Enige Informatie

Over Luit, Tablatuur &

Toondichters
(althans deze uit de Barok die voor dit Instrument Componeerden)

zoals aangetroen in Grove Music Online

voor
de
liefhebbers

Lute
(Arab. d; Fr. luth; Ger. Laute; It. lauto, leuto, liuto; Sp. lad).
A plucked chordophone, made of wood, of Middle Eastern origin (see Ud) which flourished
throughout Europe from medieval times to the 18th century. Broader, generic uses of the term are
discussed in 1.
KLAUS WACHSMANN (1), JAMES W. McKINNON, ROBERT ANDERSON (2), IAN HARWOOD, DIANA POULTON/DAVID VAN EDWARDS (34), LYNDA SAYCE (5), DIANA
POULTON/TIM CRAWFORD (68)
1. The generic term.
In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system (Sachs and Hornbostel, A1914) the term lute covers
those composite chordophones string instruments in which a string bearer and a resonator are
organically united and cannot be separated without destroying the instrument in which the
plane of the string runs parallel with the soundtable (figs.1 and 2). This definition excludes harps
and zithers but includes pluriarcs (or bow lutes) (see Gabon, fig.2), lyres of various sorts and
handle lutes proper. The following excerpt from Hornbostel and Sachs (from the GSJ translation,
with minor alterations) shows the classification of handle lutes (for their complete classification of
lute types see Chordophone):
321.3 Handle lutes: the string bearer is a plain handle; subsidiary necks, as e.g. in the Indian
prasrin vn are disregarded, as are also lutes with strings distributed over several necks, like the
harpo-lyre, and those like the lyre-guitars, in which the yoke is merely ornamental
321.31 Spike lutes: the handle passes diametrically through the resonator
321.311 Spike bowl lutes: the resonator consists of a natural or carved-out bowl found in Persia
[now Iran], India, Indonesia
321.312 Spike box lutes or spike guitars: the resonator is built up from wood found in Egypt (rabb)
321.313 Spike tube lutes: the handle passes diametrically through the walls of a tube found in China, Indochina [now Vietnam]
321.32 Necked lutes: the handle is attached to or carved from the resonator, like a neck
321.321 Necked bowl lutes (mandolin, theorbo, balalaika)
321.322 Necked box lutes or necked guitars: (violin, viol, guitar) NB a lute whose body is built up in the
shape of a bowl is classified as a bowl lute
321.33 Tanged lutes: the handle ends within the body resonator
Common usage also excludes bowed instruments (such as the violin). However, the HornbostelSachs classification provides suxes for use with any division of the class of chordophones to indicate the method of sounding; thus, for example, a violin if played with a bow is classified as a
bowed lute.
Spike lutes and necked lutes dier from each other by the manner in which neck and resonator are
assembled. Fig.3 illustrates possibilities of assembly as found in a series of instruments of the lute
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family (played with a bow) from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. If the neck clearly passes
through the resonator, as it does in the first four examples, the label spiked lute applies. But in six
cases the handle is attached, and in this sense the instruments are necked lutes. However, the
examples show that there are several transitional forms to which neither label applies well; hence a
third category has been added to the Hornbostel-Sachs classification above, under the code
321.33, for instruments in which, as Hornbostel himself described it, the handle ends within the
body.
Sachs ascribed the earliest types to a period from the 4th to the 2nd millennium bce, basing his
conclusion on cultural geography. Seen in the perspective of human development, lutes are in any
event a comparatively late invention. Because the use of a bow to play string instruments is even
more recent the earliest documentation dates from around the end of the 1st millennium ce
the discussion of ancient lutes in 2 deals exclusively with plucked instruments.
2. Ancient lutes.
Two types of ancient lute are clearly distinguishable: the earlier long-necked lute and the shortnecked lute. There is a wide range of dierence within each type, but the most common features of
the long-necked lute are an unfretted, rod-like neck and a small oval or almond-shaped body,
which before the advent of wood construction was fashioned from a gourd or tortoise shell. In
many early examples where the table is of hide, the neck or spike is attached to it by piercing it a
number of times in the manner of stitching. The strings, usually two, are attached at the lower end
of the spike in varying ways and are bound at the top by ligatures from which hang decorative tassels. Pegs were not used until comparatively late in the instrument's history.
