The following is a table of period printed (as opposed to manuscript)
sources for cittern music. The list is derived mostly
from the New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians articles on "cittern"
and "ceterone," as well as my own research.Clicking on a title in blue will display the contents
for that book.
I hope eventually to have links to the contents for all extant prints. If there are any other sources you know of that have been missed,
or if you have a correction, please contact me and I will be more than happy to include them.
Italian tuning.
Works for cittern solo, cittern with voice, and cittern with bass.
The Psalmes of David in Meter
Allison, Richard
1599
London: William Barley
4c. chromatic
French tab
Italian tuning.
Consort songs set for voices, lute or orpharion and cittern. (Bandora is also specified as an option on the title page, but no bandora tablature is included.)
Italian tuning. Works for "English Consort" (2 viols, lute, bandora, flute, and cittern). Of the two cittern partbooks, only the 1599 edition survives.
* Tablature is for a "strictly" diatonic instrument (i.e. no partial frets in chromatic positions), but uses asterisks to indicate
chromatic notes between the diatonic frets. The tablature system appears to be an attempt to fit later music to a more archaic(?) instrument.
Does the fact that this is a "secondo libro" indicate that there had
been a previous book for cittern by Vincenti?
Italian tuning;
works for "English Consort" (2 viols, lute, bandora, flute, and cittern). Second edition of 1599 volume. Of the two cittern partbooks, only the 1599 edition survives. Based on the other surviving partbooks from 1611, the cittern 1611 edition contained two additional pieces.
The Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soule
Leighton, Sir William
1614
London: William Stansby
4c. chromatic
French tab
The first half of this work contains religious consort songs set for what appears to be an "English Consort" (2 viols, lute, bandora, flute, and cittern) plus voices.
Note: the 1613 edition does not contain music.
Intavolatura di Liuto Attiorbato, Libro Quarto
Melii, Pietro Paulo
1616
Venetia: Giacomo Vincenti
9c. ("Citara Tiorbata") chromatic
Italian tab
Italian tuning ("Cordatura del Signor Paolo Virgo":
A-B-c-d-f-b-g-d'-e').
Primarily works for lute; however, the volume contains a Ballet for
9c. cittern, 3 lutes, violin,
bass viol, flute, harp, and clavicembalo.
Neder-Landtsche Gedenck-Clanck
Valerius, Adrian
1626
Haerlem
4c. diatonic
French tab
French tuning. Works for voice, lute and cittern.
[A Booke of New Lessons for the Citharen]?
Playford, John
[var. editions, 1650 ... 1658]*
* See Ward, "Sprightly and Cheerful Musick," p. 83-93 for a detailed explantion of Playford's publications for cittern
[Treasury of Musick for Cithern, Therobo-Lute and Viol]?
* See Ward, "Sprightly and Cheerful Musick," p.93
Conjectural Works
Title
Composer / Publisher
Year of Publication
Place of Publication
Type of Cittern
Type of Tablature
Notes
[Primo Libro D'Intavolatura di Citara?]
Vincenti, G.
pre-1602?
Venetia: Giacomo Vincenti?
6c.?
diatonic?
While not listed by any other source, the fact that Vincenti's
known book is called the Secondo Libro D'Intavolatura di Citara
indicates that there was an earlier, first book. That such a book
is for a 6-course diatonically fretted cittern is purely conjecture based
upon the Secondo Libro.
[Der Violen-Cythaer mit vyf Snaaren, en niewe Sorte
melodieuse inventie, twe Naturen hebbende, vier Parthyen spelende, licht
de leeren, half Violens half Cyther...]?
Vreedman, Michael
1612
Arnheim: ?
violin-cittern?
* Mentioned in Waldbauer, pp.297-8 (see also footnotes 88 and 89). Michael Vreedman was
the son of Sebastian Vreedman and was a maker of violins and citterns in Utrecht from
1583 on. He supposedly invented a violin-cittern, for which this method
(in tablature) was published.
Waldbauer also goes on to note that Vander Straeten, La musique au Pays-Bas
VIII, pp.419ff prints a 17th-century list of musicalia which contains mention of
"Obras de Cythara, Miguel Vreedman." Whether or not this was for the violin-cittern
or was another book for regular cittern is unknown.