Cittern - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The cittern or cither is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval Citole

Citole

Citole, also spelled Sytole, Cytiole, Gytolle, etc. , an archaic musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain. It is generally shown as a four-string instrument, with a body generally referred to as "holly-leaf" shaped...

, or Cytole. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki

Irish bouzouki

The Irish bouzouki is a development of the octave mandolin adapted for Irish traditional and other folk music from the late 1960s onward.-Adoption for Celtic music:...

and cittern. Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by all classes, the cittern was a premier instrument of casual music making much as is the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

today.

Pre-modern citterns

The cittern is one of the few metal-strung instruments known from the Renaissance period. It generally has four courses (single, pairs or threes) of strings, one or more course being usually tuned in octaves, though instruments with more or fewer courses were made. The cittern may have a range of only an octave between its lowest and highest strings and employs a "re-entrant" tuning - a tuning in which the string that is physically uppermost is not the lowest, as is also the case with the five-string banjo for example. The tuning and narrow range allow the player a number of simple chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

shapes useful for both simple song accompaniment and dances, however much more complex music was written for it. Its bright and cheerful timbre make it a valuable counterpoint to gut-strung instruments. The bandore (or bandora), an English

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

bass instrument are forms of cittern. The Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

bandurria
Bandurria
The bandurria is a plectrum chordophone from Spain, similar to the cittern and the mandolin, primarily used in Spanish folk music.Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had with a round back, similar or related to the mandore. It had become a flat-backed instrument by the 18th century, with five...

, still used today, is a similar instrument.

From the 16th until the 18th century the cittern was a common English

Kingdom of Great Britain

barber shop

Barber

A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....

instrument, kept in waiting areas for customers to entertain themselves and others with, and popular sheet music

Sheet music

Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...

for the instrument was published to that end. The top of the pegbox was often decorated with a small carved head, perhaps not always of great artistic merit; references exist in Shakespeare's Love's Labour Lost.

Just as the lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

was enlarged and bass-extended to become the theorbo

Theorbo

A theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second pegboxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French théorbe des pièces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angélique or angelica. The etymology of the name...

and chitarrone for continuo

Figured bass

Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...

work, so the cittern was developed into the ceterone

Ceterone

The Ceterone was an enlarged and bass-extended cittern, the counterpart of the chitarrone as a development of the lute, which may have dated from the 1520s, but no firm evidence exists for it before the end of that century....

, with its extended neck and unstopped bass strings, though this was a much less common instrument.

In Germany the cittern survives under the names Waldzither and Lutherzither. The last name comes from the belief that Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

played this instrument. Also, the names Thüringer Waldzither in Thüringer Wald, Harzzither in the Harz mountains, Halszither in German-speaking Switzerland are used. There is a tendency in modern German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

to interchange the words for cittern and zither

Zither

The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary citera, northwestern Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...

. The term waldzither

Waldzither

The Waldzither is a stringed instrument from Germany, a type of cittern.It has 9 strings in 5 courses and is tuned C, G G, C C, E E, G G. The strings are made of Steel.-References:* * * *...

came into use around 1900, in order to distinguish citterns from zithers.

Modern citterns

The cittern family survives into the present day in the German 'waldzither', the Corsican Cetara

Cetara

Cetara is a town and comune in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. It is located in the territory of the Amalfi Coast.-History:The village was originally a settlement for a group of armed Muslims in 880...

, Spanish Bandurria

Bandurria

The bandurria is a plectrum chordophone from Spain, similar to the cittern and the mandolin, primarily used in Spanish folk music.Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had with a round back, similar or related to the mandore. It had become a flat-backed instrument by the 18th century, with five...

and Laúd

Laúd

The word laúd is the Spanish word for lute. It is most commonly used to refer to a plectrum-plucked chordophone from Spain. It belongs to the cittern family of instruments. It has six double courses , similarly to the bandurria, but its neck is longer...

, as well as the Portuguese guitar

Portuguese guitar

The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses comprising two strings each. It is one of the few musical instruments to use Preston tuners. It is most notably associated with fado.-History:The origin of the Portuguese...

, the descendant of English instruments brought into Portugal in the 18th century. The 'Guitarra Portuguesa' is typically used to play the popular traditional music known as Fado

Fado

Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...

. Using the guitarra as a model, luthier Stefan Sobell singlehandedly brought the cittern back into existence in England as a popular new hybrid instrument primarily used for playing folk music, much as was its predecessor.

Sobell devised a pear-shaped, 8 or 10 stringed instrument influenced by the design of a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

guitarra brought to him for repair by Irish musician Andy Irvine. He combined the ovoid body shape, unique neck assembly and double-course strings of the guitarra with the carved top, oval sound hole and radiused back of an early Martin C model archtop guitar to produce his modern cittern. After seeing pictures of Renaissance citterns and noting the resemblance to his design, he chose the name "cittern" to describe his new instruments. In a roundabout fashion, the English cittern came home by way of the its Portuguese descendant more than two hundred years after it left. For many, the rebirth of this instrument is represented by the 1983 release of the Green Linnet recording 'First Flight' by Gerald Trimble. Building on the innovations of Brian McNeill, Jamie McMenemy, and Pat Kilbride (The Battlefield Band), Trimble showcased his Sobell cittern as a solo and melody instrument.

Notable modern-day cittern players include Henri Agnel, Robin Bullock, Gerald Trimble, Ale Carr, Carlos Paredes

Carlos Paredes

Carlos Paredes, ComSE, was a virtuoso Portuguese guitar player, born in Coimbra, son of the equally famous Artur Paredes. He is credited with popularising the medium internationally during the 20th century, being frequently considered to be the most talented Portuguese musician in the 20th century...

, Terry Woods

Terry Woods

Terence 'Terry' Woods , is an Irish folk musician, specialising in playing the mandolin and cittern. He is known for his membership in such folk and folk-rock groups as The Pogues, Steeleye Span, Sweeney's Men, The Bucks and, briefly, Dr. Strangely Strange. Prior to being a founder member of...

, formerly of Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....

and The Pogues

The Pogues

The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...

, Paul O'Dette

Paul O'Dette

Paul R. O'Dette is an American lutenist, conductor, and music researcher specializing in early music.O'Dette began playing classical guitar, and while in high school also played electric guitar in a rock band in Columbus, Ohio, where he grew up...

, Mark Cudek of The Baltimore Consort

The Baltimore Consort

The Baltimore Consort is a musical ensemble that performs a wide variety of early music, Renaissance music and music from later periods. They began in 1980 as a group specializing in music of the Elizabethan period, but soon expanded their repertoire to include Scottish music, broadside ballads,...

and Ben Hudson.

External links

Citterns and cittern research at the Musikinstrumenten-Museum der Universität Leipzig

Museum of Musical Instruments of the University of Leipzig

The Museum of Musical Instruments of the University of Leipzig is a museum in Leipzig, Germany. It is located on Johannisplatz, near the city centre...

Cittern, possibly by Petrus Raitta, England, 1579 at the National Music Museum
National Music Museum
The National Music Museum: America's Shrine to Music & Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments is a musical instrument museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, USA. It was founded in 1973 on the campus of the University of South Dakota...
Cittern, Urbino, ca. 1550 at the National Music Museum
National Music Museum
The National Music Museum: America's Shrine to Music & Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments is a musical instrument museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, USA. It was founded in 1973 on the campus of the University of South Dakota...
Decorated Cittern by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, ca. 1685 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Pre-modern citterns

Modern citterns

See also

External links