Chanterelle

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Chanterelle (from French chanter "to sing") is the highest string of a stringed instrument .

Origin and Distribution

Chanterelle is the common French synonym for cantino (Latin) or Sangsaite or fifth string (German). Since the 16th century and in German at least since the 18th century, Chanterelle has been the name of the highest string of the violin , but is also used for lutes , theorbs , banjos and other stringed instruments:

"Chanterelle, ff, the fifth, the thinnest and clearest string on a violin, lute or on another stringed instrument."

In German lute music of the 16th century, however, the highest string is only called the fifth string , the sang string was the second choir. With instruments that are otherwise tuned for two choirs , such as the lute and theorbo, the chanterelle was usually performed simply. This is how the classical lute is described in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung 1831:

“The lower strings, mostly beginning with the third, are doubled, partly in unison, partly in octave. Such a reference is called a choir; a designation which, however, is also used without distinction when counting the chords for the simple ones. one therefore says, for example: the lute has an elephant choir, whereby the uppermost (chanterelle) and the likewise simple two following are included. "

Wilhelm Schneider describes the classic execution of the theorbo in a similar way in 1834:

“The theorbo [...] was a great kind of lute and was also called the bass lute. In the bass it had 8 strong strings and almost 2 times longer than the lute outside the fingerboard; the other bass strings were two-choir and the 2nd choir was usually tuned in the upper octave. The higher strings, with the exception of the chanterelle or fifth, were two-choir, but tuned in unison. "

In the five-string banjo, the chanterelle is the shortest string that ends at the side of the fingerboard and creates a high drone tone. In Indian string instruments such as the sitar , vina , Mayuri vina and Gottuvadyam , the chanterelle is the highest and always the most played melody string.

Context of meaning

In addition to the meaning described, today in French chanterelle (or chanter , as in English) also denotes all or the highest chanter of bagpipes . The Chanterelle Verlag was founded in Heidelberg in 1979 and has been run as Edition Chanterelle by Allegra Musikverlag, to which the Zimmermann music publisher also belongs, since 2013 .

The special highest string of a stringed instrument in Turkish is called zil teli ( zil means "high" and tel, "string"). Zil goes back to the Persian and Arabic word zīr for "highest string" or "high voice" and still occurs in Georgian for the short string of the lute chonguri .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Don Michael Randel: The Harvard Dictionary of Music . 4th ed., Cambridge MA 2003 p. 144
  2. ^ Center National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales
  3. CF Schwan: Nouveau Dictionnaire de la Langue Françoise at allemande . Mannheim 1787, p. 413
  4. Hans Neusidler: A newgeordent artificially Lautenbuch . Nuremberg 1536, part 1, fol. 4a
  5. The lute tablature . Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, No. 9, March 2, 1831, p. 134
  6. ^ Wilhelm Schneider: Historical-technical description of musical instruments . Neisse and Leipzig, 1834, p. 84
  7. Chanterelle. In: P. Sambamurthy: A Dictionary of South Indian Music and Musicians. Vol. 1 (A – F), The Indian Music Publishing House, 2nd edition, Madras 1984, pp. 75f (1st edition 1954)
  8. ^ History. Foundation dates and development of the publishing group. Music publisher Zimmermann