cittern

"Woman with cittern", canvas painted 1677 by Pieter van Slingeland (ca. 1630-1691).

The cittern or cither is a stringed instrument of the guitar family dating from the Renaissance. Its name derives ultimately from the Iranian se - tar or "three strings" (see setar). Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by all classes, the cittern was a premier instrument of casual music making much as is the guitar.

The name "cittern" has also been applied in the late twentieth century to a number of variant members of the mandolin family, for which see below.

Pre-Modern Citterns

A cittern, labeled cythara Italica et Germanica (to distinguish it from other instruments also referred to as cithara in the Latin of the era), from Kircher's Musurgia Universalis

The cittern is one of the few metal-strung instruments known from the Renaissance period. It generally has four courses (single, pairs or threes) of strings, one or more course 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^[1] - a tuning in which the string that is physically uppermost is not the lowest, as is also the case with the five-string banjo 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^[2]. Its bright and cheerful timbre make it a valuable counterpoint to gut-strung instruments. The bandore (or bandora), an English bass instrument are forms of cittern. The Spanish bandurria, still used today, is a similar instrument.

Hamburger Waldzither, c. 1920

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 for the instrument was published to that end^[2]. The top of the pegbox was often decorated with a small carved head, perhaps not always of great artistic merit; references exist in Shakespeare's Love's Labour Lost and in other contemporary sources, insulting people by calling them 'cittern-heads'.

Just as the lute was enlarged and bass-extended to become the theorbo 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.

In Germany the cittern survives under the name Lutherzither. The name comes from the belief that Martin Luther played this instrument, and a tendency in modern German to interchange the words for cittern and zither. The term waldzither came into use around 1900, in order to distinguish citterns from zithers.

Modern Citterns

A modern cittern also known as a ten string mandola, made by Lawrence Nyberg of British Columbia, Canada 2003

The cittern family survives into the present day in the Corsican Cetara, Spanish Bandurria and Laud, as well as the Portuguese guitarra, the descendant of English instruments brought into Portugal in the 18th century. The guitarra Portuguesa is typically used to play the popular traditional music known as Fado.

The name cittern has also been used to describe a bewildering variety of 8-, 10- and 12-string instruments of the mandolin family with a scale length of less than 22 inches. This modern use of the name of the instrument is attributed to British luthier Stefan Sobell who devised a pear-shaped, 8-string instrument influenced by designs of English and Portuguese guitarras with their flat backs, ovoid bodies, and double-course strings. After seeing pictures of Renaissance citterns and noting the resemblance to his new design, he chose the name "cittern" to describe his instruments.

However, this is only one of a number of instruments currently known as citterns:

• Bouzouki -- usually an 8-string long scale instrument (above 22"), although 10-string bouzoukis are becoming increasingly common.
• Octave mandola -- (Europe, Ireland, and the UK) or octave mandolin (US and Canada), a short-scaled 8-string instrument tuned GDAE, an octave below the mandolin.
• Tenor mandola -- (Europe, Ireland, and the UK) or mandola (US and Canada), a tenor-voiced instrument traditionally tuned CGDA (as the viola).
• Mandocello, tuned CGDA, an octave below the tenor mandola, like the cello.

Notable present-day cittern players include Terry Woods, formerly of Steeleye Span and The Pogues, Paul O'Dette, and Mark Cudek of The Baltimore Consort.

References

See also

• Stringed instrument tunings
• Gregory Doc Rossi

Bibliography

• Music's Delight on the Cithren, John Playford (1666).

External links

• Renovata Cythara: The Renaissance Cittern Pages
• Stefan Sobell website
• G. Doc Rossi website
• Decorated Cittern by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, ca. 1685 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art