Citole

What it means

The citole is a plucked instrument of the Middle Ages with a flat body, often made from a single piece, a short neck, and few strings that were plucked with a plectrum. Its outline differs clearly from the round-bellied lute: the body often runs shoulder-like into the neck, and the back is flat or only slightly arched. Very few instruments survive; most knowledge comes from pictorial sources and descriptions, which is why information on the number of strings and the tuning remains uncertain.

Musical use

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the citole often appears in depictions of courtly music-making, usually as an accompanying instrument to singing and dance or in combination with other quiet instruments. Because of the plectrum it is particularly suited to single-line melodies with a clear attack as well as to simple drone accompaniment. Toward the end of the Middle Ages it loses importance; its type of construction is often regarded as one of the precursors of later instruments such as the cittern, but the lines of development are not attested without gaps and are drawn differently in scholarship.

Performance practice

Players today draw on reproductions that are oriented on pictorial sources and the little surviving material; instruments from different workshops therefore differ considerably in scale, stringing, and sound. It is played with a plectrum, classically of feather or horn, with a distinct attack and sparing damping. For dance music a rhythmically firm attack carries more than richness of ornament. Tune the instrument to the ensemble and not to a fixed standard pitch, since different pitch standards are in use in early music. Keep gut strings protected from moisture and expect that they will have to be retuned more often.

Bear in mind that in medieval ensemble practice the instruments mostly follow or double the singing; an independent accompanying part in the later sense should not be presupposed. Keep the setting simple and work with drone sounds and rhythmic support. Check the choice of strings, since gut and metal make the sound fundamentally different and the sources say little about it. Settle the pitch in the ensemble. In programme notes, make clear that present-day playing rests on reconstruction.