Panagiotis Poulopoulos

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Papers by Panagiotis Poulopoulos

‘A very mistaken identification’: the ‘sultana’ or ‘cither viol’ and its links to the bowed psaltery, viola d’amore and guittar

Early Music, 2016

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The Guittar in the British Isles, 1750-1810

The guittar, now commonly known as the 'English guittar', is a small plucked instrument which was... more The guittar, now commonly known as the 'English guittar', is a small plucked instrument which was widely used in the British Isles from the middle of the 18 th to the beginning of the 19 th centuries. Appearing in a variety of shapes and sizes, and having essentially wire strings and an open major tuning, it was more related to the cittern, and quite different from the Spanish guitar. Being cheap, elegant, and relatively easy to play, the guittar quickly became popular among amateur musicians, especially upper-class ladies. In addition, the guittar was at the forefront of mechanical and technical invention, and especially the later types of the instrument were often fitted with several innovative devices that found use on other contemporary or successor instruments. This thesis refines the results of past research concerning the guittar by undertaking a critical review of the relevant literature, and by introducing new data collected during the detailed examination and comparison of numerous surviving guittars in museums and private collections. The results are supported by the investigation of a wide variety of primary sources, including literary references, newspaper advertisements, patent records, legal documents, music scores, and iconographical evidence. The research has led to the establishment of a methodology for the documentation and classification of extant guittars using a prototype template, and to the creation of various reference databases for the future study of the instrument. This thesis is the first complete study of the guittar in the British Isles during the second half of the 18 th century. It presents the most important facts and figures related to the origins and development of the instrument, while documenting and highlighting its main historical, musical and technical features, with emphasis on aspects of design, construction and decoration. Additionally, this thesis examines the guittar's social and cultural role as a predominantly domestic female instrument, and also brings to light new interesting details about the establishment of a guittar trade within and outside the British Isles. Finally, it accounts the main reasons for the decline of the guittar and also identifies its significance in the wider fields of musicology and organology, indicating possible relations and influences with other contemporary musical instruments across Europe.

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Naturally Produced Co/CoO Nanocrystalline Magnetic Multilayers: Structure and Inverted Hysteresis

Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 2016

Cobalt-based multilayers with excellent sequencing are grown via radiofrequency magnetron sputter... more Cobalt-based multilayers with excellent sequencing are grown via radiofrequency magnetron sputtering with the use of one Co target and natural oxidation. The Co layers are continuous, fully textured {111} and have the face centered cubic structure. At the end of deposition of each Co layer air is let to flow into the vacuum chamber via a fine (leak) valve. The top of Co is oxidized. The oxidized layers consist of cubic CoO crystallites. Near the film surface hexagonal Co(OH)2 is also detected. Magneto-optical Kerr effect hysteresis loops show in-plane magnetized films. The magnetic saturation field in the out-of-plane measurements is large exceeding 12 kOe. This observation supports indirectly the fact that Co is face centered cubic; if it was c-axis textured hexagonal the magnetocrystalline anisotropy would be large resulting in smaller values of the saturation field. As the Co-layer thickness decreases the in-plane loops show reduced remanence, slow approach to magnetic saturation and the out-of-plane loops show inverted hysteresis and/or crossing loop features with sizeable remanence. The effects are discussed with respect to the enhanced orbital magnetic moment of Co and the antiferromagnetic coupling between Co spins at the Co/CoO interface.

‘A very mistaken identification’: the ‘sultana’ or ‘cither viol’ and its links to the bowed psaltery, viola d’amore and guittar

by Rachael Durkin and Panagiotis Poulopoulos

The origins and development of the ‘sultana’ or ‘cither viol’ constitute an organological enigma.... more The origins and development of the ‘sultana’ or ‘cither viol’ constitute an organological enigma. Usually considered as the bowed equivalent of the wire-strung guittar, the ‘sultana’ or ‘cither viol’ has been described by several authors as a wire-strung type of viola d’amore with no sympathetic strings that was introduced in the 1760s by Thomas Perry, the well-known violin- and guitar-maker of Dublin. This article will present new evidence that has come to light from the examination of written sources, iconography and surviving specimens, aiming to reveal the true identity of this forgotten instrument while underlining its close connections to the viola d’amore and guittar. Furthermore, it will provide new details on the manufacture and trade of the instrument by referring to the influential work of Frederick Hintz and Reinerus Liessem, two important instrument-makers and dealers of German origin working in Georgian London. Finally, the article will provide an overview of the instrument’s promotion and reception in the British Isles during the late 18th century, with particular reference to Scotland and Ireland where the instrument seems to have enjoyed a considerable popularity, and will additionally investigate its musical role by analysing the only known example of music composed for it in an extant manuscript.