Portuguese guitar

The Portuguese Guitar ( Guitarra Portuguesa Portuguese ) is a cittern, a stringed instrument, plucked string instrument from the family of Box -necked lutes. It is smaller on the dimensions of about one-third as a classical guitar, has a pear-shaped body made of wood and 12 strings made ​​of steel. The Portuguese guitar is more of an urban musical instrument, found mainly in the capital Lisbon and the university city of Coimbra and is mainly used in the Fado as an accompanying instrument, but also as a soloist.

History

The origin of the Portuguese guitar can not prove with absolute certainty until today. Originally, the instrument was called citara. In the 19th century the Portuguese guitar was developed in its present form. At the time she first found their place in the salons of the bourgeoisie as well as in small, simple urban taverns.

Types

There are two different types of modern Portuguese guitar, a model from Coimbra and one from Lisbon. The model of Coimbra is slightly larger and usually has a scale length of 470 mm compared to 440 mm in which, from Lisbon. The type of decoration and the design of the head and vertebrae are different.

Mood

The 12 strings are arranged in 6 pairs, each two strings. There are two different moods of the instrument: the Lisbon mood is ( d'- d) - ( a'-a ) - ( h ' h ) - ( e' e ') - (a' - a') - ( h ' h'), the Coimbra - tuning is a tone lower, ( c ' c) - ( g' g ) - ( a'-a ) - ( d -d ' ) - ( g' g ' ) - ( a'- a').

Game art

For a long time the Portuguese guitar was played with the fingernails, but nowadays mostly artificial nails ( finger picks ) are used, called in Portuguese unhas. There are two different picking techniques, which are called in Portuguese dedilho and figueta. When dedilho technique, the strings are plucked with the finger nail of the index finger, at the figueta technology thumb and forefinger are used alternately.

Instrumentalists

Among the most famous composer and virtuoso of the Portuguese guitar include António Chainho, Gonçalo Paredes, Flávio Rodrigues, Artur Paredes and his son Carlos Paredes. Carlos Paredes has many compositions for the Portuguese guitar written and published the instrument beyond the country's borders. In addition, Pedro Caldeira Cabral is even mentioned, which has also brought out some interesting publications on the Portuguese guitar and Custódio Castelo as a virtuoso and composer of a young generation of musicians committed to a new interpretation of fado.