THE RENAISSANCE LUTE
English: Lute | Italian: leùto, liuto | German: laute | Spanish: laúd | French: luth
During the Renaissance, it was thought that when a lutenist played here on Earth, angels would also be playing in Heaven. They believed the performer was literally channeling the Divine.
For more than six hundred years – spanning the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras – the lute was the most popular instrument throughout Britain and Europe. Known as the King of Instruments, or The Instrument of Angels, the lute and its ancestors have been found in countless works of art throughout Britain, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Its beauty and sound are expressed in poems, plays, private diaries, musical manuscripts, and numerous other writings.
While no surviving lutes have been found from the early centuries, records of the lute, or its ancestors, first appear in paintings, carvings, and tapestries from as early as: The 2nd Century in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor; The 5th Century AC in China and Asia, where it was known as the P’i-p’a, or Biwa (which has a much shorter neck than the later Renaissance and Baroque lutes); and the 7th and 8th Centuries in the Middle East, where it still remains popular as the Ūd (or Oud).
The European lute was based on the Arabian Ūd which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula as early as the 8th and 9th Centuries by the Moors, and later to Sicily, by the Saracens (c. 1100). By the 13th Century the lute was widespread throughout Italy and its popularity soon spread across Europe and into Britain.
From left to right – a Turkish lute, a Syrian lute, and a highly decorated Egyptian style lute
In the Middle East and Arabic nations, the oud is a symbol of harmony and reflects the beauty of Heaven, and is considered Aamir Al ‘Alat, the ‘Sultan of Instruments’.
The major difference between the Ūd and the lute, is the Ūd has a slightly shorter neck, and is fretless. The lute on the other hand uses sheep gut frets placed at intervals along the neck. Frets change the pitch of the string. One fret raises the pitch of the resulting note by a semitone.
Strings were also made of sheep gut and many players of today still prefer them. Modern strings are made of nylon or nylgut (a mixture of the two), but regardless of the choice of strings, lutes are notoriously difficult to tune. It’s common knowledge that lutenists spend half their time tuning their instruments and the other half playing out of tune!
While the number of strings varied from region to region, and changed from century to century, the lute’s basic shape has not changed in hundreds of years. With their a pear-shaped body, bowl-shaped back (constructed using separate thin strips or ribs of wood), and its distinctive bent back peg board, the lute is an exquisite little instrument, with the smaller lutes weigh as little as 580 grams!
‘If a lute player lives for eighty years, he has surely spent sixty years tuning’! German composer Johann Matheson (1720)
The lute is a good example of how instruments changed from the late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and into the Baroque. The lute originally had only four courses (9 strings – four pairs of strings, with a single top string – the Chanterelle, to bring out the melody). During the Renaissance when players desired a greater range and deeper bass notes, the number of strings increased to five courses, then six, and finally seven (with 15 strings).
In the Baroque this was increased to eight courses, then nine, ten, eleven, twelve, culminating in the magnificent 13 course (25 stringed) Baroque lute! The Baroque lute was the invention of German lutenist, Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), whose highly virtuosic compositions are still considered some of the greatest works for the lute ever written.
– Another lute in the making, by modern day English Luthier, Martin Shepherd –
For a detailed description of how a lute was originally constructed visit: The Lute Society
It’s easy to see why the lute was so appealing, apart from its beautiful sound, it was light, portable, and far cheaper and easier to maintain than a harpsichord for instance! It was also musically very versatile and used to play dance music, popular tunes, be part of an ensemble, and provide an accompaniment to singers. It was also the first instrument to generate a solo repertoire of its own, in the form of preludes (an introductory piece, originally used in the Renaissance to warm up the fingers, check sound quality and tuning, but not officially referred to as a prelude until the Baroque Era), passemezzi (an Italian style folk dance), and the highly expressive and imaginative fantasias (polyphonic impromptu pieces composed/improvised by the player but not following any particular musical genre).
While similar to the modern-day guitar, the lutes sound is quite different, the resonance created by its pear-shaped body, rib-like structure, and sound-hole rose, give the lute a rich and delicate sound. Its delicate tones have been described as delightful and enchanting, as well as sensuous and ravishing! The lute was said to woo women, sending listeners into a state of ecstasy!
Unlike the guitar, where the sound hole is open, on a lute it is covered by a rose (a number of lutes feature several small roses, but this is rare). Carved into the soundboard, lute roses (or rosettes) are intricate and beautiful. but the rose is far from merely ornamental, it also plays an acoustic role helping shape the lute’s sound and tone. Thus, roses are both functional as well as decorative. Often in the shape of intertwining vines, geometric patterns, or decorative knots, their designs reflected, not just the luthiers skill, but also the region they were from and their particular workshop, acting like a signature.
A lute is made entirely of wood (the word Ūd means exactly that, ‘wood’), and over the centuries wood choices have been perfected by luthiers, the most common being European spruce for the sound board, fine curved maple strips for the back, and ebony for the pegs, pegboard, and fingerboard. The neck is made of hardwood (usually maple), and towards the end of the Renaissance, veneered with decorative hardwood like ebony, or inlaid with strips of ivory.
