Crossword clues for cittern
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cittern \Cit"tern\, n. [L.cithara, Gr. kiqa`ra. Cf. Cithara,
Gittern.] (Mus.)
An instrument shaped like a lute, but strung with wire and
played with a quill or plectrum. [Written also cithern.]
--Shak.
Note: Not to be confounded with zither.
Wiktionary
n. (context musical instrument English) A stringed instrument similar to a mandolin which is an early form of guitar.
WordNet
Wikipedia
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. cistre, It. cetra, Ger. zitter, zither, Sp. cistro, cedra, cítola) is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval citole, or cytole. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki. Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by all classes, the cittern was a premier instrument of casual music-making much as is the guitar today.
Usage examples of "cittern".
And though it falls, continues still Tickling the Cittern with his quill.
He anticipated the unbought cittern next, but instead there came again that deep throbbing, the turntable of the imaginary gramophone let run down.
Whether or not these stories are true, it is true that a highborn lady of Saldaea is expected to be able to ride to the hunt all day while reciting poetry, then play the cittern at night while participating intelligently in discussions of how to counter Trolloc raids.
Could she ride in the hunt all day, then play the cittern at night while discussing how to counter Trolloc raids?
A few scattered notes, then a heavy driving beat from the drums, a fast hard counter from the cittern strings.
It chanced that out of one of the bundles there stuck the end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so drawing it forth, he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the merry lilt which the dancers played.
Then their talk turned to minstrelsy, and the stranger knight drew forth a cittern, upon which he played the minne-lieder of the north, singing the while in a high cracked voice of Hildebrand and Brunhild and Siegfried, and all the strength and beauty of the land of Almain.
I tried to slip by the revelry, and could have done so with ease, what with the citterns and the clatter of cups and the boasts.
It chanced that out of one of the bundles there stuck the end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so drawing it forth, he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the merry lilt which the dancers played.
He was singing an Italian canzonet with much taste and execution, his voice being a very fine tenor, and accompanying himself on a cittern.