The long-necked lute is now thought (by Turnbull and Picken, for example) to have originated
among the West Semites of Syria. Turnbull (A1972) has argued convincingly for its earliest appearance being that on two cylinder seals (fig.4a ) of the Akkadian period (c23702110 bce); on one
the lute is in the hands of a crouching male who plays while a birdman is brought before a seated
god. In contrast to the draped female harpists, the lutenists of early Mesopotamia are men, sometimes shown naked or with animals. None of these instruments has survived, but the lute's popularity is attested by many objects of the Babylonian period. The Louvre possesses a Babylonian
boundary stone, found at Susa, which shows bearded men with bows on their backs playing the
lute in the company of such animals as the lion, panther, antelope, horse, sheep, ox, and an ostrich.
In the the early 2nd millennium bce the lute is also attested for the Hittite Old Kingdom: a sherd
from Alishar Hyk has preserved the end of a neck with two strings hanging from it.
The lute first appeared in Egypt as a result of Hyksos influence, which opened the country to Western Asiatic ideas. In the New Kingdom (15501070 bce) the long-necked lute was often represented in banquet scenes, played either by men or women. The two main types of instrument, with
round (usually a tortoise shell) or oval soundbox, appear in a scene now at the British Museum
showing details of the frets and soundholes as well as the plectrum. The earliest Egyptian evidence
of the lute to survive is a soundbox now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and there is a
well-preserved instrument from the Theban tomb of the singer Harmose in the Cairo Museum
(Dynasty 18, 15501320). The lute had a function in ritual processions such as those depicted in
the Luxor temple at the festival of Opet, when a number of players performed together. It appeared more often, though, in the chamber groups that featured at court functions and ocial
banquets. The end of the neck is sometimes carved with the head of a goose or falcon. This probably had religious significance, as is clearly the case when a Hathor head is carved. The dwarf-god
Bes, himself probably of Asiatic origin, is an adept at the lute, and satirical scenes show it in the
hands of a crocodile.
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Greco-Roman lutes (see Pandoura), which are depicted in a number of Hellenistic sculptures and
on late Roman sarcophagi, are comparatively rare. They appear to have at least three strings,
plucked with the fingers, and a thick unfretted neck. (The evidence indicating this last feature, however, may be influenced by the sculpture medium.) One depiction, a terracotta in the Louvre (see
fig.4c), shows the body tapering to form the neck in the manner of the short-necked lute. The surviving representations from Byzantium, most notably a 5th-century mosaic from the former imperial palace of Istanbul and a 6th-century mosaic from a church near Shahhat, Libya, show lutes
of the pandoura type.
The short-necked lute, which is characterized by a wooden body tapering o to form the neck and
fingerboard, probably also originated in Asia. There are only rare representations of it until the
first centuries bce. A number of statuettes and reliefs (see Geiringer, A19278, pls.13) are preserved from the Gandhara culture of the time, named from an area in north-west India under the
influence of Greek civilization; these show short-necked lutes with a pear-shaped body, a frontal
string-holder, lateral pegs and four or five strings plucked with a plectrum. The Sassanid lute or
barbat, as shown on a 6th-century silver cup from Kalar Dasht, was of this type. Apparently these
instruments are related to those lutes that spread eastwards to China and Japan, as well as to the
Arabian d, the immediate ancestor of the European classical lute.
3. Structure of the Western lute.
The structure of the Western lute evolved gradually away from its ancestor the Arabian d, though
some features have remained suciently consistent to constitute defining characteristics. Chief
among these are: a vaulted back, pear-shaped in outline and more or less semicircular in crosssection, made up of a number of separate ribs; a neck and fingerboard tied with gut frets; a flat
soundboard or belly in which is carved an ornate soundhole or rose; a bridge, to which the
strings are attached, glued near the lower end of the soundboard; a pegbox, usually at nearly a
right angle to the neck, with tuning-pegs inserted laterally; and strings of gut, usually arranged in
paired courses.
