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On the Origin of the Chitarrone Author(s): Douglas Alton Smith Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the American Musicological

Society, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Autumn, 1979), pp. 440-462 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/831250 . Accessed: 29/11/2011 13:27
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On the Origin of the Chitarrone


BYDOUGLAS ALTON SMITH

a variety of instruments were used to provide chordal accompaniment for vocal and instrumental music. One of the most common of these was the chitarrone, a large lute with an extra octave of diatonically tuned contrabasses on an extended neck, invented towards the end of the sixteenth century. The chitarrone or tiorba, as it was later called, was one of the most important instruments of early monody and opera, and remained a significant thoroughbass instrument all over Europe throughout the entire baroque. It is prescribed for use in works by the leading practitioners of the seconda prattica-Caccini, Peri, d'India, Cavalieri, Monteverdi, Gagliano-and many other lesser figures, and was still used in Italian church orchestras and German court music ensembles well into the eighteenth century.' Though the chitarrone has long been recognized as historically important, and has recently, with the archlute, attracted a good deal of attention,2 there is still some confusion about its nomenclature; and the most fundamental questions of the chitarrone's origin-who invented it, where, when, and why?--have never been satisfactorily answered. For instance, modern scholars commonly interchange the terms chitarrone, theorbo, and archlute in translations of baroque sources. This practice probably stems from Curt Sachs's classification
URING THE THOROUGHBASS ERA

See Henri Quittard, "Le thdorbe comme instrument d'accompagnement,"Revue musicalemensuelle,VI (1910), pp. 221-37 and 362-84; Hans Neemann, "Laute und Theorbe als Generalbassinstrumente im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert,"Zeitschriftfiir MuXVI (0934), PP- 527-34; Tharald Borgir, "The Performance of the sikwissenschaft, Basso Continuo in Seventeenth-Century Italian Music" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, I97i). I am preparing a study of lute music in the baroque era, which will also describe the role of the chitarrone and archlute as solo and continuo instruments in Italy, France, and Germany. 2 Compare Mirko Caffagni, "Introduzione," in Alessandro Piccinini, Opera, II (Bologna, 1965), pp. vii-xvii; Hans Radke, "Wodurch unterscheiden sich Laute und XXXVII (1965), pp- 73-4; Radke, "Theorbierte Laute Theorbe," Acta musicologica, XXV (1972), PP. 481(Liuto attiorbato)und Erzlaute (Arciliuto),"Die Musikforschung, 4; Robert Spencer, "Chitarrone, Theorbo and Archlute," EarlyMusic, IV (1976), pp.
407-23.

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE CHITARRONE

441

of all lutes with long contrabass strings as archlutes,3 which oversimplifies the actual relationships between these instruments. On the question of origin, even Robert Spencer, who has combed through an enormous amount of source material, can do no more than speculate that "the chitarrone was most probably evolved around 1580 by a member of the Camerata of Florence as a necessary adjunct of the new style of song writing, musica recitativa."4 The present study is an attempt to resolve these questions. I The first mention of the chitarrone occurs in the description by Bastiano de' Rossi of the famous six intermezzi performed in Florence during the wedding celebration of Ferdinand I de' Medici and Christine of Lorraine, published immedately after the event in May 1589. Describing the appearance of Armonia Doria (sung by the celebrated soprano Vittoria Archilei) in the prelude to the first intermezzo, Rossi writes: In essa nugola una donna, che se ne ueniua pian piano in terra, sonando un liuto, e cantando, oltre a quel del liuto, ch'ella sonaua, al suono di grauicembali, chitarroni, e arpi, che eran dentro alla Prospettiua, il madrigal sottoscritto.5 In this cloud was a lady, descending slowly towards the earth, playing a lute and singing the madrigal below to the sound of her own lute and of harpsichords, chitarrones, and harps [concealed] behind the scene.

The same scene is also described by Cristofano Malvezzi in the preface to his edition of the music for the intermezzi: Questo Madrigale cant6 sola Vittoria This madrigal ["Dalle piti alte moglie d'Antonio Archilei, che gra- sfere"] was sung solo by Vittoria, the tissimi seruono il Serenissimo Gran wife of Antonio Archilei, both of Duca sonando ella un Leuto grosso whom most gratefully serve his seaccompagnata da due Chitarroni so- rene highness the Grand Duke. She nati uno dal detto suo marito, e played a large lute and was accoml'altro da Antonio Naldi anch'esso panied by two chitarrones, one seruitore stipendiato della medesima played by her husband and the other Altezza.6 by Antonio Naldi, also a salaried servant of the same sovereign. derInstrumentenkunde, ed. (Leipzig, 1930), pp. 225-7. 2nd 3Curt Sachs, Handbuch 4 Spencer, p. 408. e s Bastiano de' Rossi, Descrizione dell'apparato, degl'intermedi, per la commedia fatti in Don Ferdinando rappresentata Firenze. Nelle nozze de' Serenissimi Medici, e di Madama Cristinadi Loreno,GranDuchi di Toscana(Florence, 1589), p. I8. 6 Cristofano Malvezzi, Intermediiet concerti, in fatti per la commedia rappresentata Firenze nelle nozzedel serenissimo Ferdinando Don di Medici, e MadamaChristiana Lorena,

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JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Efforts to find an earlier reference to the chitarrone in documents and published treatises of the Florentine circle and related ones of the period have been unsuccessful. It is not mentioned, for instance, in the Dialogo (1581) of Vincenzo Galilei,7 although Galilei discusses contemporary musical instruments such as the lute, harp, cittern, flute, viola da gamba, and viola da braccio. Nor does Galilei refer to it in his Fronimoof 1584. Several letters of Alessandro Striggio, written in 1584, contain references to the latest musical practice (in Ferrara, where he was visiting) and to Giulio Caccini, later one of the chitarrone's foremost proponents, but none to the chitarrone. For instance, Striggio writes on 29 July 1584: "Signor Giulio will be able to play either lute or harpsichordvery well from the bass."8Bastiano de' Rossi does not mention the chitarrone in his description of the Florentine nuptial festivities for Virginia de' Medici and Cesare d'Este in February of 1586. Six intermezzi similar to the ones performed in 1589 were composed and performed, also under the direction of Giovanni de' Bardi, for the 1586 wedding celebration. Stringed instruments, including lutes, harps, viols, and harpsichords were extensively used in the 1586 intermezzi, especially to accompany solo singing. In the first intermezzo, for instance, Mercury sang a solo "to the sound of viols, lutes, harpsichords, and organodi legno."9In the third, Flora sang "to the sound of a lute and a harp" and was answered by her husband Zeffiro "to the sound of the same instruments."10 If the chitarrone had been known in Florence in 1586, it seems probable that it would have been used in these intermezzi. Judging from the extent of its use in the intermezzi three years later, its absence here is conspicuous. I suggest that the instrument was invented at some time between the appearanceof Rossi's two Descrizioni: Februand May 1589. Indeed, for reasons that will become clearer ary 1586 below, it appears likely that the chitarrone was first conceived and built in late 1588 or early 1589 especially for the Florentine intermezzi
of I589.
de gran duchidi Toscana(Venice, 1591), cited in Musiquedes intermides "Lapellegrina," ed. D. P. Walker (Paris, 1963), p. xxxvii. antica et della moderna 7 Vincenzo Galilei, Dialogo della musica (Florence, I 58 i). 8 Riccardo Gandolfi, "Lettere inedite scritte da musicisti e letterati, appartenenti
alla seconda metd del secolo XVI. ..

