 Cittern exhibited at the Music Museum of Barcelona | |
| Other names | Fr.cistre,It.cetra,Ger.Cister, Zister,Sp.cistro, cedra, cítola |
|---|---|
| Classification | String instrument (plucked) |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 321.322-5 (necked box lute, plucked with fingers) |
| Developed | 16th century |
| Related instruments | |
Thecittern orcithren (Fr.cistre,It.cetra,Ger.Cister,Sp.cistro, cedra, cítola)[1] is a stringed instrument dating from theRenaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from themedievalcitole (or cytole). Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than thelute. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by people of all social classes, the cittern was a popular instrument of casual music-making much like theguitar is today.
The cittern is one of the few metal-strung instruments known from theRenaissance music period (others being gut-strung). It generally has four courses of strings (single, pairs or threes depending on design or regional variation), 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 are-entrant tuning[2] – a tuning in which the string that is physically uppermost is not the lowest, as is also the case with the five-stringbanjo and mostukuleles for example. The tuning and narrow range allow the player a number of simplechord shapes useful for both simple song accompaniment and dances, though much more complex music was also written for it.[3] Its bright and cheerful timbre make it a valuable counterpoint to gut-strung instruments. The Spanishbandurria, still used today, is a similar instrument.
_by_Johann_Wilhelm_Bindernagel%2c_Gotha_(1800)%2c_Inv.-Nr.621%2c_MfM.Uni-Leipzig.jpg)
From the 16th until the 18th century the cittern was a common Englishbarber shop instrument, kept in waiting areas for customers to entertain themselves and others with, and popularsheet music for the instrument was published to that end.[3] The top of the pegbox was often decorated with a small carved head, perhaps not always of great artistic merit; inShakespeare'sLove's Labour's Lost, the term "cittern-head" is used as an insult:[4][5]
Just as thelute was enlarged and bass-extended to become thetheorbo andchitarrone forcontinuo work, so the cittern was developed into theceterone, with its extended neck and unstopped bass strings, though this was a much less common instrument.
Gérard Joseph Deleplanque (1723-1784) was a luthier fromLille who made awide variety of instruments, including citterns.
The instrument maker Johann Wilhelm Bindernagel (around 1770-1845), who worked inGotha, made amixed guitar-cittern under the name "Sister" or "German Guitar", which was equipped with seven gut strings.
The leading 18th-century Swedish songwriterCarl Michael Bellman played mostly on the cittern, and is shown with the instrument (now in the National Museum, Stockholm) in a 1779 portrait byPer Krafft the elder.[6]
In Germany, the cittern survives under the namesWaldzither andLutherzither. The last name comes from the belief thatMartin Luther played this instrument. Also, the namesThüringer Waldzither in Thüringer Wald,Harzzither in the Harz mountains,Halszither in German-speaking Switzerland are used.[7] There is a tendency in modernGerman to interchange the words for cittern andzither. The termwaldzither came into use around 1900, to distinguish citterns from zithers.
The cittern family survives as the Corsicancetara and thePortuguese guitar. Theguitarra portuguesa is typically used to play the popular traditional music known asfado. 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.[8][9]
Citterns and cittern research at theMusikinstrumenten-Museum der Universität Leipzig
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