The ribs, of which the body is constructed, are thin (typically about 15 mm) strips of wood, bent
over a mould and glued together edge to edge to form a symmetrical shell. Although the overall
sizes of lutes vary considerably, there is much less variation in the thicknesses of their constituent
parts, and even very large lutes have ribs of less than 2 mm. The glue joints between the ribs are
reinforced inside with narrow strips of paper or parchment. Many surviving lutes also have five or
six strips of, usually, parchment glued round inside the bowl across the line of the ribs. The number of ribs varies according to date and style from only seven to up to 65, but it is always an odd
number because lute backs are built outwards from a single central rib. Many kinds of wood, even
sometimes ivory, have been used for the back. Maple and yew were the favoured local woods but
exotic woods from South America and East Asia, such as rosewood, kingwood and ebony, were
used as they became available in the 16th century. The extent of their use by 1566 is revealed in
the inventory of Raimund Fugger (see Smith, B1980). At the lower end, where these ribs taper together, they are reinforced internally with a strip of softwood bent to fit, and externally with a
capping strip, usually of the same material as the ribs. At the other end the ribs are glued to a
block, often of softwood, to which the neck is attached. In most pictures of medieval lutes up to
about 1500, as in the early d, the ribs are shown as flowing in a smooth curve into the line of the
neck and in these cases the end of the neck itself, suitably rebated, may have formed the block to
which the ribs were glued. However, by 1360 there are already some pictures showing lutes with a
sharp angle between neck and body, implying that the separate block, which is universally present
in surviving lutes, was not unknown. The overlap of these two forms spanned at least 200 years;
both forms are depicted in The Last Judgement by Hieronymus Bosch (c1500, Vienna Academy). In
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the later two-part construction the joint is a simple glued butt joint, secured with one or more
nails driven through the block into the end-grain of the neck. This simple joint proved adequate
during the remainder of the lute's history.
Most surviving lutes from the early 16th century have been re-necked in later styles but iconographical sources reveal that early necks appear most often to have been made of a single piece of
hardwood such as sycamore or maple to match the body. In later and surviving lutes after about
1580, the neck is most often veneered in a decorative hardwood, often ebony, sometimes striped or
inlaid with ivory, on a core of sycamore or other common hardwood. At first, throughout the medieval period and into the Renaissance, necks were semicircular or deeper in cross-section. As the
number of courses increased through the 16th and 17th centuries, the necks became correspondingly wider, necessitating a change of left-hand position to enable stretches across to the bass
strings. This meant that a thinner neck was more comfortable. Baron (C1727) commented that
Johann Christian Homann (16831750) made the necks of his lutes to fit the hand of their owner, unlike his father Martin Homann (16531719), who made his necks too thick.
Separate fingerboards are often not very apparent in pictures of medieval lutes, leading to the supposition that they were either made of boxwood or simply constituted the flat top surface of the
neck. Sometimes when there is a marked change of colour between the fingerboard and the
soundboard, the join occurs so far down the soundboard as to be beyond any possible neck block;
a separate fingerboard is therefore structurally impossible. Instead, the change of colour must result from a protective coat of something like varnish. Surviving lutes from the 1580s onwards almost universally have separate ebony fingerboards set flush with the soundboard and, after about
1600, usually with separate points decorating the joint between the fingerboard and soundboard
(fig.5). The lutes of Tielke in the 18th century often had multiple points (see G. Hellwig, B1980).
Medieval and Renaissance lute fingerboards were usually flat, even the wide chitarrone and theorbo fingerboards, but from about 1700 makers started to give a curve to their fingerboards, helping
the lie of the frets and making fingering easier.