del 9 Bastiano de' Rossi, Descrizione magnificentiss. apparato.e de' maravigliosiinterin nozzedegl'illustrissimi,ed medifattiper la commedia rappresentata Firenzenellefelicissime eccellentissimi d signoriil signorDon Cesare Este, e la signoraDonna VirginiaMedici(Florence, 1585), fol. 6'. In the Florentine calendar of this period the new year began on 25 March; hence the apparent discrepancy between the dates of Rossi's publication and of the wedding. 1oIbid., fol. I5v-

," Rivista musicale italiana, XX (1913),

P. 530.

ON THE ORIGINSOF THE CHITARRONE

443

It seems certainthat the chitarronewas intended to serve in the 1589 intermezzi in the role of the ancient cithara. The dramatic themesof the intermezzi were all drawnfromclassicalantiquity.The Florentineswere well aware that the ancient Greeks accompanied singing with lyres and citharas,and the survivingcostume sketches forthe intermezzi drawnby Bernardo show the musicians Buontalenti fancifulreplicasof just such instruments.'1 In the fifth interholding the mezzo, for instance,whichrepresented taleof "ArionCitaredo,"'2 Malvezzireportsthatthe modernArionwas accompanied a chitarby
rone: Questo Ecco fti cantato da Jacopo Peri detto il Zazzarino con maravigliosa arte sopra del chitarrone, & con mirabile attentione de gli ascoltanti.13

This echo was sung by Jacopo Peri, called il Zazzarino, with marvelous art to the chitarrone, and to the rapt attention of the audience.

One or two chitarrones participated in the accompaniment of more than half of the numbers in the six intermezzi, including all of those for cantosolo, which were those in the most modern, ostensibly ancient style. In two of these, Peri's solo and that of the castrato Honofrio Gualfreducci in the sixth intermezzo, it was the only instrument of accompaniment. 14 There is still further reason to associate the chitarrone with the Florentine preoccupation with ancient music. Although Galilei's manifesto of 1581 does not mention the chitarrone, it contains an extended discussion of the ancient cithara and its stringing and use by Greek musicians. Culling his information from Boethius (and of course his original inspiration from Girolamo Mei1"),Galilei traces the development of the cithara from a small, four-stringed instrument invented by Mercury to a large instrument with an ultimate configuration of
(facingp. 267)and92 (facingp. 410). The latter,the drawingof JacopoPerias Arion, is also reproduced the cover of ClaudePalisca,Baroque on Music(EnglewoodCliffs, N.J., 1968). 12Rossi, Descrizione (1589), p. 57. 13Malvezzi,p. [fifty]. 14 See Malvezzi, der pp. xxxvii-lvi or Emil Vogel, Bibliothek gedruckten weltlichen Vokalmusik Vol. I, reprint(Hildesheim,1962), pp. 383-5, for partiallists of Italiens, the musicians instruments participated the six intermezzi. and that in HowardMayer Instrumentation: Music theFlorentine The Brown,Sixteenth-Century Intermedii ([Rome,] of known to havebeen used. 1973),lists all instruments 15 See ClaudePalisca,"Girolamo Mei: Mentorto the Florentine The Camerata," Musical XL Quarterly, (0954), PP. 1-20.
melteSchriften,Vol. I, ed. Gertrude Bing (Leipzig and Berlin, 1932), illustrations 80

" Aby Warburg,"I costumiteatraliper gli intermezzi 1589,"in his Gesamdel

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JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

fifteen strings. For most of the various tunings Galilei gives charts, which show the instrument in all its stages to have been tuned diatonically or, in Galilei's and ancient Greek terms, in superimposed, interlocking tetrachords. The large cithara in its final stage of development was tuned thus:'6 a'g'f' e' d' c' ba gfe dcBA The tuning of this instrument, if transposed down one octave, is related to the tuning of the chitarrone. The fingerboard strings of the chitarrone are tuned like those of the descant Renaissance lute-but with the first two courses an octave lower than lute pitch bec'auseof the chitarrone's long string scale -and the seven or eight contrabasses are tuned diatonically:17 aa ee bbgg dd AA G F E D C B' A' (G') It is significant that these contrabasses are single instead of double, as are all basses on late Renaissance and baroque lutes. This characteristic and the diatonic tuning represent departures from the lute tuning of the time18 and make likely the influence of the cithara. The inven16 Robert Henry Herman, "Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna of Vincenzo Galilei: Translation and Commentary" (Ph.D. diss., North Texas State University, 1973), p. 728. 17 Renaissance lutes were built in a multiplicity of sizes, with commensurate variety in pitch. Michael Praetorius, in De organographia (Wolfenbiuttel, 1619; facsm. ed., Kassel and Basel, I963), p. 51 lists seven sizes, whose first strings were tuned to d"(or c"),b', a', g', e', d', andg. The chitarrone's tuning of the fingerboard strings is obviously based upon the lute's, though it cannot be conclusively shown that the influence of Galilei's cithara was the factor that led to the selection of the A lute tuning as the basis for that of the chitarrone. A few German and English baroque sources-Praetorius is the earliest-give a G tuning for the chitarrone (they all use the term "Theorbe" or "theorbo");otherwise the A tuning is the standard one. The most common configuration of strings on surviving chitarrones of the early i7th century is six double courses and eight single contrabasses, but more or less courses are not uncommon. is The long, thin, single-strung contrabasses on a chitarrone produce a sharper, more penetrating sound by comparison with its shorter fingerboard strings, or with the double-strung basses of a lute, and hence create two different sonorities on the instrument. Perhaps to reduce the disparity in sound between fingerboard and contrabass courses, many I7th-century Italian archlutes and late-i 7th- and 18th-century German theorboes have double-strung contrabasses. With regard to tuning, the sixcourse lute was standard for almost the entire 16th century, though a seventh course is mentioned by Sebastian Virdung (I 51 ) and Hans Judenkunig (I523). After about I56o a seventh course tuned either a whole tone or a fourth below the sixth course began to appear frequently in Continental tablatures. The earliest instance of an e eighth course in published lute tablatures is in 1585 (in Michele Carrara'sRegoleferma

one, Galilei's Dialogooffers evidence that such an association was by no means unusual. He writes of the harp: "Among the stringed instruments which are in use today in Italy, there is first of all the harp, which is none other than an ancient cithara with many strings, although somewhat different in form."20Of the cittern: "It was called cetera by its inventors, perhaps in order to revive the ancient cithara."21He also mentions "the viola da braccio, called lyre not too many years ago in imitation of the ancient [one] with regard to
name. "22

445 tor, clearly a lutenist, obviously wished to consider himself a citharoedist'9by convertinghis instrumentinto a modernversionof the citharabut without sacrificing essentiallute tuning of the fingerthe boardstringsto which he was accustomed. could today that the Florentines Though it may seem implausible havecreateda new instrumentunderthe guise of revivingan ancient
ON THE ORIGINSOF THE CHITARRONE

These designations for instruments, of course, grew out of the humanist atmosphere that dominated Italian Renaissance culture. For another musical parallel from the same circle, one need only think of the manner in which the discussions of Greek theater by the Florentine Camerata gave rise to the genre of opera. Spencer was the first to suggest that the chitarrone was named after the cithara.23 The term chitarrone ("large cithara")could have been chosen because the new instrument represented the largest version of the old one, and/or because the chitarrone itself was quite large, and doubtless also to distinguish it from the cittern and the guitar (the latter was called chitarraor chitarrino).

vera); Antoine Francisque's Le Trisord' Orphie(Paris, i6oo) is the first publication to require a ninth course. As Radke has pointed out, the tuning of these low courses usually contains a skip and is not generally completely diatonic until the appearance of music for ten- and eleven-course lute in the second decade of the 17th century. See Hans Radke, "Beitragezur Erforschung der Lautentabulaturendes i6.-i8. Jahrhunwho sang and accompanied himself on the ci19 The "citharoedist"(citharedo), thara, is distinguished by Galilei from the "citharist" (citharista),who played solo instrumental music. The citharoedist was honored more than the instrumental soloist. See Herman, p. 603. 20 Herman, p. 885. 21 Herman, p. 916, used the term "zither" for cetera, which is a mistranslation. 22 Herman, p. 918. Galilei is of course referring to the lira da braccio. 23 Robert Spencer, "The Chitarrone Francese," Early Music, IV (1976), p. i66: "Concerning the etymology of 'chitarrone,' I assume the I6th- and i7th-century Italians meant a large Kithara, since the singers with their accompanying chitarroni were intentionally imitating what they thought was the declamatory style of the ancient Greek poets."
derts," Die Musikforschung, XVI (1963), PP- 34-5 1.

