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 ide ...
. 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 period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
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 string ...
today.
History
Pre-modern citterns
The cittern is one of the few metal-strung instruments known 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 ide ...
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 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 musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, ...
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 Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions a ...
'', 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
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 ...
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 ...
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 region, the prefecture of the No ...
who made
wide variety of instruments including citterns.
The instrument maker Johann Wilhelm Bindernagel (around 1770-1845), who worked in
Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...
, made
mixed guitar-citternunder the name "Sister" or "German Guitar", which was equipped with seven gut strings.
The leading 18th-century Swedish songwriter
Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman (; 4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well ...
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 Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
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
**Ge ...
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 ...
. The term
waldzither came into use around 1900, to distinguish citterns from zithers.
The cittern family survives as the Corsican
cetara and the
Portuguese guitar. The ''guitarra portuguesa'' is typically used to play the popular traditional music known as
fado
Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...
. 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.
See also
*
Chitarra Italiana
Chitarra Italiana (; 'Italian guitar') is a lute-shaped plucked instrument with four or five single (sometimes double) strings, in a tuning similar to that of the guitar. It was common in Italy during the Renaissance era.
According to Renato Me ...
*
English guitar
The English guitar or guittar (also citra), is a stringed instrument – a type of cittern – popular in many places in Europe from around 1750–1850. It is unknown when the identifier "English" became connected to the instrument: at the time o ...
*
Russian guitar
*
Stringed instrument tunings
*
Gregory Doc Rossi
*
Martina Rosenberger
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 PagesStefan Sobell websiteG. 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, 1579at the
National Music Museum
Cittern, Urbino, ca. 1550at the
National Music Museum
Decorated Cittern by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, ca. 1685at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
{{Authority control
Early musical instruments
String instruments
Mandolin family instruments
Swiss musical instruments
Celtic musical instruments
English musical instruments
Scottish musical instruments