At the back of the top end of the neck a rebate is cut out to form a housing for the pegbox. This
same design of joint, with or without a reinforcing nail into the end-grain of the neck, was used
throughout the history of the lute, as was the basic form of the pegbox: a straight-sided box, closed
at the back, open at the front and tapering slightly in both width and depth. However, after about
1595 various branches of the lute family also developed dierent and characteristic pegbox forms
in order to accommodate the longer bass strings needed to extend the range of the lute downwards. Slender tapering hardwood tuning-pegs were inserted from the sides. Medieval pegs appear
often to have been made of boxwood, but later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, fruitwood such as
plum seems to have been a preferred material, though these were often stained black.
The soundboard is a flat straight-grained softwood plate, nowadays mostly thought of as Picea abies
or Picea excelsa (though historically the types of wood used may have included species of Pinus and
Abies) into which is carved an ornamental rose soundhole, whose pattern often shows decidedly
Arabic influence (see Wells, D1981). However, it is noticeable that iconography does not support a
continuous tradition of rose design from the Arabic d; most medieval pictures of lutes feature
gothic designs, and the frequency of Arabic patterns in the later surviving lutes may reflect rather
the contemporary interest in such designs by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Drer. The
soundboard is often made from the two halves joined along the centre line, but on larger instruments several pieces may be used. Most surviving lute soundboards are quite thin, often about 15
mm. However, there is some support for the view that the very earliest soundboards, dating from
about 1540, may have been rather thicker, and that they were made progressively thinner as the
number of the supporting bars was increased (see Nurse, D1986). Early lutes from before the
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1590s usually had no edging to the soundboard. After that, often an ebony or hardwood strip was
rebated into half the depth of the soundboard edge as a protective measure. Later still, when the
fashion for re-using old soundboards was in sway (see Lowe, B1976), a lace of parchment or cloth
with silver threads was often used to wrap the edge, possibly to cover pre-existing wear.
Bridge designs went through a slow evolution, particularly in the shape of the decorative ears
which terminate both ends, but were consistently made of a light hardwood such as pear, plum or
walnut, sometimes stained black, and were glued directly to the surface of the soundboard. Their
cross-sectional design was very cleverly arranged to minimize stress at the junction with the thin
and flexible soundboard. Holes drilled through the bridge took the strings, which were tied so that
they were supported by a loop of the same string rather than by a saddle as in the modern guitar.
This has a marked eect on the tone of the instrument, and contributes to the sweetness of the lute's sound.
The tension of the strings, because they are pulling directly on the soundboard, tends to cause it to
distort. This is resisted by a number of transverse bars of the same wood as the soundboard, glued
on edge across its underside. These bars, besides supporting the soundboard, have an important
eect on the sound quality. By dividing the soundboard into a number of sections, each with a relatively high resonant frequency, they cause it to reinforce the upper harmonics produced by a
string rather than its fundamental tone. This is matched by the strings themselves, which are quite
thin compared with those of a modern guitar; a thin string tuned to a certain note produces more
high harmonics than a thicker string tuned to the same note. Thus the whole acoustical system of
the lute is designed to give a characteristically clear, almost nasal, sound (see also Acoustics, II, 8).
4. History.
The European lute derives both in name and form from the Arab instrument known as the d,
which means literally the wood (either because it had a soundboard of wood as distinct from a
parchment skin stretched over the body, or because the body itself was built up from wooden
strips rather than made from a hollow gourd). The Arab d was introduced into Europe by the
Moors during their conquest and occupation of Spain (7111492). Pictorial evidence shows
Moorish d players, and 9th- and 10th-century accounts tell of visits of famous players such as
Ziryb to the court of the Andalusian emir Abd al-Rahmn II (82252). The d was not confined
to Muslims, however, as is shown by illustrations to the Cantigas de Santa Mara of Alfonso el Sabio
(122184) which include players in distinctive Christian costume (fig.6). However, from pictorial
and written evidence it is clear that by 1350 what we must now call lutes, since there is no longer
any connection with Arab musicians, had spread very widely throughout Europe, even though
trading and cultural links with Moorish Spain were not well developed. We need to look elsewhere
for a route that would lead to the eventual domination of European lute making by numerous
German families who came originally from around the Lech valley region and Bavaria. Bletschacher (B1978) has argued that this was due largely to the royal visits of Friedrich II with his magnificent Moorish Sicilian retinue to the towns in this valley between 1218 and 1237. The valley was a
main northsouth trading route across the Alps, with the necessary raw materials growing there in
abundance, so it would have been a natural focus for any such development to occur, even more so
following the Venetians' capture of Constantinople in 1204 which so greatly increased their trading activities with the Near East. The d is still in use although it no longer has frets. Over the
centuries it has undergone structural changes analogous to those of the lute, and thus diers from
both the original d and the medieval lute.