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II is The inventorof the chitarrone identifiedby Mersenneand Doni24 as Antonio Naldi (often referredto by his nicknameil Bardella), a lutenistemployedat the Medicicourt and, as is shown by Malvezzi's account, one of the musicianswho participatedin the 1589 intermezzi. But both writersare too far removedin time from the actual eventto be completelytrustworthy.Some modernwriters25 Caccite inventionin the preface cini as givingNaldi creditfor the instrument's to Le nuovemusiche, actuallyCaccini simply says that Naldi inbut ventedthe best "partidi mezzo"-the innervoices of accompaniment on the chitarrone.26 Fortunatelythere is anotherold source, overlookedby investigators of the chitarrone's history, that conclusivelyidentifiesthe inventor. The Archiviodi Statoin Modenacontainsa letterdated31 October 1592 from Emilio de' Cavalierito LuzzascoLuzzaschi,in which Cavalieri Late speaksof a recentvisit to Ferrara Giulio Caccini.27 by that same month Caccinihad returnedto Florencefroma visit to the d'Estecourt, where he had heardthe famoussinging ladiesand performedfor the court himself. After lengthy praisefor the quality of in and music-making Ferrara commenton a new type of organhe had Cavalieriwrites: developed,
24 Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle,trans. Roger Chapman (The Hague, 1957), P- 73. In a list of printing errors in his book (published at Paris in 1637), Mersenne wrote: "I have called the second figure on the right [an illustration of an eleven-course archlute having a single first string and ten pairs] a Theorbo [Tuorbe], which the Italians call 'Arciliuto,' and which ought rather to be called a lute with double neck, because aside from the fact that the Theorbo is much larger, it has only one string to each course, and it was about thirty or forty years ago that Bardella invented it at Florence." Giovanni Battista Doni, Lyrabarberina, (Florence, 1763), pp. 23-4. "Era in quel II tempo nella Camerata del Sig. Giovanni [Bardi], Giulio Caccini Romano di [eta giovenile; ma leggiadro Cantore, e spiritoso, il quale] sentendosi inclinato a tal forte di Musica, molto vi si affatic6; componendo, e cantando molte cose al suono di un instrumento solo, che perlopiui era una Tiorba, trovata in quei medesimi tempi in Firenze da . . . [sic: 14 dots] detto il Bardella."Mersenne refers several times in his book to personal correspondence with Doni, who may therefore have been the source of his information. 25 X Georg Kinsky, "Alessandro Piccinini und sein Arciliuto," Acta musicologica, Ernst Pohlmann, Laute Theorbe Chitarrone, 4th ed. (Bremen, 1975), (I938), p. 105; p. 290.
26 See the translation of Caccini's preface in Giulio Caccini, Le nuovemusiche,ed. H. Wiley Hitchcock (Madison, 1970). Hitchcock's translation is for the most part very accurate, though unfortunately he changes the name of the instrument (that is, "chitarrone"is translated as "archlute"). 27 Modena, Archivio Estense, Musica Busta seconda (Sonatori e Cantori).

OF ON THEORIGINS THECHITARRONE

447

Mi [ha] anche detto che a S:A: ha sadisfatto molto il suo Chitarone, et il modo de la Cordatura, del quale S:A: ne ha voluto il ritratto et veramente se V.S. sentisse Antonio Naldi detto il Bardella musico di questa A:, il quale lui lo hA inventato, et lo suona in tutta ecc.za crederei che sodisfacesse infinita.te a V.S., et partico.te per cantarvi sopra.28

He [Caccini] also told me that his highness [Alfonso II d'Este] was very satisfied with his chitarrone and the mode of tuning, of which his highness wanted the drawing. And truly if you could hear Antonio Naldi, called il Bardella, a musician of his highness's here, who invented it and plays it excellently, I believe you would be infinitely satisfied, particularly when it accompanies singing.

Cavalieri had been brought from Rome to Florence by Grand Duke Ferdinand in September 1588, to assume the "superintendence of all church and chamber music, for voices as well as instruments of all kinds,"29 and to supervise the musical and theatrical activities for the wedding. Since he was thus Naldi's superior and must have been one of the first to see and hear the new instrument played, his word can hardly be doubted. Cavalieri's letter not only firmly identifies Naldi as the inventor of the chitarrone, it also helps clarify the date of invention and the physical appearance of the instrument. From the nature of Cavalieri's remarks, the chitarrone was obviously still a novelty in 1592 and was previously unknown, or at least unseen, in Ferrara. This lends credence to the hypothesis advanced above that the chitarrone was invented in 1589 or shortly before. Furthermore, the letter reveals that the tuning or stringing (cordatura) made the chitarrone very distinct from the lute in appearance, otherwise Duke Alfonso would not have desired a drawing of it. This fact is important because there is another claimant for the honor to have at least indirectly invented the chitarrone's neck extension and contrabasses: the lutenist Alessandro Piccinini.

28

The letter was first published by Henry Pruniares, "Une lettre inddite d'Emilio

Rivista musicale italiana, XXXVI

Caffagni, Modena, for calling my attention to this letter, and for his transcription from the original. Prunieres modified orthography and punctuation at several points; it is here given as in the original. Part of the letter, with several deletions of text (including the paragraphabout the chitarrone), is printed in the introduction to Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Madrigali, ed. Adriano Cavicchi, Monumenta di musica italiana, Ser. II, Vol. II (Kassel, 1965), p. i8. 29 Ulderico Rolandi, "Emilio de' Cavalieri, il Granduca Ferdinando, e l'Inferigno,"
(1929),

del Cavaliere," La revue musicale, IV (1923), pp. 128-3 3. I am grateful to Dr. Mirko

p. 29.

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III
Alessandro Piccinini (1566-c. 1638) is listed together with his father and two brothers-all of them lutenists-on the rolls of the court musicians in Ferrara from December 1582 until the dissolution of the court in 1597.30 Piccinini later settled in Bologna, where his Intavolatura di Liuto, et di chitarrone: Libroprimo was published in 1623.31

In the introduction to this collection of pieces for arciliuto and chitarrone are two brief chapters that pertain to the present subject. Since these sections have not previously been published in English translation,32 and because they have ramifications for the present topic

beyond Piccinini's claims, they are given in full below.


Dell'Arciliuto, e dell'Innentore [sic]

d'esso, Cap.XXXIIII. Doue h6 nominato il Liuto, h6 voluto intendere ancor dell'Arciliuto per non dire, come molti dicono, Liuto come se Attiorbato, l'inuentione fosse cauata dalla Tiorba, A Chitarrone, per dir meglio, il che e falso, e lo so io, come quello, che sono stato l'Inuentore di questi Arciliuti: anzi hauend'io fatto fare li primi come se detta inueutione [sic] per all'hora fosse poco stimata, per ispatio di due anni non si vide abbracciata da nissuno, ne si vedeua alcun simile stromento fuor, che quelli, ch'io faceuo fare. Pure e stata poi vltima perfettione al Liuto, & ha dato vita al Chitarrone. Et che ci6 sia vero, si sa, che essendo io l'Anno M.D. LXXXXIIII.
30

On the Archlute and its Inventor, chapter34.

