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CITHARA (Assyrian chetarah; Gr. KcOhp...
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See also:CITHARA (See also:Assyrian chetarah; Gr. KcOhpa; See also:Lat, cithara; perhaps Heb. kinura, See also:kinnor) , one of the most See also:ancient stringed See also:instruments, traced back to 1700 B.C. among the Semitic races, in See also:Egypt, See also:Assyria, See also:Asia See also:Minor, See also:Greece and the See also:Roman See also:empire, whence the use of it spread over See also:Europe. The See also:main feature of the See also:Greek kithara, its shallow See also:sound-See also:chest, being the most important See also:part of it, is also that in which developments are most noticeable; its See also:contour varied considerably during the many musical ages, but the characteristic in respect of which it fore-shadowed the precursors of the See also:violin See also:family, and by which they were distinguished from other contemporary stringed instrumentsof the See also:middle ages, was preserved throughout in all See also:European descendants bearing derived names. This characteristc See also:box sound-chest (fig. I) consisted of two resonating tables, either See also:flat or delicately arched, connected by ribs or sides of equal width. The cithara may be regarded as an See also:attempt by a more skilful craftsman or See also:race to improve upon the See also:lyre (q.v.),while retaining some of its features. The construction of the cithara can fortunately be accurately studied from two actual specimens found in Egypt and preserved in the museums of See also:Berlin and See also:Leiden. The Leiden cithara (fig. 2), which forms part of the d'Anastasy Collection in the Museum of Antiquities, is in a very See also:good See also:state of preservation. The sound-chest, in the See also:form of an irregular square (17 cm. X 17 cm.), is hollowed out of a solid See also:block of See also:wood from the See also:base, which is open; the little See also:bar, seen through the open base and measuring 21 cm. (1 in.), is also of the same piece of wood. The arms, one See also:short and one See also:long, are solid and are fixed to the See also:body by means of wooden pins; they are glued as well for greater strength. W. Pleyte, through whose See also:courtesy the See also:sketch was revised and corrected, states that there are no indications on the See also:instrument of any See also:kind of See also:bridge or See also:attachment for strings except the little See also:half-hoop of See also:iron See also:wire which passes through the base from back to front. To this the strings were probably attached, and the little bar performed the See also:double See also:duty of sound-See also:post and support for strengthening the tail-piece and enabling it to resist the tension of the strings. The oblique transverse bar, rendered necessary by the increasing length of the strings, was characteristic of the See also:Egyptian cithara,i whereas the See also:Asiatic and Greek instruments were generally constructed with See also:horizontal bars resting on arms of equal length, the See also:pitch of the strings being varied by thickness and tension, instead of by length. (For the Berlin cithara see LYRE.) The number of strings with which the cithara was strung varied from 4 to 19 or 20 at different times; they were added less for the purpose of increasing the See also:compass in the See also:modern sense than to enable the performer to See also:play in the different modes of the Greek musical See also:system. See also:Terpander is credited with having increased the number of strings to seven; See also:Euclid, quoting him as his authority, states that " loving no more the tetrachordal See also:chant, we will sing aloud new See also:hymns to a seven-toned phorminx." What has been said of the See also:scale of the lyre applies also to the cithara, and need therefore not be repeated here. The strings were vibrated by means of the fingers or plectrum (irMarpov, from aMuveiv, to strike; Lat. plectrum, from plango, I strike). Twanging with the fingers for strings of gut, See also:hemp or See also:silk was undoubtedly the more See also:artistic method, since the player was able to command various shades of expression which are impossible A See also:drawing of an Egyptian cithara, similar to the Leiden specimen, may be seen in See also:Champollion, Monuments de l'Egypte et de la Nubie, ii. pl. 175. OPen% ~bpen with a rigid plectrum.' Loudness of See also:accent and See also:great brilliancy of See also:tone, however, can only be obtained by the use of the plectrum. Quotations from the See also:classics abound to show what was the practice of the Greeks and See also:Romans in this respect. The plectrum was held in the right See also:hand, with See also:elbow outstretched and See also:palm See also:bent inwards, and the strings were plucked with the straightened fingers of the See also:left hand.2 Both methods were used with intention according to the dictates of See also:art for the See