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CITTERN (also CITHERN, CITHRON, CYTHR...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 400 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CITTERN (also CITHERN, CITHRON, CYTHREN, CITIIAREN, &C.; Fr. titre, cistre, cishre, guitare See also:allemande or anglaise; Ger. Cither, See also:Zither (mit See also:Hals, with See also:neck); Ital. cetera, tetra) , a See also:medieval stringed See also:instrument with a neck terminating in a See also:grotesque and twanged by fingers or plectrum. The popularity of the cittern was at its height in See also:England and See also:Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries. The cittern See also:con- _ of a See also:pear-shaped See also:body 3 4 similar to that of the See also:lute but See also:treble mean See also:bass See also:tenor with a See also:flat back and See also:sound-See also:board joined by ribs. The neck was provided with a fretted See also:finger-board; the See also:head was curved and surmounted by a grotesque head of a woman or of an See also:animal.' The strings were of See also:wire in ' See See also:Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, See also:act v. sc. 2, where Boyet compares the countenance of Holofernes to a cittern head; See also:John See also:Forde, Lovers' See also:Melancholy (1629), act ii. sc. 1, " Barbers shall See also:wear thee on their citterns."pairs of unisons, known as courses, usually four in number in England. A peculiarity of the cittern See also:lay in the tuning of the courses, the third course known as bass being See also:lower than the See also:fourth styled tenor. According to Vincentio Galilei (the See also:father of the See also:great astronomer) England was the birthplace of the cittern.2 Several See also:lesson books for this popular instrument were published during the 17th See also:century in England. A very rare See also:book (of which the See also:British Museum does not possess a copy), The Cittharn Schoole, written by See also:Anthony Holborne in 1597, is mentioned in See also:Sir P. Leycester's See also:manuscript See also:commonplace book' dated 1656, " For the little Instrument called a Psittyrne Anthony Holborne and Tho. See also:Robinson were most famous of any before them and have both of them set out a booke of Lessons for this Instrument.

Holborne has composed a Basse-parte for the Viole to See also:

play unto the Psittyrne with those Lessons set out in his booke. These lived about See also:Anno Domini 1600." See also:Thomas Robinson's New Citharen Lessons with perfect tunings for the same from Foure course of strings to Fourteen course, &c. (printed See also:London, 1609, by See also:William See also:Barley), contains illustrations of both kinds of See also:instruments. The fourteen-course cittern was also known in England as Bijuga; the seven courses in pairs were stretched over the From Thomas Robinson's New Cithare,, Lessons, :609. Four-course Cittern. finger-board, and the seven single strings, fastened to the, grotesque head, were stretched as in the See also:lyre d vide alongside the neck; all the strings rested on the one flat See also:bridge near the tail-piece. Robinson gives instructions for learning to play the cittern and for See also:reading the tablature. John Playford's Musick's Delight on the Cithren (London, 1666) also contains illustrations of the instrument as well as of the See also:viol da Gamba and Pochette; he claims to have revived the instrument and restored it to what it was in the reign of See also:Queen See also:Mary. The cittern probably owed its popularity at this See also:time to the ease with which it might be mastered and used to accompany the See also:voice; it was one of four instruments generally found in barbers' shops, the others being the gittern, the lute and the virginals. The customers while waiting took down the instrument from its peg and played a merry tune to pass the time.' We read that when Konstantijn See also:Huygens came over to England and was received by See also:James I. at Bagshot, he played to the See also:king on the cittern (See also:cithara), and that his performance was duly appreciated and applauded. He tells us that, although he learnt to play the See also:barbiton in a few See also:weeks with skill, he had lessons from a See also:master for two years on the cittern.' On the occasion of a third visit he witnessed the performance of some See also:fine musicians and was astonished to hear a See also:lady, See also:mother of twelve, singing in divine See also:fashion, accompanying herself on the cittern; one of these artists he calls Lanivius, the British See also:Orpheus, whose performance was really enchanting. See also:Michael See also:Praetorius s gives various tunings for the cittern as 2 Dialogo See also:delta musica (See also:Florence, 1581), p.

147. 3 The musical extracts from the commonplace book were prepared by Dr Rimbault for the See also:

Early See also:English See also:Text Society. Holborne's See also:work is mentioned in his Bibliotheca Madrigaliana. The descriptive See also:list-of the musical instruments in use in England during Leycester's lifetime (about 1656) has been extracted and published by Dr F. J See also:Furnivall, in See also:Captain' See also:Cox, his See also:Ballads and Books, or See also:Robert Laneham's See also:Letter (I57), (London, 1871), pp. 65-68. 4 See See also:Knight's London, i. 142. s See De Vita propria sermonum inter liberos libri duo (See also:Haarlem, 1817) and E. See also:van der Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas, ii. 348-350. 8 Syntagma Musicum (1618). See also M.