Where I mentioned the lute I also wished to imply the arciliuto, not to though it were an invention derived from the tiorba, or more correctly, which is false. I know this chitarrone, because I was the inventor of these arciliuti.33 I even had the first ones made, although this invention was little esteemed at the time and for two years was not adopted by anyone, nor was any similar instrument seen aside from the ones that I had had made. Nonetheless the ultimate perfection of the lute was thus achieved, and it gave life to the chitarrone. And [to prove] that this is true,
say liuto attiorbato, as many do, as

let it be known that I, being in i594 Anthony A. Newcomb, "The musicasecretaof Ferrara in the I58o's" (Ph.D.
1970), p. 246. 1962 and 1965).

diss., Princeton University, 31 2 vols. (rpt. Bologna,

translation of most of both chapters. Both are omitted in Stanley Buetens, "The Instructions of Alessandro Piccinini,"Journalof theLuteSocietyof America,II (1969), pp.
6-17.

paragraphs of the "Chitarrone" section; Kinsky, pp.

32 Quittard, pp. 223-4, gave a French translation of parts of the second and third
og9and I14-15, gave a German

33 Though it may seem that Piccinini here refers to the chitarrone or tiorba as and arciliuti, he actually means just the arciliutoor liutoattiorbato.Chitarrone tiorbaare, to my knowledge, never confused or equated with arciliuto in Italian sources of the first half of the i7th century.

ON THE ORIGINSOF THE CHITARRONE

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in the service of his highness the Duke of Ferrara, went to Padua to the workshop of Christofano Heberle, one of the foremost luthiers, and had him make as an experiment a lute with a body so long that it could serve as an extension for the contrabasses. It had two bridges quite far apart. However, the resulting instrument had a small sound, since the contrabasses could not be played near the bridge. Thus I had another made with the extension on the neck, and this succeeded very well. Then three others were made in like fashion with more diligence and they were exquisitely successful. I took all of them to Ferrara, where they were heard with great pleasure by his highness my master and by the most excellent Prince of Venosa, who was then there.34 They were delighted by those very sonorous basses. His highness gave two of the lutes to the above-mentioned Prince of Venosa, who took them on his way to Naples, leaving one in Rome, which then came into the hands of the Cavalier of the Lute,35 who always used it, infinitely relishing this invention. When I was in Rome, after the death of the Cavalier, the same lute returned to my hands. More about the arciliuto with the Quell'altro poi Arciliuto del corpo longo detto di sopra, quand'andai long body mentioned above: when I al Seruitio dell'Illustrissimo Cardi- came into the service of the most ilnale Pietro Aldobrandino lo lasciai in lustrious Cardinal Pietro AldobranFerrara al Signore Antonio Goretti dini I left it in Ferrara with Signor mio tanto caro amico, il quale ancora Antonio Goretti, my dear friend, lo conserua nel suo celebre Studio di who still has it preserved in his faMusica, doue non solamente ha in mous Studio di musica.36 In one al seruigio del Serenissimo Duca di Ferrara, andai A Padoua alla Bottega di Christofano Heberle, principalissimo Liutaro, & li feci fare per proua vn Liuto di corpo cosi longo, che seruiuaper tratta de i contrabassi, & haueua due scanelli molto lontani, vno da l'altro, & riusci di poca voce, perche non si poteuano toccare i contrabassi appresso lo scanello; tal che ne feci far' vn' altro con la Tratta al manico, & riusci buonissimo, poi simile A questo nei feci far tre altri con maggior diligenza e" riuscirono isquisiti, i quali tutti portai A Ferrara doue dal Serenissimo mio Signore, & dall'Eccelentissimo Principe di Venosa, che all'hora iui si trouaua furono con grandissimo gusto vditi; e molto lor piacquero quei Bassi cosi sonori, e Sua Altezza ne don6 due al sudetto Principe di Venosa, il qual con esso lui li port6 alla volta di Napoli, & ne lasci6 vno in Roma, che poi capit6 alle mani del Caualier del Liuto, il qual sempre l'adoper6 gustandoli infinitamente tal inuentione; & essendo io Roma, dopo la morte del Caualier sopradetto, il medesimo Liuto mi ritorn6 nelle mani. 34CarloGesualdo,the Princeof Venosa,tookEleonora d'Esteas his second wife in Ferrara early1594. He remained,with interruptions, that city until i596. in in del for 35 The Cavalier Liuto, by whom a varietyof attractivecompositions solo lute survive,has sometimesbeen identifiedas the lutenistLaurencini Rome, but of without the supportof documentary evidence. In 36 The wordstudioat this time is synonymouswith "university." this case it refers both to intellectualresearchand the tools of this research-the libraryand collectionof instruments.

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vna camera ogni sorte di stromenti Antichi, e Moderni tanto da fiato quanto da corde di bellezza, e bontai isquisiti, ma tiene ancora con ordine bellissimo in vn'altra Stanza tutta la Musica Antica, e Moderna, cosi da Camera, come da Chiesa, che sia possibile ritrouarsi. del & Dell' Origine Chitarrone, della Pandora.Cap. XXVIII. Gia molti anni sono che in Bologna, si faceuano liuti di bonta molto eccelenti 6 fosse l'esser fatti di forma lunga a similitudine di pera, 6 fosse l'hauer le coste larghe, che l'vno fa dolce, e l'altro armonioso; basta che, per la lor bonth erano molto stimati, & in particolare da i francesi, i quali son venuti a posta a Bologna, per portarne in Francia pagandoli tutto quello che era loro domandato, talche pochissimi hora sene trouano; & oltre di cio si faceuano liuti grandissimi, che in Bologna erano molto apprezzati, per suonare in concerto con altri Liuti piccoli passiemezi, Arie, & altre simili. E la bonta di questi Liuti cosi grandi si scopriua maggiormente, perche li teneuano alti d'accordatura talmente, che la prima corda, non potendo arriuare cosi alta vi posero in vece di quella vn'altra corda grossa accordandola vn'ottaua pii bassa, il che riusciua per quell'effetto benissimo, come hoggidi ancor si vsa. Doppo alcun tempo, cominciando a fiorir il bel cantare parue a quei Virtuosi, che questi Liuti grandi, per esser cosi dolci, fossero molto a proposito d'vno, che canta, per accompagnamento; ma trouandoli molto pi%bassi del bisogno loro, furno

room he has all sorts of ancient and modern instruments, both winds and strings, of exquisite beauty and quality, and in another place he keeps in wonderful order all the old and new music for chamber and church that one could possibly find.37 and OntheOriginof the Chitarrone, of 28. the Pandora. Chapter Many years ago in Bologna there were made lutes of very excellent quality, either in a long form similar to a pear, or with wide staves [i.e. ribs], so that one lute would play sweetly, the other sonorously. Suffice it to say that they were highly esteemed for their quality, particularly by the French, who came to Bologna expressly to take them back to France, paying any price that was asked, so that now few are found. In addition, very large lutes, much appreciated in Bologna, were made, to play passamezzos, arias and similar pieces in ensemble together with other, small lutes. The quality of these large lutes revealed itself all the more when the tuning was raised to a point where the first string, unable to be tuned so high, was replaced with another, thick string tuned an octave lower. This succeeded with such good effect that it is still done today. After some time, when il bel cantare began to flourish, it seemed to these virtuosi that these large lutes, being so sweet, would be very appropriate for accompanying a singer. But finding them tuned much too low for their needs, they had to

omittedhere, containsremarks the publication Piccion of 37 A finalparagraph, nini'svolume.

