Cittern

What it means

The cittern is a plucked string instrument with a flat, usually pear- or heart-shaped body and metal strings, played with a plectrum. This sets it apart from the lute, whose rounded back is strung with gut and which is normally plucked with the fingers.

A defining feature is its re-entrant tuning: the courses are not simply ordered from low to high, so some higher-pitched strings sit next to lower ones. This gives chords particularly resonant, easily fingered shapes on the fretboard.

Musical use

The cittern emerged in the late Middle Ages and remained widespread across much of Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, mainly as an instrument of middle-class domestic music-making rather than court music. It was used to accompany songs and to play simple, chordally set dance pieces, and was considered easier to learn than the lute.

The cittern should be distinguished from the zither, a box zither on which all strings run parallel over a flat soundboard and are either stopped against a fretboard or left open; the cittern, by contrast, has a distinct guitar-like neck with frets. It also differs from the lute in its flat body and metal strings, which give it a brighter, more silvery tone.

In England the cittern was so popular that instruments were kept in barbershops for waiting customers to play. After the 18th century it largely disappeared from art music, though related instruments survive in some folk traditions.

Performance practice

If you play a cittern or a modern replica, pay attention to the re-entrant tuning: don't finger chords the way you would on a guitar, but experiment to find the fullest-sounding position on the fretboard. Hold the plectrum fairly flat so the metal strings don't buzz, and listen for the bright, bell-like ring that defines the instrument's sound.