Not Folk: More Bach

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: CarolC
Date: 08 May 01 - 01:12 PM

Thanks for the links Don Firth! Those are great.

Carol

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 May 01 - 01:44 PM

Hells Bells! I should have read the text in the first link I put on more thoroughly. "This is one of those theorbos that it would be quite legitimate to call a chitarrone since that was the term in use in Venice at that time. However theorbo is the more general term." Okay, I'll buy that. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 May 01 - 01:38 PM

Some years ago my wife Barbara and I went to a concert given by lutenist Steven Stubbs, who, at the time, was based in Seattle but has since moved on. After playing several pieces on the lute, he introduced his newly acquire "theorbo" and brought out a beast that looked like this, but here, it's labeled a "chitarronne".

I roamed around on google.com a bit. Under "theorbo" I came up with this. I also found this (like the one Steven Stubbs had). Under "chitarronne" I found this. Looks like the same instrument to me. I tend to think that there are a variety of arch-lutes or bass-lutes that go by the names "theorbo" or "chitarronne," with the words used interchangeably. If someone knows for sure, I'm more than willing to be enlightened.

"Guitarronne" came up with the Mexican bass guitar often seen in Mariachi bands.

Try getting one of these suckers into an airline overhead locker. . . !!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: CarolC
Date: 07 May 01 - 01:06 PM

Thanks John P. It may have been what you are describing. I couldn't get a good look at the pegbox, although I really wanted to. From what I could see, it didn't look like there was a separate one for unfretted bass strings, but I couldn't swear to it. The pegbox was pretty long though. Actually, everything about the instrument was long.

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: John P
Date: 07 May 01 - 07:08 AM

Carol,
Apparently, chittarone is a subset of theorbo. Some folks, then and now, don't distinguish between them. I found pictures of chittarones with both flat and rounded backs. The main feature is that the long extension and separate pegbox for the set of unfretted bass strings is about three times longer than on a normal theorbo.
JP

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: CarolC
Date: 06 May 01 - 05:54 PM

Hi all!

Guess what? At the end of the show, they gave the names of the instruments. I was wrong about the viola da gamba. I had automatically assumed it was one because I couldn't imagine a cello being played together with an instrument like a lute or a theorbo. And I couldn't see it very clearly. Turns out it was a cello.

As for the other one. The announcer said it was a theorbo. I guess they must come in a number of sizes and even shapes. I know a musician who has one that is much smaller and has a bent neck. The one I saw on television was probably a good foot or so taller than me and had a straight neck. It sounded beautiful with the voices, though.

John P. the instrument I saw had a rounded back. Would the chitarrone have a flat back? I think I might know someone who has one of those, too.

Thanks,

Carol

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: John P
Date: 05 May 01 - 08:36 AM

Carol,
It was probably a chitarrone. The book I'm looking at (Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance by David Munrow) claims that the theorbo and the chitarrone were both developed as accompanyment instruments out of a dissatisfaction with the sound of the bass courses on the lute. So, yes, it sounds like both are part of the lute family.

John

Subject: RE: Not Folk: More Bach
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 05 May 01 - 06:37 AM

I don't think there was a standard size for theorbos or lutes once upon a time. I have a cd entitled "Three, four, and twenty lutes" (Jakob Lindberg, Robert Meunier, Nigel North and Paul O'Dette; BIS#CD-341) which mentions a bass lute in the insert; maybe that's what you saw in the picture.

Subject: Not Folk: More Bach
From: CarolC
Date: 05 May 01 - 03:30 AM

Well, sort of...

I'm just now watching and listening to a program of Motets of the Bach family on television. The singers are being accompanied by a woman playing a viola da gamba, and another woman playing something that looks like an enormous theorbo. Only it looks like it's easily six feet long, altogether. The neck and pegboard alone look like they're at least five feet long. The body looks like it could be two feet long.

Do any of our early music people know what such an instrument might be called? Would this instrument and the theorbo both be in the same family as the lute?

Thanks!

Carol