Music Files
The following is a collection of sheet music for cittern in PDF format. If you have a piece you would like to suggest or submit, please contact me.
16th & 17th Century Cittern Music
4-course chromatic cittern
Modern Editions:
Collections:
Twenty ballads for 4-course cittern, edited by John H. Robinson
Six pieces for chromatic cittern from the Millar/Mackalman manuscript, edited by Rob MacKillop
Solo works from Cambridge manuscript D.d.14.24, edited by Andrew Hartig
From Anthony Holborne's Cittharn Schoole (1597)
From Phalese's Hortulus cytharae (1570):
From Playford's Musick's Delight on the Citharen (1666):
From the Sammenhammer manuscript
Facsimiles:
"Greene-Sleeves" from Playford's New Lessons for the Citharen (1666)
Manuscript additions to Robinson's New Citharen Lessons (1609), Nanki Library [external link]
Otley manuscript, MS Mus 181. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. [external link]
Elias Walther manuscript, MS Dresden App. 1548 (c. 1660) - pieces for "gittern" tuned cittern [external link]
4-course diatonic cittern
Modern Editions:
Collections:
Nine pieces for diatonic cittern from Guillame Morlaye's Quatriesme livre (1552), edited by Mark Wheeler
Original compositions:
Allemande DelGRossi by Andrew Hartig. (Dedicated to both Gregory "Doc" Rossi and Damien Delgrossi)
From Le Roy Second livre de cistre (1564):
From Phalese Hortulus cytharae (1570):
From the Rothschild MS (Rothschild I, 411 [OVID])
From Viaera Nova et elegantissima (1564):
Facsimiles:
Collections:
Ten Branles de Champaigne for 4-course Renaissance cittern, collected by Andrew Hartig
The tablature for diatonic cittern from the Robert Edwards Commonplace Book (c. 1650), reintabulated by Rob MacKillop
Three 4-course diatonic cittern manuscripts from the University of Ghent, Belgium:
BHSL.HS.3898/10 [external link]
BHSL.HS.3898/11 [external link]
BHSL.HS.3898/12 [external link]
6-course chromatic cittern - Kargel's tuning
Modern editions:
From Kargel and Lais's Toppel Cythar (1575)
Facsimiles:
Tabulatur Buch auff dem Instrument / Christianus Hertzogk Zu / Sachssen. Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden. Signature: Mscr.Dresd.J.307.m. [external link]
6-course chromatic cittern - Virchi's tuning
Modern editions:
From Virchi's Il primo libro di tabolatura di citthara (1574)
6-course diatonic cittern
Duets, trios, & ensembles
Modern editions:
Songs
18th Century Cittern Music
General
Modern editions:
Edvard Storm MS (pieces for Norwegian sister), edited by Rockford Mjos
Facsimiles:
Moravian Choralbuch, BMB 4, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, PA.
Ramillete Florido (1743), Lothar Siemens Library collection at the University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria [external link]
English guittar
Facsimiles:
All music files via Google Drive
NOTE: The files below do NOT include the external links listed above.