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The following is a table of period printed and manuscript sources of music for cittern sorted by date of publication. Clicking on the links 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.
N.B. A title in brackets { } denotes a lost source.
Printed Music Sources for Cittern (18th C.)
Printed Music Sources for Cittern (18th C.)
Over 300 printed books, manuscripts, and sheet music scores for the 18th century "English guittar" and French cistre/guitthare allemande will eventually be listed here. In the meantime, please see my draft database of Sources of English guittar and cistre music.
Majer, Joseph Friedrich Bernhard Caspar. Neu-eroffneter theoretisch-und pracktischer Music-Saal (1741). Nurnberg: Johann Jacob Cremer
Contains a tuning chart for a 6-course cittern tuned (low to high) D-A-d-#f-a-d' and a single 16-measure musical example in both tablature and staff notation.
Majer notes that the lowest two courses are silver (over)wound, the next three courses of strings (doubled, in unison) are of brass, and the highest ("and most delicate") is of steel or a "lute-style" gut string.
Manuscript Music Sources for Cittern (18th C.)
Manuscript Music Sources for Cittern (18th C.)
Select manuscripts are listed below. Additional manuscripts can also be found in my draft database of Sources of English guittar and cistre music, above.
"Stefano Allegrini's manuscript." [No call number.] Corsica: Private collection. (1720)
"Varia Ariæ et Parthiæ." CZ-Bsa E4.1040. Czech Republic: Státní oblastní archiv (State Regional Archive), Brno, Morava. (c.1706-1716)
Potentially for theorbenzister. Tablature on 4-line staff with numbers "5-12" to signify basses.
"Moravian Choral Buch." BMB 4. United States: Collection of the Moravian Music Foundation, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (c. 1750)
"Evangel Choral Buch." PL Kj Mus. Ms. 40145. Poland: Krakow, Biblioteka Jagiellonska (formerly: Germany, Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek). (1765)
Unica manuscript copy of Ramillete florido (1743). Private collection. (early 18th c.)
B-Bc 5622. Belgium, Brussels, Conservatoire Royal de Musique. (18th c.)
(This source is listed in earlier versions of Grove, but does not come in searches of RISM)
B-Bc FA VI 6. Belgium, Brussels, Conservatoire Royal de Musique. (c.1750)
Manuscript contains intabulations of hymns, secular songs, and dances for a 4-course tuning, relative (low to high) g-c'-e'-g'.
"pour les Cistre." A-Wn Mus.Hs.1082. Austria: Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. (late 18th c.?)
Chart at start of the book indicates a previously unrecorded 6-course tuning of (low to high) F[#]-B-e-a-d'-g'.
Bibliographical Sources
Bibliographical Sources
Boye, Gary. Music for the Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela (1470-1799). https://music.library.appstate.edu/lute
Michel, Andreas. "Anonymous. Nun danket alle Gott. B-Bc, FA VI 6 (c.1750), fol. 1r." Entry in Tablature. Europe, 1300-1750. Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium (2026). [Available at https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503624945-1]
Poulopoulos, Panagiotis. The Guittar in the British Isles, 1750-1810. Thesis. University of Edinburgh (2011). [Available at https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/5776.]
Schlegel, Andreas. "Theorbenzister." Accords nouveaux. https://accordsnouveaux.ch/de/instrumente/theorbenzister
Treder, Michael. Augustiner Bibliothek Brno, Manuskript CZ-Bsa E4 1040. Kompositionen für die Laute von Losy, Hoisler, Treyenfels, Anthony, Ginter, Dufaut, Hinterleithner, Emond u.a. Tree Edition (2015) [Available at https://lutesocietyofamerica.org/tree-editions/lute-book-brno-cz-bsa-e4-1040-augustinian-lute-book-3-vol/]
Van Amersfoort, Jeltine Marijke. Guitars, music, and culture in the Netherlands, 1750-1810. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis (2023). [Available at https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/482921/]
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