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE CHITARRONE

451

necessitati fornirli di corde piu sottili tirandoli in tuono commodo alla voce. E perche le seconde non poteuano arriuare con 1'essempio dell'altra corda le accordono vn'ottaua piu bassa; & cosi hebbero il loro intento e questo fu il principio della Tiorba, 6 vero Chitarrone; e di poco tempo inanzi ch'io facessi fare la tratta a i contrabassi, era venuto a Ferrara, il Signor giulio Caccini, detto il Romano huomo Eccelentissimo nel bel cantare chiamato da quelle Altezze Sereniss. il quale haueua vn Chitarrone d'Auorio accomodato in quella maniera medesima ch'io ho detto di sopra, della qualle si seruiua, per accompagnamento della voce; fuori poi dell'occasione del cantare nissuno suonaua di Chitarrone, ma quando io feci poi fare la tratta alli contrabassi, molti Virtuosi inuaghendosi di quella armonia e commoda varieta di corde, cominciorno a cercar maniera (non ostante l'imperfettione, che apportaua loro quella prima, e seconda corda vn'ottaua bassa accordate) di dilettare ancora col suono solo; nelche essercitandosi alcuni in poco tempo riuscirono molto Eccelenti; e quindi il Chitarrone comincio il suo grido.

furnish them with thinner strings and tune them up to a pitch comfortable for the voice. Since the second [strings] could not be tuned so high, they were tuned down an octave just like the first. Thus they accomplished their aim, and this was the origin of the tiorba, or chitarrone. A little while before I had the extension made for the contrabasses, there came to Ferrara Signor Giulio Caccini, called II Romano, an excellent practitioner of belcantare,sent for by their serene highnesses [Alfonso and Margherita d'Este]. He had an ivory chitarrone arranged in the same manner as I have described above, which served to accompany his voice. Except for the purpose of [accompanying] singing, nobody played the chitarrone.But when I had the extension made for the contrabasses, many virtuosi, taking a liking to this harmonious and convenient variety of strings, began to find a way (in spite of the imperfection produced by the tuning down an octave of the first and second courses) of giving pleasure with solo playing as well. After that, some people began to practice in this way [solo], and thus the chitarrone began to be popular.38

Several of Piccinini's points can be substantiated by other sources. As shown above, Caccini indeed came to Ferrara a few years before
38 A final part of this section that does not directly pertain to the present topic is given here for the sake of completeness. "I say likewise that the chitarrone equipped with metal strings, as is customary particularly in Bologna, has a very sweet sonority and brings pleasing new sounds to the ears. I have now removed some imperfections and found a new way to make these instruments that vastly improves their quality: I have replaced the fifth and sixth strings and the contrabasses with silver wire, and each contrabass on the long and short extension conforms to need [i.e., the extension is slanted so that the contrabass string lengths are graded according to pitch]. I have [thus] increased the sound [armonia]extraordinarily. They call this instrument thus equipped the pandora. Even though it is not too large, which makes it convenient [to handle and play], nonetheless it holds the sound very long and is sufficiently deep to [profondo] accompany a singing voice, which is a rare thing. And it holds the tuning very well." (A final sentence provides a transition back to the practical instructions.)

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Piccinini's ostensible new invention was made, and demonstrated his chitarrone. Also, Piccinini did make a trip to Padua to have a new lute made with an elongated body, and this curious instrument survives today in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.39 Kinsky has traced its history from the maker's workshop and subsequent storage in Goretti's studio to its sale in about I66o to Archduke Carl Ferdinand of Tyrol in Innsbruck, whence it came to the Viennese museum in the nineteenth century.40 Furthermore a letter written on 31 January 1595 by Piccinini to Duke Alfonso reports the progress of building new lutes with long bodies. Essendo arivato in Padua alli venticinque del presente subito ordinai i lauti, et ancora che gli mastri si siano mostrati alquanto dificultosi in far lauti novi per questi tenpi [sic]freddi non mancheranno pero di far il meglio che potranno, e certo se io non gli fossi in proprio fatto a ordinarli come voglio non farebbeno cosa buona, e gli pare un lauto molto stravagante pero sper si farA qualche cosa di buono, ancora che io non ho trovato fondi longhi come desiderava che vengono di alemagna cosi fatti bisogna adunque far al meglio che si potra per hora mi dispiace solo che il Sigr Prencipe non sara servito di havere al suo lauto quela goba perche bisognarebbe far una forma nova il che sarebbe con longhezza di tempo et contro la loro opinione la quale si e che niente di utilita debba aportavi detta gobba ma avemo trovato dele forme piu apropriate et credo riusciranno et hafio gia dato bonissimo principio e staro adonque aspettando ottimo fine .. .41 Having arrived in Padua on the twenty-fifth of the present [month] I immediately ordered the lutes. Even though the luthiers have made strong objections to building new lutes in this cold season they will nonetheless do the best they can. It is certain that if I had not gone to supervise them they would not have done a good job, since [such] a lute seems very eccentric to them. However I hope that something good will come of this, in spite of the fact that I could not find, as I desired, such long bellies that come from Germany. For now one must do the best one can. I am only sorry that the prince will not be gratified by having this hump on his lute,42 because it [would] be necessary to make a new mold, which would take considerable time, and [would be] contrary to their opinion that nothing useful will be gained by the addition of this hump. But we have found more appropriate molds [for the long lute], and I believe they will succeed, and they have already made a very good start
1920),

alterMusikinstrumente 39 Julius Schlosser, Die Sammlung (Vienna, A. 46) and plate 7.


40
41

p. 56 (no.

Kinsky, pp.

110o-12.

antica e moderna. . . (Modena, Luigi-Francesco Valdrighi, Nomocheliurgografla 1884; reprt. Bologna), 1967, p. 272. that the prince (Duke Alfonso) wished to 42 The exact nature of the hump (gobba) have built on his lute cannot be determined from this evidence. See Caffagni, p. xv, Fig. 2a, for a possible interpretation.

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE CHITARRONE

453

From this correspondence it can be seen that Piccinini made the trip to Padua in i595, not 1594 as he later recalled,43 and that the luthiers foresaw the ultimate failure of the long-bodied lute. The label in the long lute now in Vienna reads "PADOVA 1595 Vvendelio Venere," and on the edge of the neck and the base of the body are found the brand "W.T." (Wendelin Tieffenbrucker?).44Thus Piccinini also erred about the identity of the lute maker, unless Heberle, who is otherwise unknown, was an employee in the Venere workshop. There are more serious inconsistencies in Piccinini's account and in his claim to have invented the neck extension. He reports that Caccini had had a chitarrone earlier, but implies that it was merely a large lute with its strings tuned up to normal lute pitch and with its first two courses tuned down an octave lower than on a small lute. He mentions no contrabasses. Spencer accepts this explanation.45s the desire of Yet Duke Alfonso to have a drawing of Caccini's new cordaturacannot possibly have been prompted solely by thicker strings on the first two courses; the instrument must have looked quite different from a large lute. Large lutes themselves were nothing new in the i590s. They are listed in the Raymund Fugger instrument inventory of 156646 and in the luthier Lucas Maler's estate list of 1552,47 and are called for in the

