Don’t Fret! A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Cittern*

(*with apologies to Douglas Adams)

When naming new things, humans tend to look to the past and what already exists.*

Whether we do this to imbue the new item with some magic or attribute of the previous item, or simply because we’re just plain lazy, is unclear.** Take a quick look at some of the myriad of other historical names for the plucked, fretted, wire-strung instruments of the not-so-distant past that fall under the modern term “cittern”: cedra, cetra, cetera, citara, cythara, cithern, cithren, citharen, cithrinchen, cister, cistre, sistra, zitara, zither, zister -- and even gittern and guittar! In some way or another, all of them allude to an association with the ancient Greek kithara, a flat-backed lyre with a wooden soundboard that was associated with the god Apollo.

So where did the European wire-strung cittern start? To answer that question, we must begin with a brief look at when wire strings entered the musical picture. So grab your blanket, sit back, and prepare for a brief journey through time…

Much, of course, is lost to time, even within the realm of recorded history, so we must look to whatever evidence is at hand. Through archaeological digs, we can find traces of what might be early wire-drawing technology by the Vikings of the 10th century, though we have no idea what they were using it for, and no recorded evidence of wire-strung instruments from that time survive.  For all we know, they may have been using it to decorate their clothing.*

By Andrew Hartig

*Except for Adam, the Biblical first man, who really didn’t have a choice in the matter since nothing was named yet.

**Even 20th century English luthier Stefan Sobell lazily admits to choosing the name cittern for his own creation after finding an image in a picture book on Renaissance instruments.

*Or for making garrotes? Definitely garrotes. They were Vikings, after all.