Re: Looking for historical guitar information

On Dec 2, 4:38 pm, "Arthur Ness" <arthurjn...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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&c...

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/med...

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/


Thanks for the excellent information Arthur.

John L.

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