The delicacy and beauty of Renaissance lute music is mirrored in the construction of the instrument. Although the greatest repertoire for the lute comes from England, the best makers were German, and many Bavarian makers took up residence in Italy during this Era.
for the love of the lute
Lute music was innovative, often highly virtuosic, and beautifully presented. In the days of John Dowland tablature for an ensemble was written in sections like a circular pie, which meant, when placed at the centre of a table, each player could read and play their part simultaneously.
Another now famous, and quite beautiful presentation of lute music is in the heart shaped, J’ay Pris Amour (‘I have taken love’). Written in the 1500s in three parts. The first features lute music accompanying the lyrics of a popular French chanson (song) of the day. The second, contains love poems, and the third is in the form of a diary.
Another famous work written for the lute is the beautifully decorated Capirola Lutebook. Vincenzo Capirola (1474-c.1549), was an Italian lutenist, composer, and nobleman, whose works are preserved in the book together with pieces composed by others and transcribed by Capirola.
The book was compiled in 1520 by Vitale, a pupil of Capirola. Vitale decorated each page, with animals, birds, and cherubs, hoping that if not the music, then the paintings alone would ensure the book’s survival!
The book contains 43 pieces ranging in difficulty, from easy for beginners, to highly virtuosic. There is also an explanation on stringing and tuning, playing techniques, and ornamentation and notation. During the Renaissance, as with painters and sculptures, the training of professional musicians took place in a system of apprenticeship. Thus, there exist few written instructions for lute players regarding playing techniques. Which makes the Capirola Lute Book one of the most important resources regarding Renaissance lute performance, that we have.
The lute was the most popular instrument throughout Britain and Europe for more than 600 years, and with the invention of the printing press in c.1440, we have a wealth of musical scores remaining. There are literally tens of thousands of surviving lute manuscripts.
Prior to the 15th Century (the 1400s) the lute was strummed with a feathered quill, made from the flight feathers of either a goose, or more commonly, a swan. From the 15th Century, players abandoned the quill and began to pluck the strings with their fingertips. This change in technique meant two, three, or even four ‘voices’ could be played at once. It also brought far more expression to the playing, emphasising phrasing, accents, character, and colour.
Fingerstyle playing also changed the way music was written, and with the invention of the printing press in c.1440, lute tablature became extremely popular. Tablature showed players (even the most inexperienced of beginners), where to place the fingers on the neck. This of course added to the lutes appeal and meant anyone could easily learn to play. Lute tablature created during the Renaissance is still used by musicians to this day, but in those days, it was brand new and must have been incredibly exciting for young musicians!
Tablature is a system of notation in which the pitch and duration of a note is not shown with the same symbols used in staff notation, but with a system of letters, numbers and certain unique symbols. One symbol shows how to produce a sound of the required pitch (which string to pluck, which fret to stop, which key to press etc.), and another to show its duration. While staff notation was primarily developed for single line music, tablature’s specialty is multiple part music.
For instrument makers and musicians during the Renaissance, it was a time of great experimentation. Music and musical law was still relatively new. New instruments were being created, string lengths, fret position and tunings were experimented with, new sounds, new techniques of playing and composing, all came into play. For musicians and their audiences it must have been an exciting time indeed!
By the time the Renaissance began the lute was the most popular and prized of all instruments. Known as the King of instruments, or The Instrument of Angels, the lute was held in the highest esteem in both the secular and sacred worlds. The lute’s entrancing tones were said to transport listeners to Heaven which is why the lute was so popular in sacred circles. Perhaps more importantly, especially to the handsome young lutenists of the day, the lute with its seductive tones, was also said to send women into ecstasy!
Although the first musical notation, has been discovered in manuscripts from as early as 1400 BCE, Western notation began in the churches of the Medieval era, to ensure the same chants were performed in exactly the same way throughout Christendom. Prior to the invention of the printing press the Bible, for instance, was only available in the wealthiest of churches, where single copies were handwritten and beautifully illustrated. The everyday population would never have laid eyes on them.
However, once the Bible could be printed quite easily and at a fraction of the cost, copies began to appear across the whole of the known world. Even the peasants gained free access to the Bible and eventually other books, which of course led to the sharp rise in education of the lower-class masses. It was the same with music. Printing presses meant musical scores were available to everyone. These early composers invented ingenious ways of representing notes, rests, repeats, and fingering. Much of which is still used today. The image above shows how notation changed during these early centuries, yet looks surprisingly similar to the music of today!
Many examples of Renaissance music have survived, including the canario (canarie or canary), chaconne, bassadance (basse danse), branles, ballettos, voltas, and others. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the surviving manuscripts are of courtly dances, and not the everyday country tunes, which were rarely written down.
Lute music/tablature (while completely different from our modern day guitar tablature), could be read by even the most amateur of musicians. Musical notation differed from country to country and region to region, and although they differed slightly, French, German and Italian tablature, arose as the most preferred, and are still used by lutenists today.