43A further correspondence, from Giacomo Alvise Cornaro to Duke Alfonso, dated Padua, 3 March 1595, also mentions Piccinini's expedition. "Upon the return of Mess: Alessandro your serene highness will see the work that has been done on the lutes, which seem to have turned out well, which I hope will satisfy you." See LuigiFrancesco Valdrighi, Musurgiana(Modena, 1886; reprt. Bologna, 1970), pp. 27-844 Schlosser, p. 56. 45 Spencer speculates that Caccini's chitarrone had short contrabasses of the sort depicted in two different paintings of lutenists by the I7th-century artist Jan Molenaer. ("Chitarrone, Theorbo and Archlute," p. 408.) It is unlikely that this instrument would have been called a chitarrone, however, since an instrument of this kind, though extremely uncommon, existed at least two decades before Naldi's invention. A very similar one is shown in the hands of an angel musician in the painting "MariaMaddalena portata in cielo" by Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-66) in the Galleria Pitti in Florence. It has either five or six courses on the fingerboard (the detail is insufficiently clear on the print I was provided with) attached to a normal bent-back pegbox, and eight bass strings, on an extension, that are about one-third longer than the fingerboardstrings. Both the chitarroneof Naldi and the arciliutoof Piccinini were therefore preceded by other experiments with long bass strings. 46 Richard Schaal, "Die Musikinstrumenten-Sammlung von Raymund Fugger XXI (1964), pp. 214-15. (An English translation d.J.," Archivfiir Musikwissenschaft, and edition of the inventory will appear in the i980 issue of the GalpinSociety Journal.) The inventory lists numerous bass and contrabasslutes, in addition to smaller ones. 47 Lodovico Frati, "Liutisti e liutai a Bologna," Rivista musicaleitaliana, XXVI (1919),

pp. 1o9-Io.

SOCIETY JOURNALOF THE AMERICANMUSICOLOGICAL 454 musicalliteratureas early as 1507.48 Moreover,a sharpdistinctionis in and maintained betweenthe chitarrone, grosso, liuto liuto piccolo Malin the Ferrarese vezzi's descriptionof the 1589 intermezzi49 and instrumentinventoryof 1600,5o to nameonly two examples. To acceptPiccinini'sstory is to assumethat the instrument Naldi chitarinventedwas somehowdifferentfromthe seventeenth-century was rone, andthat the long extensionfor the contrabasses addedsome time after 1595. However, there is currentlyno evidence for such a nor "pre-chitarrone," is there any evidencethat Piccinini'sostensible inventionof the neck extensionwas acknowledged his contempoby raries.Mersenne's Doni'sidentification Naldi as the inventorof and of the tiorbaor chitarrone leaves no doubt as to whom latergenerations considered fatherof the instrument.The sole inventionfor which the Piccininiis given creditin old sourcesis the pandora,51 instrument an that was played scarcelymorethan the long-bodiedarchluteof 1595Thus it seems that Piccinini'sclaim that his invention of the neck extensionfor the lute "gavelife"to the chitarrone must be discounted, in the absenceof evidenceto supporthim.

48 The lute musicpublished Petrucci in 1507and 1509oftenrequires tenorand by bass lutes (tuned with their first stringsat e' and d' respectively).See Benvenuto da Bossinensis (Milan, 1964), Disertori,Lefrottole cantoe liutointabulate Franciscus per passim. 49Malvezzi,p. xlvi, describesthe instrumentation the sinfoniain the fourth of intermezzo follows:"Uscivail concerto as dellaSinfoniada un'Arpa, sonatadaGiulio due Caccini,un Chitarrone, Leuti grossi, due piccoli, .. ." 50 The "Inventari Strumenti di Musicalide' Serenissimi d'Este" takenon 18 December 16oo are printed in Valdrighi,Musurgiana, 387-8. Among other inpp. struments listed"trelauti, cio? due grandie uno piciolocon sue casse,""unlauto are con miniato sua cassafodratadi velutorosso,"and "unchitarone davolio[i.e. d'avorio] bianco,con sua cassa." 51 Vincenzo Giustiniani,in the la Discorso trans. Carol manuscript sopra musica, Studiesand Documents,IX (Rome, 1962), p. 78, wrote: MacClintock, Musicological Piccininoof Bolognawasthe inventor the pandora; of that "I will say thatAlessandro of is, of a lute madeinto a theorboby the addition manystringsin the bassand many in the top, and amongthemsome stringsof brassand some of silver."On the follow"The aforesaid Alessandro Piccininohas recentlyinventedan ing page he continues: instrument similarto the plectrum(lyre?)of Apollo, a combination theorbo,lute, of but cithara,harpand guitar,which performs marvels; it will not be used much because of the difficultyof learningto play it with the facility with which he himself Giustinianiis twice describing sameinstrument Piccinini the that played."Probably himselfmentions 1623(seeabove,n. 38).Kinsky(p. 107) suggeststhatthis pandora in to in Museum (Schlosmaybe identical a "Lyra-Cister" the ViennaKunsthistorisches

ser, p. 61, no. 66).

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455

IV
Still another reason to doubt Piccinini's claim is the existence today of a chitarrone in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with the label Magno Difobruchar a Venetia 1589.52 (See Fig. I.) Magnus Teiffenbrucker

was a member of the renowned German lute-making family that was active in Venice and Padua during the sixteenth and the first part of the seventeenth centuries. He is documented between 1557 and 162 I.s Chitarrones made by him dated during the early seventeenth century survive in a variety of museums and private collections and represent some of the finest specimens of the art of lute making. All other chitarrones dated before 16oo known to the present author have either been altered in later generations or are outright fakes.54 While it is unusual for an instrument of the lute family to undergo virtually no alteration in four centuries, the only obvious anachronisms on the Boston Tieffenbrucker are the fanciful, heavy bridge and some crude internal barring.55The workmanship on the shell, belly, and neck is very fine. One often sees in museums "chitarrones"that consist of a fine ivory or shaded yew shell and a crude neck extension, instruments that were obviously altered between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries for sale to uninformed collectors.56 This is certainly not the case with the Boston Tieffenbrucker, for not only is the
52

vom s3 Willibald Leo Freiherr von Ltitgendorff, Die Geigen-undLautenmacher Mittelalterbis zur Gegenwart,II, 4th ed. (Frankfurt/Main, 1922), p. 516. There were probably two Magnus Tieffenbruckers, of whom this one was the younger. 54 This includes the instruments attributed to Magnus Tieffenbrucker in the Samling Claudius, Copenhagen, the Stadtmuseum, Munich, and the Castello Sforzesco, Milan. ss I examined the Tieffenbrucker at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in July 1976. In July 1978 the luthiers Robert Lundberg and Ray Nurse also studied the instrument and graciously provided me with the following analysis: The instrument is unquestionably authentic, and the only question is whether the neck extension was added in 1589. The body is identical in outline, and in number, width, and shape of ribs to two undated lutes by Magnus Tieffenbrucker now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The neck is quite similar in width and thickness to those of the two Viennese instruments, and the veneer on the extension appears to match that on the neck. The belly is also genuine. It is thus probable that the instrument was built as a chitarrone, though the present state of research on old lutes does not permit a categorical conclusion. 56 This is the case with the Tieffenbrucker instrument in the Castello Sforzesco, museum, an anonymous instrument in the Deutsches Museum, Munich (no. 35252), and many others elsewhere.
Milan (inventory no. 227), the one by "Petrus Trocta ... 1603" (no. 230) in the same

p. 235 and plate 9.

Nicholas Bessaraboff, Ancient European MusicalInstruments (Cambridge, I941),

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MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY JOURNALOF THE AMERICAN

@i!+ ii~i !iiiiiiii~

.... .... '~i++++i


::.:.. : ;l. ,:: .:-~ i O

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+ i.

====================

Venice, I589. (Boston, Museum Figure I. Chitarrone MagnusTieffenbrucker, by of Fine Arts.)

neckwell madeand tastefullyinlaidin the Venetianstyle of the perito a od, it appears represent transitional designthat may havepreceded the more or less standardform of the neck extensionduringthe seventeenthcentury."7 The first pegbox, for the fingerboard strings, resemblesthat of a normal seven-courseRenaissancelute, closely
s7 Compare, for instance, the undoubtedly genuine chitarrone by Magnus Tieffenbrucker in Schlosser, plate 7.

