Cetera cithern / cittern / cetara / citara / cetra / cetula

Cetera cithern / cittern / cetara / citara / cetra / cetula / cedra / archicithern / archicittern / cittern-theorb / cithern-theorb.

Lute used in Europe. Origin : Tuscany.

The Cetera (cithern) is a flat body instrument and belongs to the lute family, round shaped, with metal strings, close to the 16th century Italian “chitarrone”. The large fingerboard has 18 positions. It was played with a feather in England in the 18th century ( instrument N°183 at the Museum of the Conservatory of Paris) The first french cithern has 11 strings: 3 series of tripled strings tuned (D-C-G-A) + a last couple of strings. In Italy, there are citherns with 6 doubled strings (A-G-C-E-F-D), 9 doubled strings or 10 doubled strings (for a total of 20 strings).
There are citherns with varied and queer shapes, including extra bass-strings played aside from the fingerboard (archicithern -archicittern).
Today the cetera / cetara / / cetula / mauresque guitar (corsican popular cittern / cithern) is very popular in Corsica with the re-discovery of Felix Quilici’s researches in ethnomusicology. The instrument is now frequently played in the classical, contemporary and folk corsican music (renowned corsican bands such as A Filetta, Tavagna, Caramusa…). The practice of the instrument is now taught at the “Phonothèque of the Musée de la Corse ” (Anthropology Museum of Corsica) in Corti. The corsican cithern named cetera or cetara was popular in all the italian peninsula during the XIXth century but the original shape of the instrument dates back to the XIth century. The best concert cetera have been manufactured since 1991 by Christian Magdeleine, born in 1963 (above photo). Others manufacturers in Corsica are M. Buresi and Formentelli. This corsican cithern locally called cetara or cetera (from the tuscan name) has 16 strings tuned two by two in each degree of the minor mode scale. The cetera is made of different woods suc as laricio Pine (table of the body), maple (neck)…

Performers:

• Barnardu Pazzoni, Corsica
• Ghjuseppu Figarelli, Corsica
• Daniel Natalini, Corsica
• Micheli Raffaelli, Corsica
• Nandu Acquaviva, Corsica

Buzuki buzuq / buzukee / bozuk

Buzuki buzuq / buzukee / bozuk. Origin: Greece, Turkia, Kurdistan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt.
The buzuq is probably derived from a Turkish instrument of the same type. It has a small, deep, round body and a long neck fretted with metal strings. The instrument is tuned on a tempered mode, microtonal scales are thus impossible to be played. The instrument has eight strings set in pairs. Traditionally, the buzuq was played as a solo instrument by the immigrant gypsies from Syria and Lebanon.
Instruments close to buzuk are : the cura ( 3 strings ), baglama (6 strings ), asik sasi (9 strings) and meydan sasi (12 strings)
Performers: Ali Jihad Racy (Lebanon). P.H.D. in ethnomusicoloy from the University of Illinois. Professor of music at UCLA – Sivan or Civan Paewer, Kurdistan – Raoul Robecchi, Corsica.

Balalaïka

Balalaïka. Slav origin. The present model dates back to the end of the 19th century.
It is a three- string – instrument, approximately the same size as a mandolin, with a triangle-shaped body. The ancestor of the balalaïka is the dombra, which is the ancient Russian lute.