{"id":4191,"date":"2012-05-05T16:27:28","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T14:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mandoisland.com\/?p=4191"},"modified":"2018-10-25T20:43:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T18:43:24","slug":"the-english-guittar-or-cittern-a-popular-plucked-string-instrument-from-the-18th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mandoisland.com\/?p=4191","title":{"rendered":"The English Guittar or Cittern – A popular Plucked String Instrument of the 18th Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am currently reading about the history of the English Guitar<\/strong> or Guittar<\/strong>, a kind of Cittern. Some time ago I have written a post about this instrument in my German blog www.gezupftes.de<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The guittar<\/strong> was developed after 1753 in Great Britain. According to the very detailed paper by J\u00fcrgen Kloss it has first been used by the actress Maria Macklin in a play that has become very popular. After this the guittar has become very popular for the next 50 years.<\/p>\n

The guittar has 6 courses and ist typically tuned in C-major. The guittar can be used to accompany the singing, but it can also be used to play instrumental music like that for the guitar. It can be played with the fingers, but also with a pick or quill. Early instruments had tuning pegs, later a system using watch keys has been developed similar to the system used for the Portuguese guitar.<\/p>\n

Rob MacKillop<\/strong> has compiled interesting information and pictures on his website (choose “guitar” first, then http:\/\/robmackillop.net\/guitar\/cittern\/<\/a> ). His videos can be found at the beginning of my playlist.<\/p>\n

Pictures of historical citterns can be foudn on the museum websites listed below.<\/p>\n

The first video shows an instrument from the workshop of John Preston from the 18th century:<\/p>\n

Robert Mouland on The English Guitar<\/h4>\n