formation, discusses the band's reunion after an eight-year breakup, and describes Deep Purple's effect on today's music. He also talks about his experiences as the drummer for Whitesnake and Gary Moore, and explains the differences in playing with a guitar-oriented versus a vocal-oriented band. by Robyn Flans 22 TRISTAN FRY Modest Virtuoso by Simon Goodwin 26 DRIVER'S SEAT COLUMNS Phrasing With A Big Band PROFILES by Mark Hurley 112 PORTRAITS EDUCATION JAZZ DRUMMERS WORKSHOP Allen Herman New Concepts For Improved by Don Perman 30 THE MUSICAL DRUMMER Performance Chord Changes—Part 2 by Laura Metallo, Ph.D.
  • The Renaissance Cittern

    The Renaissance Cittern

    The Renaissance Cittern Lord Aaron Drummond, OW [email protected] 1. HISTORY,DEVELOPMENT, CONSTRUC- while chromatic citterns are more associated with Italian TION and English music. [3] As far as the body of the instrument goes, citoles and ear- The Renaissance cittern most likely developed from the lier citterns had the back, ribs and neck carved from a single medieval citole. The citole was a small, flat-backed instru- block of wood with the soundboard and fingerboard being ment with four strings. It was usually depicted as having added. Later citterns were constructed from a flat back, frets and being plucked with a quill or plectrum. The citole bent ribs and separately carved neck, which cut down on in turn may have developed from a kind of ancient lyre called the materials cost. [10] Constructed citterns differ in con- a kithara by adding a fingerboard and then gradually remov- struction from lutes in that in citterns the back is made ing the (now redundant) arms. [1] The cittern may have been from a single flat piece of wood, whereas the lute has a large viewed as a revival of the ancient Greek instrument despite number (typically ten or more) of ribs which must be sep- being quite different in form. The word kithara also evolved arately bent and joined to the achieve the \bowl" shape. into the modern word guitar. This made lutes substantially more difficult to build as well Some modern instruments such as the German waldzither as more delicate than the cittern. Internally there are braces (literally `forest-cittern') and various Iberian instruments to strengthen the back and the soundboard, but like the lute, (Portuguese guitar, bandurria, etc) claim some descent from guitar, viol, etc there is no soundpost or bass bar.
  • Who's Afraid of the Diatonic Cittern?

    Who's Afraid of the Diatonic Cittern?

    The Wire Connection By Andrew Hartig Who’s Afraid of the Diatonic Cittern? Of all the period wire-strung instruments I play or have F G A B [C]. This is true for any major scale in any key, e.g. F G A played, my favorite by far is the Franco-Flemish 4-course diatonic Bb C D E [F]. Despite the flattening of the “B” in a F-major scale, cittern. However, it is an instrument that very few early music enthu- each note name (A through G) is used only once or in one quality siasts have taken up, and it is met with strange stares by musicians or form (natural, flat, or sharp). Furthermore, one is not limited to and early music enthusiasts alike more times than I care to recount. major keys: one could change the starting note of each scale and, But what can one expect? Even the spell-check on my computer’s using only the natural (white) keys of the piano, still have a diatonic word processor suggests diabolic as a correction for diatonic! scale—which is exactly how jazz gets its various modes. The im- That said, the diatonic cittern’s general neglect by the early portant component here is that the notes of the scale are comprised music community today is decidedly undeserved. Diatonic fretting of only one kind or quality of note per note name—in other words, was not a passing fad or an archaism that was quickly replaced by chromatic fretting. Rather, the diatonic fretting pattern was used on citterns from the earliest decades of the 16th century through the end of the 18th––even though chromatic fretting was used on the Figure 1: Diatonic cittern from Pierre Phalèse and Jean Bellère’s Hortulus Cytharae, 1570.
  • Ecg1151 EJF2017 FINAL.Indd

    Ecg1151 EJF2017 FINAL.Indd

    14-23 July 2017 edinburghjazzfestival.com Welcome to our 2017 Festival. Blues from America For ten summer days Edinburgh will be Hamilton Loomis - p17 alive with uplifting music. years from the fi rst jazz recordings, we celebrate the Centenary of Jazz with a 100range of unique performances and special events. Jazz has been intertwined with blues since its origins and our blues programme, delves into the history of the music and showcases the musicians who are updating the tradition. Across both idioms and those around and in-between, this year’s programme off ers styles for all tastes – from bop to boogie to blues-rock; and from samba to swing to soul. International acts rub shoulders with homegrown talent and rising stars. Check out your favourites, of course, but we encourage you to get into the spirit of the Festival and try something new – you’re likely to discover a hidden gem! There are strong themes running through the programme: Jazz 100 marks the Centenary of jazz with a host of historic concerts Scottish Jazz Expo celebrates Scottish musicians take on that history, new Scottish bands and collaborations The Sound of New Orleans New Orleans comes to Edinburgh as we feature a host of musicians from the Soul Brass Band - p25 birthplace of jazz Cross The Tracks crosses the boundaries between jazz and contemporary urban music. And let yourself be transported by another Festival star – our venues! Dance under the magic mirrors of a grandiose cabaret tent located at the foot of Edinburgh Castle; enjoy the sumptuous surroundings and acoustics of Festival Theatre; get a great listening experience in the newly refurbished Rose Theatre, or drop in to the Traverse Café Bar - turned hip jazz joint.