Francesco Geminiani: The Art of Playing the Guitar or Cittra

The Album in Depth

The guittar or cetra was a popular instrument for domestic music making in 18th-century Europe. Its size and shape, the sonority of its wire strings and open tuning made it a favorite choice of ‘polite’ society, while also answering to many characteristics of the Galant style. Geminiani writes in The Art of Playing the Guitar or Cittra:

The sweetness and brilliancy of sound peculiar to the Guitar, together with its convenient shape and size, and the easyness of performing on it, has already rendered it extremely fashionable in the polite world: But still it is more deserving of regard, even from good Judges of Music, than is generally apprehended, For the disposition and number of its Strings render it capable of a very full and compleat Harmony.

Geminiani was one of the most renowned composers, theorists and violinists of his day. He likely had studied under Alessandro Scarlatti

and Arcangelo Corelli, sharing with the latter a reputation as a fiery, virtuoso violinist. I believe his devotion to and enthusiasm for the violin informs his arrangements for the cetra, making his use of tablature an interesting conundrum for the aspiring cetra player.

I’ve now been playing the cetra for over three decades, exploring fingerings and trying to discover its idiom by letting the instrument instruct me on how it wants to be played. In this recording I have endeavored to follow Geminiani’s fingerings to the letter (or rather, to the number) in order to present his vision of how the cetra should be approached and played as accurately as possible. However, although I find his phrasing to be superb, bringing out so many of the expressive qualities the cetra has to offer, as well as expressing the delicate elegance of the Galant style, I would question many of his fingerings as being more violinistic than suited to the cetra itself. This is especially evident in the introductory sections of each ‘Example’, as he calls these suites, which present various scale patterns available in each key.

For those who have approached this work before, these introductory sections have often been derided as mere scale studies, and have thus often been excluded from the few recordings that already exist. Given the rich harmonic content of the accompaniment, I feel that this approach misses the point, as well as a wonderful musical opportunity to exploit the play between solo and continuo players. When my dear friend Richard Gibson and I began discussing his realizations of Geminiani’s continuo, I suggested that these introductory sections are where the continuo instruments should step out from behind their accompanying role to take the lead, while the cetra steps back and provides a basis for their explorations.

Geminiani specifies violoncello or harpsichord as the accompanying instruments, and my instincts wanted to use both on this recording. Producer Ian Dean was skeptical, however, feeling that the harpsichord, being a more powerful plucked-string instrument, would swamp the cetra. He suggested cello and viola, feeling that bowed strings (with occasional pizzicato passages) would provide a more suitable contrast that would also support the cetra rather than compete with it in the sonic space. Given Ian’s choice of instruments, and Richard’s continuo realizations, Geminiani’s ‘Examples’ take the form of trio sonatas, one of my favorite genres.

In addition to thanking Richard and Ian for their exceptional work, support and friendship, I also want to thank David Wyn Lloyd, Jed Barahal, engineer Barbara Santos and the rest of the team at Arda Recorders for their wonderful contributions to this project.