The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

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

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

citole (or cytole). Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

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

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

today.

History

Pre-modern citterns

The cittern is one of the few metal-strung instruments known from the

period. It generally has four courses (single, pairs or threes) of strings, one or more courses 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 The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

and most

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

s for example. The tuning and narrow range allow the player a number of simple

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

shapes useful for both simple song accompaniment and dances, however much more complex music was written for it.The Oxford Companion to Music - ''cittern'' Its bright and cheerful timbre make it a valuable counterpoint to gut-strung instruments. The Spanish

bandurria The bandurria is a plucked chordophone from Spain, similar to the mandolin and bandola, primarily used in Spanish folk music, but also found in former Spanish colonies. Instrument development Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had a round ...

, still used today, is a similar instrument.

16th to 18th centuries

From the 16th until the 18th century the cittern was a common English barber shop instrument, kept in waiting areas for customers to entertain themselves and others with, and popular

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

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; in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Love's Labour's Lost ''Love's Labour's Lost'' is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and ...

'', the term "cittern-head" is used as an insult: :: HOLOFERNES: What is this? :: BOYET: A cittern-head. :: DUMAIN: The head of a bodkin. :: BIRON: A Death's face in a ring. Just as the

was enlarged and bass-extended to become the

theorbo The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box (a hollow box) with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending ou ...

and chitarrone for continuo work, so the cittern was developed into the ceterone, with its extended neck and unstopped bass strings, though this was a much less common instrument. Gérard Joseph Deleplanque (1723-1784) was a luthier from

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

who made
wide variety of instruments
including citterns. The instrument maker Johann Wilhelm Bindernagel (around 1770-1845), who worked in Gotha, made
mixed guitar-cittern
under the name "Sister" or "German Guitar", which was equipped with seven gut strings. The leading 18th-century Swedish songwriter Carl Michael Bellman played mostly on the cittern, and is shown with the instrument (now in the National Museum, Stockholm) in a 1779 portrait by

Per Krafft the elder Per Krafft the Elder (16 January 1724 – 7 November 1793) was a Swedish portraitist. He was the father of the artists Per Krafft the Younger and Wilhelmina Krafft. Early life Per Krafft was born in Arboga, and studied in Uppsala, where he in ...

Modern citterns

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

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

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(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

to interchange the words for cittern and

zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat bo ...

. The term waldzither came into use around 1900, to distinguish citterns from zithers. The cittern family survives as the Corsican

cetara Cetera or cetara is a plucked string instrument played in Corsica. It has sixteen, or sometimes eighteen, metal strings, running in paired courses, with a body similar to the mandolin, but larger, and is plucked with a plectrum made of horn or ...

and the Portuguese guitar. The ''guitarra portuguesa'' is typically used to play the popular traditional music known as fado. In the early 1970s, using the guitarra and a 1930s archtop Martin guitar as models, English luthier Stefan Sobell created a "cittern", a hybrid instrument primarily used for playing folk music, which has proved to be popular with folk revival musicians.

Bibliography

* ''Musick's Delight on the Cithren'', John Playford (1666). * ''Musick's Delight on the Modern Cittern'', Robin Alexander Lucas (2021), ISBN 9781838438500.
''Méthode pour Apprendre à Pincer du Cistre, ou Guitare Allemande''
Charles Pollet (1786).

References

External links

Renovata Cythara: The Renaissance Cittern Pages

Stefan Sobell website

G. Doc Rossi website

* ttps://cittern.co.uk Cittern Press(publisher of printed tune books for the modern cittern) Citterns and cittern research at the Musikinstrumenten-Museum der Universität Leipzig
Cittern, possibly by Petrus Raitta, England, 1579
at the

National Music Museum The National Music Museum: America's Shrine to Music & Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments (NMM) is a musical instrument museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. It was founded in 1973 on the campus of the University ...

Cittern, Urbino, ca. 1550
at the

Decorated Cittern by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, ca. 1685
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{Authority control Early musical instruments String instruments Mandolin family instruments Swiss musical instruments Celtic musical instruments English musical instruments Scottish musical instruments