Re: Looking for historical guitar information

There is at least one cittern (English guittar) in the collections of
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. See the link below for information
about how you
can obtain permission to use the picture(s) at your teacher's museum.

Also notice the link below the picture that will take you on a tour
of
the Museum's Guitars, Lutes and Related instruments. The 68
instrumenmts
pictured and described include some exotic guitars, and include Mdme
Robert Sidney-Pratten's "Bambino" child's guitar. Often these exotic
instruments were made by cabinet makers--and look like it.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=50284&coll_keywords=&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_package=10095&coll_start=1

The Museum's special exhibition of some 130 guitars ("Dangerous
Curves") drew a whopping 140,000 viewers in 2002. The beautifully
illustrated and authoritative "catalogue" is now OOP.

Ethan Allen's second wife, Fanny, indeed was a musician and had a
"guitar" (was it a cittern--English guittar?), which was loaded onto
the carriage after the wedding ceremony.

The cittern or English guittar was by
far the most popular instrument in colonial
Massachusetts, more prevalent than flutes, violins or
even harpsichords. Often stored in linen closets, they seem to have
been considered a woman's instrument. Frequent
houshold inventories were made for tax purposes back then, and those
reports are a good source for information about musical instruments
and other domestic houshold items in colonial Massachusetts.

There was even a shop in Boston that specialized in drawing the wire
strings used on the instrument. I must find out where it was located.

Thomas Jefferson also owned several English guittars. He purchased one
in
Virginia in 1816, and later purchased one for his granddaughter,
who recorded her ecstasy in receiving it on her fourteenth birthday.
Many of his musical instruments
are at Monticello, a must see vacation goal. And when there, be sure
to
visit the U of Virginia, which he designed. He could watch the
construction from Monticello, 10-15 miles distant in the mountains.
Here's one of his
citterns:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/images/4/40/Spanish_guitar_sm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Guitars&h=167&w=200&sz=15&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=Aw4vWQ_bEGky5M:&tbnh=87&tbnw=104&prev=

An instrument described in a county museum as "Jefferson's lute" is
really a cittern.

A lute and Richard Allison's Book of Psalms (for voice and lute) were
brought over on the Mayflower. Allison's harmonically intense solo
lute music is very effective, and unduely neglected. There is an
excellent edition of all his solo lute music available (in French
tablature) from the Lute Society (UK).

==AJN (Boston, Mass.)

This week's free download from Classical Music Library is _Prokofiev's
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, Op. 80___

Go to my web page:
http://mysite.verizon.net/arthurjness/

For some free scores, go to:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzepq31c/arthurjnesslutescores/

"John LaCroix" <John.L.LaCroix@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:595f816b-9fef-4340-828b-2b192564d96c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am forwarding a message (below) I relieved from my guitar teacher
regarding Ethan Allen's wife Fanny, and some information that she
may
have been a guitarist. Of course, this is of particular interest to
us
here in Vermont as Ethan Allen was one of the founders of our state.

The only thing that popped into my head was a story I read some
where
(maybe here) about George Washington's niece playing an 'English'
guitar - a cittern, but I'm hoping someone here might know more.

John L.


From: "C.P. Smith PTO" <vermonthossley@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 29, 2007 9:10:27 AM EST
To: john.mantegna@xxxxxxx
Subject: Can you help us find an old guitar? Wayne Schneider
suggested I call you.

Dear John Mantegna,

Perhaps you can help us? The Ethan Allen Homestead Museum recently
ran across information that Dr. Wayne Schneider of the UVM Music
Department and his wife Paula Olsen from the Champlain College
Library helped us verify regarding Fanny Allen's musical guitar
talents. Fanny was the wife of Vermont's founder Ethan Allen who
homesteaded here in Burlington along the Winooski River in 1785.

The Museum and its volunteers are always excited to learn more
about Ethan and his beautiful wife Fanny. Now that we have
confirmation that Fanny did in fact play a "guitar" of some kind we
were hoping you could help us either locate a picture of the style
of guitar most likely that a young well off girl from New York
might have played in the 1700's or set us in the right direction to
find either a replica or close approximation.

We plan to add the guitar to our exhibits in the historic Allen
Homestead. We have already found some 1700's *** music which we
have duplicated onto old paper and hope to have a close looking
guitar on exhibit by our reopening next May 2008.

Wayne suggested I contact you for advice. Thank you for any
assistance you could provide. The Museum and its volunteers
appreciate your help.

Sincerely,

John Hossley
Ethan Allen Homestead Museum
Transition Coordinator

802-660-9639






















.