See also:

Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (See also:Paris, 1636), livre ii. prop. xv., who gives different accordances. 400 well as an See also:illustration (sounded an See also:octave higher than the notation). See also:French See also:Italian 4 course Italian 6 course During the 18th century the cittern, citra or English See also:guitar, had twelve wire strings in six pairs of unisons tuned thus: 0 In! The introduction of the See also:Spanish guitar, which at once leapt into favour, gradually displaced the English variety. The Spanish guitar had gut strings twanged by the fingers. The last development of the cittern before its disappearance was the addition of keys. The keyed cithara' was first made by Claus & Co. of London in 1783. The keys, six in number, were placed on the See also:left of the sound-board, and on being depressed they acted on hammers inside the sound-See also:chest, which rising through the See also:rose sound-hole struck the strings. Sometimes the keys were placed in a little See also:box right over the strings, the hammers striking from above. M. J. B.

Vuillaume of Paris possessed an Italian cetera (not keyed) by See also:

Antoine Stradivarius,2 1700 (now in the Museum of the See also:Conservatoire, Paris), with twelve strings tuned in pairs of unisons to E, D, G, B, C, A, which was exhibited in London in 187r. . The cittern of the 16th century was the result of certain transitions which took See also:place during the See also:evolution of the See also:violin from the See also:Greek kithara (see CITHARA). Genealogical Table of the Cittern. See also:Assyrian Ketharah Greek Kithara See also:Roman Cithara or Fidicula Cithara in transition or See also:Rotta I I Cithara in transition Guitarra See also:Latina Cittern or Guitar or Vihuela de Mano SpanishlGuitar Ghittern The cittern has retained the following characteristics of the archetype. (I) The derivation of the name, which after the introduction of the See also:bow was used to characterize various instruments whose strings were twanged by fingers or plectrum, such as the See also:harp and the rotta (both known as cithara), the citola and the zither. In an interlinear Latin and Anglo-Saxon version of the See also:Psalms, dated A.D. 700 (Brit. See also:Mus., Vesp. A. I), cithara is translated citran, from which it is not difficult to trace the English cithron, citteran, cittarn, of the 16th century. (2) The construction of the sound-chest with flat back and sound-board connected by ribs. The pear-shaped outline was possibly borrowed from the Eastern instruments, both bowed as the See also:rebab and twanged as the lute, so See also:common all over See also:Europe during the See also:middle ages, or more probably derived from the kithara of the Greeks of See also:Asia See also:Minor, which had the corners rounded.

These early steps in the transition from the cithara may be seen in the miniatures of the See also:

Utrecht Psalter,3 a unique and much-copied Carolingian MS. executed at See also:Reims (9th century), the illustrations of which were undoubtedly adapted from an earlier psalter from the See also:Christian See also:East. The instruments which remained true to the prototype in outline as well as in ' See Carl See also:Engel, See also:Catalogue of the See also:Exhibition of See also:Ancient Musical Instruments (London, 1872), Nos. 289 and 290. 2 See See also:note above. Illustration in A. J. Hipkins, Musical Instruments; Historic, Rare and Unique (See also:Edinburgh, 1888). 3 For a resume of the question of the origin of this famous psalter, and an inquiry into its bearing on the See also:history of musical instruments with illustrations and facsimile reproductions, see Kathleen Schlesinger, The Instruments of the See also:Orchestra, See also:part ii. " The Pre-cursors of the Violin See also:Family," pp. 127-166 (London, 1908-1909).construction and in the derivation of the name were the ghittern and the guitar, so often confused with the cittern. It is evident that the kinship of cittern and guitar was formerly recognized, for during the 18th century, as stated above, the cittern was known as the English guitar to distinguish it from the Spanish guitar. The grotesque head, popularly considered the characteristic feature of the cittern, was probably added in the 12th century at a time when this See also:style of decoration was very See also:notice-able in other musical instruments, such as the See also:cornet or Zinck, the See also:Platerspiel, the chaunter of the bagpipe, &c.

The cittern of the middle ages was also to be found in See also:

oval shape. From the 13th century representations of the pear-shaped instrument abound in miniatures and carvings.' A very clearly See also:drawn cittern of the 14th century occurs in a MS. See also:treatise on See also:astronomy (See also:Sloane MS. 3983, Brit. Mus.) translated from the See also:Persian of See also:Albumazar into Latin by Georgius Zothari Zopari Fenduli, See also:priest and philosopher, with a See also:prologue and numerous illustrations by his own See also:hand; the cittern is here called giga in an inscription at the See also:side of the See also:drawing. References to the cittern are plentiful in the literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. Robert See also:Fludd 4 describes it thus: " Cistrona quae quatuor tantum chordas duplicatas habet easque cupreas et ferreas de quibus aliquid dicemus quo loco." Others are given in the New English See also:Dictionary, " Cittern," and in See also:Godefroy's Dict. de l'anc. langue See also:franc. du IXe au XV4 siecle. (K.

End of Article: CITTERN (also CITHERN, CITHRON, CYTHREN, CITIIAREN, &C.; Fr. titre, cistre, cishre, guitare allemande or anglaise; Ger. Cither, Zither (mit Hals, with neck); Ital. cetera, tetra)

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