#Cittern

[lutes-of-the-world]

Cittern, Urbino school, probably 16th century, with soundboard from the 18th century, auctioned at Christie's

[daily-instruments]

Daily Instrument — Cittern

The cittern is a lute from the Renaissance Era based on the Medieval citole. It has a pear shaped wooden body and a metal fretted neck. The instrument has four to six pairs of metal strings that are played with a plectrum and strung over a bridge. The cittern also has tenor and bass variants.

[heracliteanfire]

Cittern. Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, ca. 1685

(via The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

[hotpinkmurex]

The Music Lession, Johannes Vermeer.

For anyone reading my current Six of Crows Wesper fic, this is a muselar. Historical references to "virginals" can mean any stringed keyboard instrument (e.g., muselars, harpsichords and spinets) and were the predecessors of the pianoforte.

I could have picked "clavichord" to match the vaugely northern European vibe of Kerch but I did not. As is my right.

Also, listen to this guy play.

And below (on the right) is a cittern which sounds like this. Like a lute for the common people but most importantly, with metal strings.

The Duet, Cornelis Saftleven.

[beaartdesign]

Miniature instruments

Unique Collection of miniature model instruments. Each miniature Is Unique fully hand made by luthier as a construction model.

[petermorwood]

It sounds "Epic", but it doesn't sound "Discworld", and someone whose opinion I respect said "it should have ended in a major, not a minor."

A suggestion of "We Can Rule You Wholesale" in the style of the Last Night of the Proms would also have been just the thing, so please be upstanding for...

*****

@leveragehunters summed it up nicely by suggesting a hurdy-gurdy, an out-of-tune banjo and slapped-thigh percussion.

Rather than a banjo I'd go for a gittern / cittern - which may be the same thing or may not, depending on source. Either way it was a cheap-ish plucked instrument which IIRC was hung in 17th-18th century barber-shops for customers to amuse themselves while they waited for their shave-and-a-haircut, plink-plunk.

Also IIRC, a Pepys-era lady of easy virtue was known as "a barber's cittern, that any man may strum upon." I can't remember where I read that, but it's stuck for 40 years.

For the new audiobooks.

[celtic-cd-releases]

https://www.facebook.com/gavin.marwick

https://gavinmarwick.bandcamp.com/album/candlemas

https://open.spotify.com/album/38VbhQ5sbKqR6Te7Mr3BEW

[ineffable-gallimaufry]

actually i will complain about this. raine whispers is NOT a violinist. exhibit a.

it's obviously the alto clef. like look at that picture and tell me that's not the alto clef. they play a stringed instrument that could be either a violin or a viola based on what we can see, right? so that means that with this information it's obvious that if they're playing a string instrument and have music with an alto clef, they're a violist.

just please. let me have this one thing. pretty please.

[acrosscenturiesandgenerations]

▪︎ Bass Cittern.

Culture: Germany (?)

Date: 1580-1596

[vriendenboekjes]

im always on nederlandseluitvereniging.nl/advertenties

[lutes-of-the-world]

Swiss Halszither (a cittern), 1850.

[aroacemisha]

Some bard magic thoughts-

So I’ve been wondering how exactly bard magic performed via music works, as in where it draws its power from.

The fact that Eda’s curse corrupts the pretty filter floaty magic when she plays her bell cittern means that a witch’s or demon’s natural magic or any curses that affect said magic do/can at least affect magic performed with an instrument:

But I’ve been wondering where bard magic performed via playing an instrument actually draws its power from, and whether a magicless person can use bard magic that way.

We know that magicfolk with natural powers can play an instrument without anything magical happening as a result:

A human or a powerless witch/demon could definitely do that too.

But can a powerless person use bard magic via playing an instrument?

Does it draw its power from the individual’s natural magic, thus preventing powerless people from using it? Or does it draw from the ambient magic on the Isles, which would mean that powerless people could use it at least until the finale, but may or may not be unable to use it now that the Titan’s magic is gone? Or are the instruments themselves enchanted/magical, allowing anyone to use magic through them at any time? Or can they draw power from multiple sources?

(Eda being able to use a bit of bard magic before her curse starts corrupting it doesn’t really answer that, as it seems that she does technically still have natural magic, but it’s been irreversibly weakened and corrupted by her curse, and we also only saw her playing the instrument while the Titan’s magic was still present. So we don’t know where the bell cittern was drawing magic from, none of the possibilities can be easily ruled out)

Unless I missed something or it’s been confirmed one way or the other, I’m leaning towards powerless people being able to use bard magic via playing an instrument, I think that’s more fun.

[unearthmyburiedheart]

The WAEVE (Graham Coxon & Rose Elinor Dougall) at Rough Trade East in London on February 4, 2023. ✨

Credit: deniseespositoart on Instagram (February 2023) 🖤

[peachships]

Watching o.wl house again and it's the episode in s2 where we find out she can do bard spells and my sleepy brain was like "Imagine her playing songs for you when you're little to help calm you down when you're trying not to transform or when you're sick" and immediately started crying I love her so much

[immax-maybe]

You've been calling it something? I just say "the thing/instrument Eda plays" since the beginning

Apparently we’ve all been calling Edas instrument the wrong thing

[moishe-pipick]

Cittern playing automaton, attributed to Juanelo Torriano (Spanish, 2nd half of 16th century.) Painted wood, iron, linen, silk brocade. Height: 44 cm.