gittern

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Comment by Stuart Walsh on October 9, 2011 at 13:35

Yes, I know that image. I wonder what the two blokes are gossiping about in the background.

Insofar as you can deduce much about actual size, this gittern looks not too small, like the Warthog instrument. (that was meant to be a joke)  But often , gitterns are depicted as tiny,  like the little mandores:

http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/gitt1.jpg

 

No doubt they were made in different sizes.

Comment by Bill Samson on October 9, 2011 at 12:41

Ah yes - Here's the image I used - a detail from a painting by Simone Martini

http://tinyurl.com/5vjx2uw

Comment by Bill Samson on October 9, 2011 at 11:41

Hi Stuart.  I very much like your playing of that 2-part piece!  I was trawling the internet yesterday and came across a couple of suggestions (one from Jim Tyler) that the gittern may well have used the same tuning as the mandore - c' g' c" g", c' g' c" f", or something not too different from that, give or take a pitch standard or two.  I actually have a tiny mandore and it hadn't occurred to me that it might share the same tuning.  It's certainly not a hard tuning to get used to.

My gittern is partly based on the Wartburg, and partly on a painting of a guy holding one (which is where the two, very simple roses came from).  Unfortunately it's so long ago I can't remember the name of the painting, but I've got a load of postcards somewhere and it should be among them!

Comment by Stuart Walsh on October 9, 2011 at 10:44

Your gittern (and if you fancy making another one, put me on the list!) looks like a copy of the Wartburg, surviving gittern from the 15th century. And that would have to be gut, presumably - because the strings attach at the bridge itself.

I think it was Jean Paul Bazin who said (it will be somewhere in the archives of the medieval lute list) that there is a MS (now in California?) which gives the gittern's tuning in fourths. He, or someone, said that, gittern players at Basel (Schola Cantorum) tuned their gitterns g,d,g,c. I use this tuning on my homemade, citole-shaped object which I treat as a gittern.

Evidently there is a lot of evidence for lute duos in the fifteenth century (especially Germany and Italy?)  and it is speculated that this may often have meant lute and gittern. (I'm always amused by Keith Polk's way of determining this: by looking at the still existing records of payments to musicians. In Germany, there were hundreds of payments listed to lute duos. And that's just the professionals)

There is another very curious Crawford Young angle on technique. I think everyone agrees (because of the iconography) that the gittern is plectrum played. A quill is one obvious contender but Crawford Young advocates the use of the opposite end of the quill - not the bit you would use as a pen nib. I really don't know why. And, as a more permanent and usable option, he uses a nylon guitar string (g)!

My plectrum technique is not good but it's fun trying to play with one. I youtubed a very, very simple piece, a two-part Felix Namque, a while ago with 'gittern' and lute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH-kjBgo258

 

 

 

Comment by Bill Samson on October 7, 2011 at 23:23

What I meant by 'conjectural' was the instrumentation that would have been used.  As far as I know, nobody has determined how a gittern would have been tuned, or the technique used to play it.  Were the strings gut or wire?  My starting point is to assume the tuning is pretty much like the 4-course renaissance guitar from the following century but I could be completely wrong about that.  I haven't studied the sources, nor have I kept up with developments in our understanding of the music of this period.  I wonder how close these performances are to what would have been heard at the time.  Don't misunderstand me - I think this is wonderful stuff for people to work with and perform and I'm very glad they're doing it.  It's no bad thing, either, if there are many unknowns waiting to be discovered.

Comment by Stuart Walsh on October 7, 2011 at 22:57

Michael Gondko, Marc Lewon and Jean Paul Bazin are playing mainly (or only) fifteenth century music.  My copy of 'Music in the Renaissance' by Gustave Reece (20p from a local library shutting down and almost unreadably turgid) has the Renaissance starting well before the 16th century.

Fifteenth century music (be it Renaissance or late medieval) has its issues but I think it has clearly determinate notes and rhythms. It needs expert knowledge (but not speculation or conjecture) to put it into modern notation but then it's up to anyone to try and play the stuff.

 

 

Comment by Bill Samson on October 5, 2011 at 23:38

Hi Stuart,

For mediaeval music I expect the chords would be parallel fifths or something like that.  Generally, though, it's great for playing uke stuff :o)

Though I enjoy listening to it, I can't say I've ever figured out how to play or interpret mediaeval music -  It all seems terribly complicated and conjectural.

Comment by Stuart Walsh on October 5, 2011 at 22:48

Bill! "great for strumming chordal accompaniments"? What chords?

 

There are some fine gittern players around.  I've never heard  recordings of Crawford Young playing gittern but he seems to have been the teacher of some gittern players at Basel.

 

Michael Gondko is an exquisite lute and gittern player. He has a CD (Von Edler Art)  with a clavicytherium player (well what else?)

Try here for some samples

http://www.allmusic.com/album/von-edler-art-w172775

It's not easy to figure out how to play extracts but try listening to the Dufay piece "Ce jour le doibt"

 

 

Then there is Marc Lewon who plays gittern and lute and other things. He used to have a website with lots of mp3 examples. I hope he won't mind if I upload one of his pieces from the Faenza Codex with a vielle player, which used to be on line:

http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/LewongitternFaenza.mp3

 

And there is Duo Pietrobono with with Jean Paul Bazin and Catherine Perrin.

 

Stuart

 

Comment by Bill Samson on October 5, 2011 at 8:37

The gittern always gets a smile.  As far as I know there's no specific music for it, but with the uke tuning a lot of renaissance guitar stuff can be played - completely anachronistic of course, but who's a purist?  Also great for strumming chordal accompaniments.

It's fun to make too, if you can find a suitable thick plank of maple or whatever to carve.

Comment by Mark Day on October 5, 2011 at 1:35

I've got to get around to building myself one of those. It looks like a really fun and portable instrument to have. Why mess around with a uke when you can play early music on one of these, eh? How much music is out there for it?

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