CHITARRA BATTENTE: Italian musical instrument

The chitarra battente is also called chitarra italiana. It is musical instrument, a chordophone that comes from the family of lute instruments. At a normal glance, the musical instrument is analogous to the everyday classical kind of guitar, but larger and strung with 5 double steel strings. Contemporarily, the musical instrument is use mainly for folk music in Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata and Campania, and in some other areas in southern Italy; in previous centuries, the instrument was common in most of the central and southern Italy.

The people of the region see the musical instrument a folk musical instrument, but it may have no folk origin as an import from another place some centuries ago. Musicologist refers to the musical instrument as a folk and historical chitarra battente. There are versions of the historical 17^th century musical instrument in the museums, though the normally played folk musical instrument comes in three different sizes; the small, medium and the large size. The medium sized version of the musical instrument is more popular, the small sized version of the instrument is a toy and has originally been used to train children to perform the instrument.

Locals refer to the instrument as guitar, with the use of the name, ‘french guitar’ for what is commonly called guitar in some other places, meaning the classical guitar. There are great differences in the size of the bouts, the kind of wood used on the instrument, the shape of the back, ornamentations, number of frets, etc. the strings of the musical instrument are tuned in what is known as re-entrant system, that is not like the modern day classical guitar, the progression from the last down string of the instrument to the top string does not go up in pitch, gradually.

In the four strings version of the musical instrument, the third string of the instrument is lower than the second string. Thereby, a typical tuning of the four-string chitarra battente, bass to treble is A-D-B-E and the B, third string is lower than the D, the second string.

The musical instrument is played without the use of a plectrum, and the finger gain a wide range of effects on the instrument through plucking, strumming the strings and beating the strings or the soundboard of the instrument. The musical instrument is typically used in the accompaniment of singing or dancing and can be played in a group or as a solo musical instrument.

The most essential center of production of this musical instrument is in Bisignano, in the province of Cosenza. Originally, the chitarra battente has been produced locally in the province from which the features derive, normally being carved by non-professional producers of just carpenters.