The battente guitar

The battente guitar

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The battente guitar, also called the Renaissance guitar, is in the shape of an elongated eight and is a bit slimmer than normal guitars. The side panels are made of narrow strips of wood (maple or rosewood). The back is rounded and is also made of wood strips like antique guitars. The top harmonic panel is almost always made of fir wood. A decoration called "the rose" is placed around the sound hole. I don't believe it has an acoustic function, but its possible that it was used to conceal the interior of the instrument. The fretboard is at the same level as the harmonic panel and has no more than twelve frets. The bridge is mobile, not fixed to the harmonic panel and holds five pairs of metal strings of equal thickness. It has in-unison tuners that are fixed directly to the rear panel. There are no lows.
With strings the same thickness, the musician can tune the instrument to his/her needs and liking, but usually has the standard tuning of: E, B, G, D and A (from first to fifth). Obviously the third and fourth strings (D and A) will be lower by one tone with respect to the first two (E and B). The third string (G) is the heaviest. This is called a crossed tuning and produces an enormous amount of harmony. Therefore the sound of the Renaissance guitar blends particulary well with the human voice.
The largest manufacturer of the Renaissance guitar is in Bisignano Italy, where many generations of the De Bonis family have been dedicated to the construction of this instrument. The instrument seen in the photo was built by Vincenzo De Bonis in 1992.

This section is edited by:
Marcello Vitale.

Some history

For someone who is hearing about the Renaissance guitar for the first time, they would probably ask the following questions:
1. Where does this instrument come from?
2. Where does this ambiguous name come from?
The battente guitar was born in Italy and was widely used between the XVI and the XVII centuries. The name is derived from the technique in which it's played. In that time, string instruments were either pluck or "beat", today the beat instrument is usually called "strumming". The battente guitar belongs to the second catagory, which was played exclusively by beat, where the left hand was limited to the positions of the chords and consequently produced a "battente" sound (Italian for beating). The first catagory instead pertains to instruments like the lute, the tiorba, the baroque guitar (very similar to the battente) etc. considered more difficult, due to more complex literature and technique. The battente guitar however was considered an "easy" instrument and could be played by everyone, musicians and non. It could be said that it had the same role as the acoustic guitar does today (even if its characteristics, as we will see, are very different): it was out of the "institutional" loop, of the academies, the conservatives, and was mainly used as accompanyment for songs.

Any instrument is "easy" if its used to play easy music. Nevertheless, thats why the battente guitar quickly spread throughout the "popular" world, and has remained alive today. Today the battente guitar is destined to complete marginalization. Furthermore, the diffusion of pop music, too often passed along by the mechanisms of the tourist industry, has ignored its musical importance and forgotten its real artistic value.
Thanks to the contributions of the great teachers of tradition (Andrea Sacco of Carpino, Italy and Carmine Arturi of Corigliano Calabro, Italy), musicians such as Eugenio Bennato, Pino Daniele, Antonello Ricci and myself, the technique of the battente guitar has evolved to the point to be considered a solo instrument that has extraordinary expressive possibilities and strong charismatic power.
During my concerts I noticed a strong interest in this instrument, especially from younger people and I believe that the study of this instrument could generate new and interesting prospectives regarding both musical composition and instrumental technique.

Technique

The function of the battente guitar until just a short while ago was mainly as a rhythmic-harmonic accompaniment. This doesn't require the use of a pick. On many older models there is a protection between the soundhole and the bridge. The purpose of this was certainly to protect the top panel from the rubbing of the hands, but not that of a pick. The right hand puts the strings in vibration, using all the fingers (even independently from each other), with a technique very similar to that used in flamenco. The use of the pick would certainly limit the possibility of obtaining tight rhythmic scansions, tercets, etc., which are substantial and unavoidable elements in the playing of the battente guitar.
The Calabrese technique frequently uses the so-called ribbummu (boom), very similar to the golpe of the flamenco guitar, that is obtained by beating on the harmonic panel, even without the strings in vibration. The playing techniques of an instrument can be lead back to one fundamental style, keeping in mind all the style personalizations of each musician. Considering for example, the tuning of the battente guitar. This is done crossed or hollow in that the fourth and fifth strings are more acute than the second and third. The tuning for excellence is E, B, G, D and A and is also its particular beauty because no string prevails over the other. It's a sort of melody and not a progression. This consists of a very particular way of strumming that you cannot obtain on normal guitars.

Where to listen to the battente guitar

Pino Daniele used it in the album "Musicante e Bonnesoiree" (in particular the song called Occhi grigi);

the entire collection of Eugenio Bennato/Musicanova discs (in particular the last CD "Taranta Power");

the CD "Le Tarantelle del Gargano" by Pino De Vittorio;

the album (difficult to find) "Tracce" by Antonello Ricci and Giancarlo Preiti;

the album (difficult to find) "No soli e no luna" by Re Niliu;

The CD "Oh! Cielo oh!", "Ammore", and "L'amante impazzito - Cappella della Pietà" by Turchini; (Harmonia mundi).

Furthermore there is a record label where you can listen to the battente guitar played in a traditional manner (the pubblications of Diego Carpitella, R. Leidi, A. Ricci).
As you can see, there is something for every taste. For more information:
marcello.vitale@libero.it.

Conclusion

Musicians have forgotten the battente guitar for too long, considering it archaic and popular in a derogatory way. It has nevertheless continued to live in the collective memories of the working class and is therefore made by craftsmen. Now interest is increasing thanks to the work of certain musicians that have hinged their activities on this instrument.
As correctly stated by my friend Ciro Caliendo, author of a beautiful passage on the battente guitar (La chitarra battente - Edizioni Aspasia), "It's not correct from a methodical point of view to sustain a net differentiation between the popular instrument and the cult instrument, but its also not right, starting with the structural characteristics of the instrument, to call it popular if you don't perform a particularly difficult repertory, commonly called 'classical'". Try to imagine how the classical guitar, flamenco guitar and electric guitar would be considered today if they didn't pass through the hands of the great musicians that made history with them.
To conclude, we can maintain that the battente guitar deserves more consideration in the history of musical instruments than it has had up to now. Also retaining that one knows little about this instrument, we cannot ignore how much one knows, and continue to correct erroneous information, regarding its use and its history.

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