also:sake, of the. variation in tone See also:colour obtainable thereby.3 The strings of the cithara were either knotted See also:round the transverse tuning bar itself (zugon) or to rings threaded over the bar, which enabled the performer to increase or decrease the tension by shifting the knots or rings; or else they were See also:wound round pegs,4 knobss or pinss fixed to the zugon. The other end of the strings was secured to a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the two were combined in the curious high box tail-piece which acted as a bridge. See also:Plutarch 7 states that this contrivance was added to the cithara in the days of Cepion, See also:pupil of Terpander. These boxes were hinged in See also:order to allow the lid to be opened for the purpose of securing the strings to some contrivance concealed therein. It is a curious fact that no sculptured cithara provided with this box tail-piece is represented with strings, and in many cases there could never have been any, for the hand and arms are visible across the space that would be filled by the strings, which are always carved in a solid block. Like the lyre the cithara was made in many sizes, conditioned by the pitch and the use to which the instrument was to be put. These instruments may have been distinguished by different names; the pectis, for instance, is declared by See also:Sappho (22nd fragment) to have been small and shrill; the phorminx, on the other hand, seems to have been identical with the The Greek kithara was. the inoedus, showing Cithara with box tail-pieces. strument of the professional See also:singer or citharoedus (Kc8apwb6s) and of the instrumentalist or citharista (KtOapurrits), and thus served the double purpose of (x) accompanying the voice—a use placed by the Greeks far above See also:mere instrumental See also:music —in epic recitations and rhapsodies, in odes and lyric spngs; and (2) of accompanying the See also:dance ; it was also used for playing solos at the See also:national See also:games, at receptions and banquets and at trials of skill. The See also:costume of the citharoedus and citharista was See also:rich and recognized as being distinctive; it varied but little throughout the ages, as may be deduced from a comparison of representations of the citharoedus on a See also:coin and on a Greek See also:vase of the best See also:period (fig. 4). The costume 'consisted of a See also:palla or long See also:tunic with sleeves embroidered with See also:gold and girt high above the See also:waist, falling in graceful folds to the feet. This palla must not be confounded with the ' See Plutarch, See also:Apophthegm. Lacon. 2 See also:Philostratus the See also:Elder, Imagines, No. to, " See also:Amphion," and Philostratus the Younger, Imagines, No. 7, " See also:Orpheus," p. 403:
3 See also:Tibullus, Eleg. iii. 4. 39.
4 Le Antichitd de Ercolano, vol. iii. p. 5.
' Idem, vol. iv. p. 201.
9 See also: 9 See See also:Visconti, Museo Clementino, p1. 22, Erato's cithara, and in the same See also:work that of See also:Apollo Citharoedus (fiS..3 above). 9 See Od. i. 153, 155; It• xviii. 569-570. In See also:Homer the form is always atOapcs. See also:mantle of the same name worn by See also:women. Over one See also:shoulder, or See also:hanging down the back, was the See also:purple chlamys or cloak, and on his brow a See also:golden See also:wreath of laurels. All the citharoedi See also:bear instruments of the type here described as the cithara, and never one of the lyre type. The records of the citharoedi extend over more than thirteen centuries and fall into two natural divisions: (1) The mythological period, approximately from the 13th See also:century B.C. to the first See also:Olympiad, 776 B.C.; and (2) the See also:historical period to the days of See also:Ptolemy, A.D. 161. One of the very few See also:authentic Greek odes extant is a Pythian See also:ode by See also:Pindar, in which the phorminx of Apollo is mentioned; the See also:solo is followed by a See also:chorus of citharoedi. The See also:scope of the See also:solemn games and processions, called See also:Panathenaea, held every four years in See also:honour of the goddess See also:Athena, which originally consisted principally of athletic See also:sports and See also:horse and See also:chariot races, was extended under See also:Peisistratus (c. 540 B.c.), and the celebration made to include contests of singers and instrumentalists, recitations of portions of the Iliad and Odyssey, such as are represented on the See also:frieze of the See also:Parthenon (in the See also:Elgin See also:Room at the See also:British Museum) and later on friezes by See also:Pheidias. It was at the same period that the first contests for solo-playing on the cithara (iaOapusrus) and for solo See also:aulos-playing were instituted at the 8th Pythian Games.10 One of the
See also:principal items at these contests for aulos and cithara was the Nomos Pythikos, descriptive of the victory of Apollo over the See also:python and of the defeat of the See also:monster."
