Chitarrone Francese - or the theorboed guitar ?
Although this archlute-like instrument is included in this, the continuo instruments section of
the website, we have done so because it appears to represent an overlooked approach to
playing figured bass. The instrument depicted in this very accurately-draughted painting has
five courses on the fingerboard (with the top string clearly single) and nine diapasons compared to what would be expected on a similarly-sized archlute: six double fingerboard
courses and eight diapasons.
There is a reasonable likelihood that it was, in fact, used by guitarists who strung and tuned
the fingerboard courses like a guitar, and who would be used to reading from the bass clef, so
that they could realise a figured bass part and play continuo on a theorboed guitar, rather than
learn the completely different archlute tuning. The player's left hand almost exactly
corresponds to chord 'L' in the alfabetto system (L corresponds to a difficult fingering for a C
minor chord) Sanz uses engravings of hands to illustrate the chord positions in his 1697 book.
Is this instrument depicted by Grammatica - being played alongside what is obviously a
'classic' vaulted-back five-course baroque guitar - possibly what was played when a 'theorboed'
guitar was required ? The word chitarrone, after all, meant 'large guitar' in Italy in the late
16th and early 17th Centuries.
There are several references in surviving books of guitar music to theorboed guitars and
guitars fitted with diapasons (although no 'guitar-shaped' instruments have survived from this
period with seven - or even nine - diapasons):
Giovanni Battista Granata's book Soavi concerti di sonate musicali per chitarra spagnuola,
1659 contains five pieces for chitarra Atiorbata which require five fingerboard courses and
seven diapasons, starting at G and going down to low AA.
A manuscript volume by Henry de Gallot (c. 1660-1684) includes twelve tablature pieces for la
guittare Theorbée which also requires five fingerboard courses and seven diapasons. Two
chordal tunings are required for the tablatures: c-e-g-c'-e' and c-e flat- g-c'-and e' flat on the
fingerboard and diapasons G-F-E-D-C-B-A.
Ludovico Fontanelli's manuscript books Sonate per il Chittarone Francese (1733, in tablature
and notation) state the tuning of the Chittarone Francese (sic) to be: e'-b-g-d-A on the
fingerboard followed by G-F-E-D-CC as the diapasons; the fourth course (d) is a unison and
the 5th course (A) has an octave string, with the first course being single.
We were inspired to build this instrument by Robert Spencer 's fascinating article The
Chitarrone Francese published in the journal Early Music, April 1976, in which he discussed the
instrument held by the player in the painting below. He suggested that the long-necked lute in
this painting may be an elsewhere unrecorded type of guitar, since it has only five courses on
the fingerboard, rather than the six we would expect to find (were it an archlute of some sort)
and there is a five-course guitar next to the player on the table. Robert states in the article
that he had acquired two small manuscript books of music by Ludovico Fontanelli, Sonate per
il Chittarone Francese dated 1733. Whether or not this music was meant to be played on the
type of instrument in the painting is obviously open to conjecture and speculation, but
Grammatica's depiction is intriguing, given the apparent accuracy of the other details in the
work, the clothing, hand positions and so on.
Suonatore di Liuto, by Antiveduto Grammatica, 1571-1626 Galleria Sabauda, Turin
Robert refers to this instrument as a chitarrone francese; however, one wonders if it is actually
a theorboed guitar, since its size would permit stringing and tuning it with octaves like a
baroque guitar, as well as like an archlute. In a recent discussion with baroque guitar
specialists, the suggestion arose that this may also be the instrument that Granata had in mind
in the pieces which conclude his Soave Concerti published in 1659 (quoted above) where we
find pieces for a theorboed guitar.
Roberto Meucci recently wrote about small lutes, revealing that in Italy they were called
chitarra, so as not to confuse them with the chitarra alla spagnola. Sources from the early 18th
Century also declare that the chitarra italiana or chitarrino is in reality a small lute.
The Chitarrone Francese shown above was made in January 2004 for Jim Bisgood, the English
baroque guitar player.
21. Own design (Based on the painting Suonatore di Liuto, by Antiveduto Grammatica,
1571-1626 Galleria Sabauda, Turin)
15 ribs in yew or rio rosewood; ebony-veneered upper neck; lower neck veneered with ebony,
with 15 white stripes to rear; white edging and stripe decoration to front of upper neck;
engraved mammoth ivory panels on front of upper pegbox; large, single rose.
String length: 660mm (diapasons: 1040mm)
Stringing: 1x1, 4x2 / 9x1, as in the painting, set-up as a Chitarrone Francese
Pitch: e'
e'-b-g-d/d'-A/a (Fingerboard) G-F-E-D-C-BB-AA-GG-FF (Diapasons)
(Stephen Stubbs has recently suggested that, because in the painting the bottom two
diapasons have been rendered by the artist as thinner strings than course 12, this may well
indicate that courses 13 and 14 could be, respectively, G# and F#).
(1x1, 5x2 / 8x1 stringing is also available as an option)
£5200 with rosewood ribs £5800 with yew ribs
We were able to closely examine the original Grammatica painting when it was included in the
London Royal Academy of Arts 2001 exhibition The Genius Of Rome. This reinforced our longstanding feeling that the draughtsmanship of the two instruments depicted was very likely
reliable, and had been painted using real examples as models. Working from iconography in
this way is always challenging, and of course we couldn't resist a shot at such a famous
painting (it is reproduced, inter alia, as the cover of a CD by Rolf Lislevand of Libro Quarto
d'Intavolatura di Chitarrone / Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger / Roma 1640 on Astrée
Auvidus E8515, on which a chitarra battente by us can be heard { No.17. on the guitar page}).
There are certain problems with working from the painting - the rose is not circular, but slightly
ovoid, and its details not entirely legible or symmetrical; the chiaroscuro style of the the work
throws shadowing over the bridge end (which is otherwise visible) and obscures its exact
design; the body shape is also asymmetrical, and the alignment of the necks and strings had
to be adjusted to allow a playable string band. But there is a wealth of inspiring detail to refer
to in this wonderful painting, and we hope that our version of the instrument has done justice
to Grammatica's vision - it certainly works very well as a theorboed guitar, clear and powerful,
and very familiar under the fingers of a guitarist, although an archlute player would of course
not find it too unfamiliar.
We have built this instrument on the body of the Matteo Sellas archlute (Bologna, Bardini Nr.
1748 - L.M.6 / No 5. above), since it appears to be very close to that instrument in outline.
There are certain problems with transcribing information from the painting: the rose, for
example, is painted not circular but slightly oval, and the body is asymmetrical in outline. The
Sellas seems to us, however, to be reasonably near to the shape, style and probable size of the
instrument depicted .
Regretably, we do not have available here images of the first chitarrone francese that we built
in 1998, since the player who ordered it asked, for reasons of his privacy, that images of it be
kept off of the website.
In early 2004 we built another example for the English baroque guitar player Jim Bisgood - and
he is more than happy to have images of his example posted here (see above). It is very
closely modelled on the Grammatica painting, including the decoration and rose design. Jim
intends to use it as a theorboed guitar, as a complement to the Checchucci 5 course guitar we
built for him in June 2003.
