Ceterone [citara tiorbata]

(It.; Fr. cisteron; Ger. gross Zittern, gross Cither).

A large Italian Cittern with several extra bass strings usually attached to a second, extended peg box, in the manner of a Theorbo or chitarrone (in the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system it is classified as a lute). It was in use during the late 16th century and throughout the 17th. Like all citterns, it was designed for wire strings (brass and low-temper steel) and thus usually had a strong construction. The extra bass strings made the instrument suitable for playing continuo.

An early reference to the ceterone may be the ‘alchuni citaruni’ ordered by the Duke of Mantua in 1524, but nothing is known about these instruments, nor is anything known about the instrument that Zarlino (1558) calls ceterone in reference to its use by the Spanish.

Although Italian citterns commonly had six double courses, there was a tendency (as with lutes in the late 16th century) to expand the bass range downwards. Paolo Virchi (1574), for example, mentions a seventh course, and Simone Balsamino (Novellette, 1594) describes his own invention: a seven-course cetarissima, with steel and brass strings played with a combination of thumb and plectrum, 19 frets and the following tuning: A–d–g–c'–e'–g'–c''. This tuning is unlike the typical re-entrant tunings of other citterns, and its very wide open string range suggests a separate peg box for at least the lowest two courses.

Agazzari (1607) mentioned the ceterone as a useful instrument for a continuo ensemble, and Monteverdi listed ‘ceteroni’ as well as ‘chitaroni’ among the instruments used in Orfeo (1609). Mersenne (1636–7) described the ‘cisteron’ as having 14 single courses and a flat back. Several tunings were given for the ceterone, most of them using the cittern’s traditional re-entrant pattern. Robinson (1609), for example, included some pieces for a 14-course instrument tuned G'–A'–B'–C–D–E–F/G–d–f–b–g–d'–e', and gave an illustration of an instrument with seven double courses on the fingerboard and seven single bass strings (fig.1). Melli (1616) gave a tablature ensemble part for a ‘citara tiorbata’ that had at least nine courses tuned A–B–c–d–f/b–g–d'–e'; it is not known if the courses were double. Praetorius (2/1619), however, gave the following tuning for a 12-course cittern: e–B–f–c–g–d–a–e/b–g–d'–e', which has an unusual rising and falling arrangement from the 5th to the 12th courses similar to that of the Lirone. Mersenne’s tuning also seems to imply a similar arrangement, although it is difficult to be certain since the printing of his tuning table (1636, ii, f.98v is corrupt. Very few ceteroni have survived, but there is an excellent example by the cittern maker Gironimo Campi (fig.2) in the Museo Bardini (no.137), Florence.

Several late 19th- and early 20th-century works on instruments (e.g. Galpin and Sachs) use terms, such as syron, sirene, bijuga cither etc., in reference to extended bass citterns, but there is little historical basis for this usage. Commonly, the German term Erzcister and the French archisistre are used incorrectly as well. They relate to south German and French wire-strung, finger-plucked instruments with open strings tuned typically to a major chord (with extra basses), dating from the late 18th century to the 20th. These instruments are not true citterns at all, but are akin to the English guitar.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MersenneHU

PraetoriusSM, ii, iii

G. Zarlino: Le istitutioni harmoniche (Venice, 1558/R)

P. Virchi: Il primo libro di tabolatura di citthara (Venice, 1574)

A. Agazzari: Del sonare sopra ’l basso (Siena, 1607/R; in Eng. trans. StrunkSR1)

T. Robinson: New Citharen Lessons (London, 1609)

P.P. Melli: Intavolatura di liuto attiorbato, iv (Venice, 1616)

F.W. Galpin: Old English Instruments of Music (London, 1910/R, rev. 4/1965/R by T. Dart

C. Sachs: Real-Lexikon der Musikinstrumente (Berlin, 1913/R)

N. Fortune: ‘An Italian Arch-Cittern’, GSJ, v (1952), 43

A. Michel: Cither, Cithrinchen, Zister (Suhl, 1989)

P. Forrester: ‘The Cittern in Consort’, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.83 (1996), 65–74

E. Segerman: ‘Reply to Peter Forrester’s Comm. 1445 on English Citterns’, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.84 (1996), 43–50

JAMES TYLER