Portuguese Guitar - History

History

The origin of the Portuguese guitar is a subject of some debate. Fado historian and luthier Ron Fernandez has cogently argued that the guitarra is directly descended from citterns imported from England in the 1700s.

Throughout the 19th century the Portuguese guitar was being made in several sizes and shapes and subject to several regional aesthetic trends. A sizable guitar making industry flourished in Coimbra by the late 19th century, propelled by the Portuguese guitar's popularity among the students of the city. Eventually the developments of the local luthiers led to the modern model, named after the city.

Over the first half of the 20th century the Portuguese guitar underwent standardization into two distinct models and enjoyed several technical improvements, such as the refinement of the tuning mechanism and the revision of its dimensions, retaining throughout the process, however, its overall appearance and distinct sound.

Even though there are few academic and scientific studies about it, all facts indicate that the instrument we now call a Portuguese guitar (or depending on the used name and definition, its direct ancestor) was known until the nineteenth century throughout Europe as citra or cítara (Portugal and Spain), cetra (Italy and Corsica), cistre (France), cittern (British Isles), zither and zitharen (Germany and Low Countries). This instrument certainly directly descended from the Renaissance European cittern and very probably derived in turn from the medieval citole.

The Portuguese guitar now known underwent considerable technical modifications in the last century (dimensions, mechanical tuning system, etc.) although it has kept the same number of courses, the string tuning and the finger technique characteristic of this type of instrument. There is evidence of its use in Portugal since the thirteenth century (cítole) amongst troubadour and minstrel circles and in the Renaissance period, although initially it was restricted to noblemen in court circles.Later its use became popular and references have been found to citterns being played in the theater, in taverns and barbershops in the seventeenth and eighteenth century in particular.

In 1582, Friar Phillipe de Caverell visited Lisbon and described its customs; he mentions the Portuguese people’s love for the cittern and other musical instruments. In 1649 was published the catalogue of the Royal Music Library of King John IV of Portugal containing the best known books of cittern music from foreign composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in which the complexity and technical difficulty of the pieces allow us to believe that we had highly skilled players in Portugal.

The angel playing the cittern (c.1680), a sculpture of large dimensions in the Alcobaça monastery, depicts in detail the direct ancestor of the Portuguese guitar. In the first half of the eighteenth century, Ribeiro Sanches (1699–1783) had cittern lessons in the town of Guarda as he mentions in a letter from St. Petersburg in 1735.

In the same period there are other evidence to the use of the cittern alluding to a repertoire of sonatas, minuets, etc. shared with other instruments such as the harpsichord or the guitar. Later in the century (ca. 1750), the so-called "English" guitar made its appearance in Portugal. It was a type of cittern locally modified by German, English, Scottish and Duth makers and enthusiastically greeted by the new mercantile bourgeoisie of the city of Oporto who used it in the domestic context of Hausmusik practice. This consisted of the "languid Modinhas", the "lingering Minuets" and the "risqué Lunduns", as they were then called. The use of this type of guitar never became widespread. It disappeared in the second half of the nineteenth century when the popular version of the cittern came into fashion again by its association with the Lisbon song (fado) accompaniment.

The last detailed reference to the cítara appeared in 1858 in the book of J.F. Fètis "The Music Made Easy". The Portuguese translation includes a glossary describing the various characteristics (tunings, social status, repertoire, etc.) of both cittern and "English" guitar of the time.

Currently, the Portuguese guitar became fashionable for solo music as well as accompaniment and its wide repertoire is often presented in concert halls and in the context of classical and world music festivals all around the world.