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE CHITARRONE

457

made with nearly equally thin cheeks and an open back rather than with a considerably thicker cheek on the bass end and a closed underside, as on most later chitarrones. The instrument is also shorter than many early-seventeenth-century chitarrones by the Tieffenbruckers and other German-Italian makers. Moreover, most seventeenth-century chitarrones have six pairs of strings on the fingerboard and eight single contrabasses, whereas the Boston instrument has seven pairs on the fingerboard and six single strings on the extension. The six contrabasses would thus descend to A' and correspond exactly by octave transposition to the lower octave of the large cithara described by Vincenzo Galilei. Possibly, then, this was the original stringing of the chitarrone of Naldi. On the basis of the above considerations, assuming the label to be genuine,58 there is presently no reason to doubt that the Boston Tieffenbrucker is what it seems to be. I submit that it may thus have been one of the chitarrones used by Naldi, Archilei, and Peri in the Florentine intermezzi of 1589.

The inventions of the chitarrone and archlute, then, may be reconstructed as follows. In late 1588 or early 1589, Antonio Naldi conceived the chitarrone and commissioned the luthier Magnus Tieffenbrucker of Venice to make it for the Medici wedding celebration. Doubtless Tieffenbrucker made several exemplars, of which the Boston instrument is the only one to survive today. Quite apart from its striking appearance and its relation to ancient Greek theatrical practice, the instrument had a lasting appeal for lutenists because of its strong, sonorous contrabasses. Such an instrument was taken to Ferrara by Caccini in 1592, and it probably inspired Duke Alfonso d'Este later to send Piccinini to Padua to order an experimental lute with an extended body instead of an extended neck. Since this instrument was immediately recognized as a failure, Piccinini subsequently ordered lutes with extended necks like the one on Caccini's chitarrone. In his recollection of these events published nearly three decades later, Piccinini erred about Caccini's instrument, either through poor memory or through vanity. V The new invention was first called chitarrone, and the terms tiorbaand liuto attiorbato or arciliuto were applied to the same or related in58 It is a printedlabel that closely resemblesthose by the same makerin the Viennese collection(Schlosser,p. 135) and in the formerHeyer collectionnow in Museum in Leipzig(GeorgeKinsky,Musikhistorisches von Wilhelm Heyer Ciiln[Cologne,
I912],

p.

272).

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SOCIETY JOURNAL OF THE AMERICANMUSICOLOGICAL

struments later. The earliest mention of the liuto attiorbatois in the of Intavolaturadi Liutoattiorbato.Librosecondo Pietro Paolo Melli (Venand the first volume of Claudio Saracini's Le musichepubice, 1614) lished in the same place and year. Melli's first book of pieces is now lost. As Piccinini has observed, liuto attiorbato is derived from the word tiorba and means a lute that has a neck extension and contrabasses like a theorbo or chitarrone. Piccinini evidently coined the term arciliuto, for it is not documented before 1623. Claudio Monteverdi, in a letter of 28 December 1610, used still another term for the lute played by Francesca Caccini: "Before leaving Rome I heard ... in Florence [sic] the daughter of Signor Giulio Romano sing and the harpsichord."59All very well and play the leutto chitaronato these designations containing the word liuto in the seventeenth century refer to a lute in normal Renaissance tuning with a set of contrabasses on an extended neck. This instrument is necessarily smaller than the chitarrone, since its first two courses are at standard descant or alto lute pitch (a' and e', org' and d'), and many extant examples are double-strung (in octaves) in the contrabasses instead of single-strung as on the chitarrone.60 The term tiorbahas puzzled musical instrument specialists for decades, but with the aid of some documents that have recently come to light a new explanation of its origin can be offered. Robert Spencer finds it first mentioned in John Florio's Italian-English dictionary The Worldeof Wordes (1598) as "a kind of musical instrument used among countrie people," and in a subsequent edition (16i i) as "a musical instrument that blind men play upon called a Theorba."61 Spencer concludes "that the instrument was unknown in England at that time (i.e. because a courtly instrument was described as a "countrie"one). However, there is ample evidence that indicates the tiorbawas exactly what Florio said it was. A letter from the Ferrarese courtier Leonardo Conosciuti to Cardinal Luigi d'Este on 26 February 1585 describing a public festival in Ferrara reads, in part: Ne vi fu cosa che potesse piacereal There was nothing there that could popolo, se non quel carrod'Orbiche please the people except the cart of
59 Claudio Monteverdi, Letteredediche eprefazioni, ed. Domenico de' Paoli (Rome,
60 Several surviving instruments by the Venetian luthier Matteo Sellas would probably have been considered arciliuti. See, for instance, the example of 1637 in Anthony Baines, Victoriaand Albert Museum:Catalog of MusicalInstruments,Vol. II (London, 1968), figs. 40 and 41, and Kinsky, Musikhistorisches Museum,p. 95. 61

1973), p. 52.

Spencer, p. 411.

ON THE ORIGINSOF THE CHITARRONE

459

cantavano, ch'and6 anco la matina, su'l quale era Figotto con una Tiorba dinanzi che non havea ne corde, ne cosa che buona fusse se non che vole[v]ano il molinello, et con quel moto, et con le sue zannate facea ridere la Brigata.62

singing blind men, which circulated during the morning as well, and on which was Figotto with a tiorba [hanging] in front of him that had neither strings nor anything else that was good, except that they demanded the little whirligig [motion], and with that motion and with his jokes he made the brigade [of onlookers] laugh.

From this reference and Florio's definitions it seems clear that the term tiorba designated a hurdy-gurdy in Italy in the sixteenth century. Since the fifteenth century the hurdy-gurdy had been associated with blind beggars.63 The tiorba is associated with the humble and the blind both by Florio and Conosciuti, and Conosciuti's reference to a cranking motion ("il molinello, et con quel moto") appears to indicate a hurdy-gurdy. This interpretation of the term is confirmed by another, previously unpublished document in the Medici archives in Florence. A bill of 8 May 1596 from the organ builder Francesco Palmieri at the Florentine court requests payment for a keyboard instrument operated by wheels: Il ser.mo gran Duca de[ve] dare lire His highness the Grand Duke must otanta sono per fattura de un istru- pay eighty lire for the building of an mento in tre pezzi a uso di tiorba da instrument in three sections in the sonare per forza di rote dove vi e manner of a tiorba, played by means stato di molti perdimento di tempo of wheels. There was much time in condurli e rimasti imperfeti fatovi wasted making them, and they reatorno alchune spese e tuto per ser- mained imperfect and caused some vitio di S. A. Sermacon ordine del [extra] expenses, all in the service of sig.re Emilio de Cavalieri quali stru- his highness upon the order of Sigmenti uno a uso de spineta senza nor Emilio de' Cavalieri. The incorde e senza tastaturae due case con struments, one in the manner of a cinque ruote per ciaschuno et tute di spineta [still] without strings and without keyboard and two cases legname64 with five wheels for each one, and all in wood.
62 Anthony A. Newcomb, p. 412. I have modified the translation. I am grateful to Professor Newcomb for furnishing me with the last part of this quotation; the letter will appear as Document 49 in his forthcoming book The Madrigalat Ferrara: 157963 Marianne Br6cker, Die Drehleier: Bau und ihreGeschichte, Orpheus: SchriftenIhr reihe zu Grundfragen der Musik, XI (Dusseldorf, 1973), PP- 393 ff64 The text of this document was graciously provided by Warren Kirkendale, who has permitted me to publish the excerpt here. The complete bill will be included in Professor Kirkendale'sArchival Studieson Music, Musicians,and Artists at the Court of Ferdinand de'Medici(in preparation). The instrument is a "Niirnbergisches GeigenI

'597.

