#gittern

[sunset-aria]

Juthiel's Music (Illustration)

A character illustration commission for Thienaultha! Juthiel the bard rests against some roadside ruins, playing his trusted gittern. 

[filomena-lindestel]

Nice memory of how my bed looked during COVID lockdowns in 2021...

Three are even made by me, back in the days I still could.

[lutes-of-the-world]

This is a gittern, or quintern, a late medieval/early renaissance European instrument that has roots in the classical Roman cetra and in small Arabic instrument that survives in Yemen as the qanbus and along East Africa as the gabbus or gabusi.

The gittern was played melodically with a quill or gut plectrum in a manner that is still preserved in North Africa.

What I believe happened is that ouds and smaller instruments akin to the Yemeni qanbus, that came to Spain via the Muslim conquest of Andalusia, spread through Europe and merged with the local descendents of the Roman cetra to become instruments like this one.

The names cetra, cittern, gittern, guitar, and kwitra are etymologically related and have Proto-Indo-European roots. The cetra is Roman, the cittern, gittern, and guitar European, and the kwitra North African.

This gittern or quintern was made by Hans Oth in 1450. I don't think the name quintern refers to its five strings, but is rather an etymological cousin of the North African kwitra, which looks something like a larger version of this.

Note the rosette pattern is Gothic, not Arabic. The European lute had an Arabic rosette, due to its more direct provenance from the Middle East. The European guitar, cittern, and gittern had Gothic rosettes, due to their common origins in the Roman cetra.

I think small instruments related to the qanbus have fallen out of use in the Middle East, but are still played in parts of Africa. I think these surviving African traditions are older than the styles of oud playing found in the Middle East, and are remnants of a much broader tradition with origins in Central Asia and Greater Iran.

[myfavoritepeterotoole]

Peter O'Toole and Sian Phillips

Becket (1964) directed by Peter Glenville

Peter O'Toole as King Henry II

Sian Phillips as Gwendolen

- still -

[kpellinore]

Once this gets going, it's a real party. A much better party than when the band starts playing the Rains of Castamere. There are all kinds of goodies in here..a riq (Arabic tambourine), a shawm, a bombard (really, also a shawm), a dulcian, a gittern, and the bent instrument at the beginning that’s called a cornett (not related to the brass family cornet, though you do play this like a brass instrument, it seems to me from the description, buzzing your lips against a cupped mouthpiece). 

[myfavoritepeterotoole]

Becket (1964) directed by Peter Glenville

Richard Burton as Thomas Becket

Peter O'Toole as King Henry II

Sian Phillips as Gwendolen

[haustierblog]

👉 Überraschungs‑Tipp

[haustierblog]

👉 Überraschungs‑Tipp