> Some folks always seem to object to a guitar, but the modern steel-string
> guitar is not too very different from the cittern or the guitarra [chitara]
> batarda.

This thread was about "what would you do", not "what do you object
to". If we keep it on those terms, we'll be a lot more civil. This
suggestion sounds like a fine idea, although I don't know how a
cittern was generally played, i.e. strummed verses lute-like playing.
There were a few books of cittern music published in England right
near 1600.

>  It's probably more authentic to lead a singalong with a
> steel-string guitar (calling it a chitarra) than with a nylon-string
> "classical" guitar, which is not a lute, doesn't sound like a lute (lutes
> are much quieter, and the doubled strings give a different sound), and was
> developed into its modern form well past period.  

I think nylon-strung classical guitars sound much like lutes,
personally, after having heard the two side by side. I agree that the
technique is quite different from what most folk guitar players know
already, but I love hearing lutes so much I recommend it highly.

-- greg

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