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Independently of these sources, etymologists arrived at the same meaning for tiorba. Wartburg found that it earlier signified the viola da orbo("blind man's viol" or hurdy-gurdy) in Como and hence by extension came to mean "nearsighted"in a large part of Northern Italy from Venice to Milan.65 Angelico Prati finds the earliest mention of the tiorba in La piazza universale(Venice, 1585) of Tommaso Garzoni, where the author writes of a ciarlatanonamed Gradella who "imitated a blind man with a cute little dog in his hands instead of a tiorba."66 Here again the tiorba has the connotation "blind man's instrument"; presumably Gradella entertained his audience by cranking the puppy's tail. The etymology of the word tiorbahas been traced still further by Giovanni Alessio, who postulates its ultimate derivation from the Slavic and Turkish term torba, meaning "beggar's sack."67According to Alessio, the Venetian dialect sometimes diphthongizes the vowel o to uo, and the diphthong uo can be transmuted to io; thus Venice is the most likely point of origin for the Italian term tiorba. Since Venice is geographically much closer than are Ferraraand Florence to Istria and Dalmatia, where the word torba is recorded, this explanation seems highly credible.68 If tiorba originally designated the hurdy-gurdy of blind beggars, the question remains how it came to be applied to the chitarrone of the Florentine court musicians. The tiorbais first equated with the chitarrone by Alessandro Guidotti in his preface to Cavalieri'sRappresentatione di anima e di corpo in I6oo: "Un Chitarrone, 6 Tiorba che si dica. . ."69 The qualifying remark "che si dica" suggests that the use
werk," invented about 1575 by Hans Haiden. Vincenzo Galilei had seen one in Munich and described it in his Dialogo. An example made by Haiden was eventually sold some time after 1653 to Ferdinand II de' Medici, and is presumably the one

listed in the Medici instrumentinventory of 1716: "Un Cimbalo con tastatura con d'avorio, invenzionedi cinque Ruote per toccarle corde di budellaad uso d'un is See ghironda" (ghironda the modernItaliantermfor hurdy-gurdy). Kinsky,"Hans des Haiden,der Erfinder Niirnbergischen Geigenswerks," fir Zeitschrift Musikwissenschaft, VI (1923/4), PP. 193-214. The quotation is from p. 2 x 1. "Die Ausdrticke die Fehlerdes Geschichtsorgans den 65 W. von Wartburg, in ftir
Alessio, etimologiche linguistiqueromane,XVIII ('954), p. 5768 Alessio's of
romanischen Sprachen und Dialekten," Revue de dialectologie romane, III (1910 ), p. 432. 66 Angelico Prati, Vocabolario etimologico italiano (Milan, 1970), p. 98467 Giovanni "Ricerche su voci italiane

antiche," Revue de

69 The preface is given in facsimile in Tamar Clothylde Read, "A Critical Study and Performance Edition of Emilio de'Cavalieri'sRappresentatione anima e di corpo" di

etymology the word has been challengedby Prati, "Vicendedi Revue linguistique de XIX (p955),pp. 213-14. In the light of the new Parole," romane, documentation presentedabove, however,Prati'sobjectionsare unconvincing.

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE CHITARRONE

461

of the word tiorbafor a chitarrone was not yet widely known. One can only speculate that during the 1590ossome chitarrone players, perhaps prompted by wags, had begun to use the ironic nickname tiorba for their instrument, just as violinists today affectionately call their instrument a fiddle, or a jazz musician calls his clarinet an axe. The terms tiorbaand chitarrone, despite the distinction in size made Praetorius70and repeated by nearly every modern writer on the by subject, mean exactly the same instrument. Not only Guidotti, but also Aggazzari, D. Barbarino, Piccinini, and G. G. Kapsberger name them together as synonymous, and virtually every other old writer who mentions the instrument uses either one term or the other exclusively. During the course of the seventeenth century tiorbagradually superseded chitarrone,so that by mid century the word chitarrone,its original significance doubtless long forgotten, ceased to be used.
POSTSCRIPT:ON TERMINOLOGY TODAY

The term "chitarrone"has been used rather than "theorbo" in this study because it was the earliest designation and because, as has been shown, it reflects the neo-Hellenistic trend in late sixteenth-century Florence that gave birth to the instrument. "Chitarrone" was preferred by Caccini, Piccinini, Cavalieri, Monteverdi, and many other musicians of the very early baroque, perhaps for these same reasons. However, as Spencer has demonstrated in his article cited above, only the terms theorbe, tuorbe,"theorbo"and so forth were known outside of and after a half-century the word chitarronehad slipped into Italy, oblivion even in Italy itself. Therefore "theorbo"might be used today for all long-necked instruments of the lute family that have their first and second courses tuned down an octave. "Chitarrone"may be used interchangeably with "theorbo"in reference to the instrument in Italy and particularly when referring to the instrument of the Medici court musicians and of early monody and opera. The designation arciliuto refers to a normal small lute with long contrabass strings;liuto attiorbatois a synonym. The widespread modern application of the word "archlute"to the theorbo may stem ultimately from a misreading of Piccinini or from Johann Mattheson's statement that "Die Italiener nennen dis [sic] Instrument [the Theorbe]
(D.M.A. diss., University of Southern California, 1969), pp. I35-6, and in transillustrates a "Paduanische Theorba," slightly under 51/2 70 Praetorius, p. 52, (Brunswick) feet long, and a "lang Romanische Theorba:Chitarron"that measures nearly 7 feet.
lation on pp. 14I ff.

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nicht selten Archileuto oder Archiliuto,und die Frantzosen Archiluth."71 However, Mattheson was subsequently corrected in personal correspondence by the Dresden court lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss, who had spent the years 1708- 14 in Rome and was thus intimately familiar with the Italian practice: "The theorbo and arciliutoare quite different even from each other."72 Despite the obvious convenience of a catch-all term "archlute"for all theorboes and theorboed lutes, the theorbo and archlute should be distinguished from each other, both for historical consistency and because their function in a continuo body is not exactly the same. In general, the theorbo has a larger volume, fuller resonance, a lower tessitura that blends well in an ensemble, and it provides strong, sonorous support for a soloist. The smaller archlute, on the other hand, has, because of the higher-pitched upper two strings, a very penetrating sound, and can also be played more nimbly, which makes it particularly effective with diminutions and cadential ornaments. Neither the theorbo nor the archlute is a "bass lute," as they are sometimes called today,73 though the tenor or bass lute (liutogrosso) played a role in the evolution of the chitarrone. The bass lute-the term stems from Praetorius and German practice-is simply a large lute with all its courses tuned a third to a fifth lower than the smaller lute that was probably more often used soloistically, and if it has basses below the normal six courses, they lie over the fingerboardand are attached to the regular bent-back pegbox, not an extension. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich I am gratefulto the Alexandervon Humboldt-Stiftung a fellowshipthat for enabled me to carry out the present research.I also wish to thank Dr. Petrobelli his kindassistance for withthe translations this study. in Pierluigi

Johann Mattheson, Das Neu-Eroffnete Orchestre (Hamburg, 71 3), p. 278. 72 Douglas Alton Smith, "Baron and Weiss contra Mattheson: In Defense of the Lute," Journal of the Lute Societyof America, VI (i973), p. 60. I originally translated Weiss's Arciliuto as "chitarrone"and hereby acknowledge the mistake. 73 See, for instance, Roger Bray, "Performer'sGuide," EarlyMusic, VI (1978), p. 581.
71

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