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This particular page was created 15/03/2004 and last updated 15/03/2006
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| | Data:- Strings: 8 or 10 (in pairs)
- Courses: 4 or 5 ( 2 or 0 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2)
- Scale: 508 - 660 mm
The modern "Irish" cittern seems to have evolved from the bouzouki and isn't directly related to the ancient instrument. There's a lot of confusion about what names to use for all those large mandolins used in Irish music. Generally "octave mandolin is simply a different name for the tenor mandola with a relatively short neck and eight strings tuned in fifths. But the names cittern and bouzouki are both used for a bewildering variety of eight- and ten-stringed (and occasionally 12-stringed) instruments tuned in different ways and (usually) with a longer neck than the octave mandolin. The question which is which is a source of endless discussions.
HistoryIn the early 1970s new bands like Planxty introduced a new large mandola/cittern style flat-topped, flat-backed instrument to Irish traditional and folk music. Although similar instruments have been well-known on the British isles and elsewhere in Europe at least since the 16th Century, this new instrument was not based on these, but rather on the French mandolin and the Greek bouzouki and it soon became known as the Irish bouzouki or flat-back bouzouki.
Not everybody was happy about using the bouzouki name for this new instrument though and Stefan Sobell suggested the term Irish cittern instead.
Are the Irish bouzouki and the Irish cittern different instruments?The names Irish cittern and Irish bouzouki are both used for a bewildering variety of eight- and ten-stringed (and occasionally twelve-stringed) instruments. Originally the two terms were just two different names for the same instrument, but gradually they aquired slightly different meanings. The question which is which is a source of endless discussions though.
Some say a ten-stringed instrument is a bouzouki while a eight-string one is a cittern. Others say it's the other way around.
Some say a cittern has a larger body and/or a longer neck than the bouzouki, others claim the opposite.To add to the confusion there's also the tenor mandola (or octave mandolin or octave mandola) that evolved in parallel and is very similar to the Irish bouzouki/cittern. Recently there seems to have evolved some consensus: - Octave mandolin/octave mandola/tenor mandola is a long-necked mandola intended to be tuned GDAE one octave lower than a mandolin.
- Irish bouzouki is an instrument similar to a Greek bouzouki (long neck, four double courses a small body) but with a flat or arched back. In effect it's virtually identical to a tenor mandola but with an even longer neck.
- Irish cittern is a term for any large mando that doens't fit the definitions for the Irish bouzouki, the tenor mandola or the mandocello. Most commonly though it's used for a five-course, ten-stringed instrument with scale length similar to a bouzouki or a tenor mandola and often with a relatively large body.
Big mando namesNaming the various tenor/baritone sized mandolas is something that may cause even the experts serious problems. Here's a brief overview over some common terms (and some related instruments). For a more comlete names of mando names, go to the Mandos A-Z page.- Baritone mandola
- A term for the Irish cittern/bouzouki proposed by somebody on the Cittern maillist in 2004. It didn't seem to catch on. Although many people seemed to think it was a good idea in theory, it was generally agreed that introducing yet another name for the insturment would eventually only add to the confusion.
- Bizarre
- Short for "bouzouki-guitar." An Irish cittern/bouzouki with a guitar shaped body. See also eight-string tenor guitar.
- Blarge
- Apparently short for "bouzouki large."
- Bouzar
- Short for "bouzouki-guitar." An Irish cittern/bouzouki with a guitar shaped body. See also eight-string tenor guitar.
- Bouzouki
- The term "bouzouki" on its own should only be used for the original Greek/Balkan bowl-backed instrument, not any Western European flat- or archbacked variant.
- CBOM
- Short for "Cittern, Bouzouki, Octave Mando." Often found on the internet as a generic term for large Celtic/Irish style mandolas.
- Eight-string tenor guitar
- There are tenor guitars with eight strings and there are citterns and tenor mandolas with guitar-shaped body. There are no real difference between the two - it's just a severe case of parallel evolution.
- Flat-back bouzouki
- A bouzouki with a flat back - that is the same as an Irish bouzouki/cittern.
- Irish bouzouki
- Original name for the Irish cittern.
- Irish cittern
- Possibly the most correct name for the instrument in question here, although opionions may differ.
- Mandocello
- Generally the mandocello is easy to keep out of the confusion. It does have more or less the same scale length as an Irish cittern, but with a larger body and much ehavier strigns intended to be tuned much lower.
- Octave mando, octave mandola or octave mandolin
- Popular names for the tenor mandola.
- Tenor guitar
- A four-stringed short scale guitar intended to be tuned CGDA like an alto mandola but quite often tuned lower. The tenor guitar belongs to a different evolutionary line and is usually easy to keep separtaed from the various big mando. There are however eight-string tenor guitars, mando-shaped tenor guitars and guitar-shaped mandos to blur the line.
- Tenor lute
- A rather unsuccessful pre-war invention. Kind 'a like a tenor guitar with a too small mando-shaped body.
- Tenor mandola
- Better known as "octave mandolin" or "octave mandola." Generally an instrument with a slightly larger body and shorter neck than the Irish cittern.
Perversely enough the term "tenor mandola" is also often used for the smaller alto mandola. - Zouk
- Short for "bouzouki."
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