The Pythian Games survived the classic Greek period and were continued under Roman sway until about A.D. 394. Not only were these games held at See also:Delphi, but smaller contests, called Pythia, modelled on the great Pythian, were
instituted in various V I f i
provinces of the em- FIG. 4.-Cithara or Phorminx, from a vase pire, and more especi- in the British Museum. ally in Asia Minor.
The games lasted for several days, the first being devoted to music. To the games at Delphi came musicians from all parts of the civilized See also:world; and the Spaniards, at the beginning of our era, had attained to such a marvellous proficiency in playing the cithara, an instrument which they had learnt to know from the Phoenician colonists before the See also:conquest by the Romans, that some of their citharoedi easily carried off the honours at the musical contests. The See also:consul See also:Metellus was so charmed with the music of the See also:Spanish competitors that he sent some to See also:Rome for the festivals, where the impression created was so great that the Spanish citharoedi obtained a permanent footing in Rome. Aulus See also:Gellius (See also:Noel. Att.) describes an incident at a banquet which corroborates this statement.
The degeneration of music as an art among the Romans, and its See also:gradual degradation by association with the sensual amusements of corrupt Rome, nearly brought about its extinction at the end of the 4th century, when the condemnation of the See also: Instrumental music was banished from See also:civil See also:life and from religious See also:rites, and thenceforth the slender threads which connect the musical instruments of Greeks and Romans with those of '0 See See also:Pausanias x. 7, § 4 et seq. " For a description of the Nomos Pythikos in its relation to Greek music see Kathleen Schlesinger, " Researches into the Origin of the See also:Organs of the Ancients," Intern. See also:Mus. Ges. Sbd. ii. (1901), 2, p. 177, and See also:Strabo ix. p. 421. the middle ages must be sought among the unconverted barbarians of See also:northern and western Europe, who kept alive the traditions taught them by conquerors and colonists; but as See also:civilization was in its See also:infancy with them the instruments sent out from their workshops must have been crude and See also:primitive. Asia, the See also:cradle of the cithara, also became its See also:foster-See also:mother; it was among the Greeks of Asia Minor that the several steps in the transition from cithara into See also:guitar' (q.v.) took See also:place. The first of these steps produced the See also:rotta (q.v.), by the construction of body, arms and transverse bar in one piece. The Semitic races used the rotta at a very remote period (1700 B.c.), as we know from a See also:fresco at Beni-See also:Hasan, dating from the reign of Senwosri II., which depicts a procession of strangers bringing See also:tribute; among them is a bearded musician of Semitic type bearing a rotta which he holds horizontally in front of him in the Assyrian manner, and quite unlike the Greeks, who always played the lyre and cithara in an upright position. A unique specimen of this rectangular rotta was found in an Alamannic See also:tomb of the 5th or 6th century at Oberflacht in the See also:Black See also:Forest. The instrument was clasped in the arms of an armed See also:knight; it is now preserved in the Volker Museum in Berlin. This old See also:German rotta is an exact counterpart of instruments pictured in illuminated See also:MSS. of the 8th century, and is derived from the cithara with rectangular body, while from the cithara with a body having the See also:curve of the See also:lower half of the violin was produced a rotta with the outline of the body of the guitar. Both types were See also:common in Europe until the 14th century, some played with a See also:bow, others twanged by the fingers, and bearing indifferently both names, cithara and rotta. The addition of a See also:finger-See also:board, stretching like a short See also:neck from body to transverse bar, leaving on each See also:side of the finger-board space for the hand to pass through in order to stop the strings, produced the crwth or See also:crowd (q.v.), and brought about the reduction in the number of the strings to three or four. The See also:conversion of the rotta into the guitar (q.v.) was an easy transition effected by the addition of a long neck to a body derived from the See also:oval rotta. When the bow was applied the result was the guitar or See also:troubadour See also:fiddle. At first the instrument called cithara in the Latin versions of the See also:Psalms was glossed citran, citre in Anglo-Saxon, but in the 11th century the same instrument was rendered hearpan, and in See also:French and See also:English harpe or See also:harp, and our modern versions have retained this See also:translation. The See also:cittern (q.v.), a later descendant of the cithara, although preserving the characteristic features of the cithara, the shallow sound-chest with ribs, adopted the See also:pear-shaped outline of the Eastern instruments of the See also:lute tribe. (K. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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