La Cetra

The Cetra was a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in ancient times, belonging to the chordophone family. The instrument was initially constructed in wood, similar to the lyre, but with a larger harmonic case.

The cetra with these characteristics spread from ancient Greece, where it was played from citaredi professionals, its use also spread to Rome. In the course of the centuries its structure came modified. Cetra now describes an instrument with a flat resonant case of whose double metallic ropes came pizzicate, equipped of along manico and from the structure comparable to that one of one a pear.

Use of the word in musical works

The name "La Cetra" was also used by a number of composers to entitle sets of their works. These composers included Legrenzi, Marcello and Vivaldi.
*Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), a prominent composer in Venice in the late 17th century, used the name "La Cetra" for his opus 10, a collection of 18 sonatae in 3 volumes printed in 1673. The sonatae are for 2, 3 or 4 instruments and basso continuo.
*Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747), who lived and worked somewhat later in Venice, published a set of 6 concerti he had written under the title of "La Cetra". These concerti are "unusual for their wind solo parts, concision and use of counterpoint within a broadly Vivaldian style," according to Grove.
*Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), the Red Priest of Venice, used the name "La Cetra" for two different sets of his works.
**The first set that he called "La Cetra" consisted of 12 concertos, opus 9, his last great set of printed violin concerti. He dedicated them to the music-loving Habsburg monarch, the Emperor Charles VI in 1727.
**The following year, 1728, Vivaldi wrote another set of 12 concerti that he again, for unknown reasons, named "La Cetra". He dedicated this new set of concerti again to Charles VI and gave him the manuscript of the concerti. The concerti were never published. They have been offered in reconstructed form by Andrew Manze and The English Consort as "Concertos for the Emperor".

ources

* [http://www.sheetmusicnow.com/title.asp?tid=20737 Sheet Music to Legrenzi's "La Cetra" op. 10]
* "The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music", Oxford University Press, 1994
* Liner notes by Andrew Manze for Vivaldi's "Concertos for the Emperor". Performed by The English Consort directed by Andrew Manze (Harmonia Mundi 907332).