As no lutes from before the 16th century have survived, information must be gathered from pictures, sculpture and written descriptions. These indicate that the lute has usually had its strings in
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pairs, and that at first there were only four such courses (fig.7). From the start, lutes were made in
widely dierent sizes, and therefore of dierent pitches. Both pictorial and written evidence point
to the use of dierent sized lutes for treble and ground duet performance (see Polk, F1992). During the 15th century a fifth course was added. Masaccio depicted two five-course lutes in his altarpiece, Virgin and Child (1426; now in the National Gallery, London). Later, in his De inventione et
usu musicae (c14813), Tinctoris mentioned a sixth course and there are even tablatures from this
period calling for a seven-course lute, though no contemporaneous pictures show one.
The earliest extant account of structural details for the European lute is in a manuscript of about
1440 written by Henri Arnaut de Zwolle (see Harwood, D1960). Arnaut described both the lute
itself and the mould on which it was built, combining the two in the same diagram (fig.8). His design was unmeasured but instead was worked out in terms of geometrical proportion, including
the positions of bridge, soundhole and three transverse bars. Almost 200 years later, Mersenne
(1636) described the design and construction of a lute by remarkably similar methods. By this
time the number of soundboard bars had doubled, but the placing of three of them, as well as that
of the soundhole and bridge, corresponds with that given by Arnaut. There can be no doubt that
there was a well-established tradition of instrument design by geometrical methods, going back to
the d at least as far as the 9th and 10th centuries (see Bouterse, D1979). It is perhaps significant
that a portrait (1562) of the lute maker Gaspar Tieenbrucker surrounded by his lutes and other
instruments shows him holding a pair of dividers. However, when Arnaut's design is compared to
lutes shown in most paintings of the period, it is in fact rather dierent, being oddly rounded at
the top of the body. The very long neck he specifies is almost never shown. This suggests that, as
an enquiring scholar, he may have been given the general principles of design by the lute maker(s)
he consulted, but not the exact relationships which determine the precise shape and which may
have been regarded as a craft secret.
Medieval lutes usually had two circular roses, one large and more or less halfway between the
bridge and the neck, as specified by Arnaut, the other much smaller and higher up the body close
to the fingerboard. The large rose was occasionally of the ornate sunken variety, often with designs similar to some gothic cathedral windows. This may have been intentional, for Arnaut calls
the rose in his drawing Fenestrum. Around 1480 there was even a brief fashion for the upper rose
to be in the form of a lancet window, and interestingly just such a rose has survived in the clavicytherium now in the RCM, London, which has been dated to about 1480 (see E. Wells: The London
Clavicytherium, EMc, vi, 1978, pp.56871).
The d was, and still is, played with a plectrum, and at first the same method was used for the lute
(see figs.4 and 5). With this technique it was probably mainly a melodic instrument, playing a single line of music, albeit highly ornate, with perhaps strummed chords at important points. However, some of the very early plectra are shown as large and solid looking, implying that the lute may
also have been used as a percussive rhythm instrument rather like the Romanian cobz, which closely resembles the very early medieval lute, especially in the wide spacing of the strings at the
bridge and the shortness of the steeply tapering neck (see Lloyd, B1960). This may explain the
early drone tunings (see 5 below).
During the second half of the 15th century, there was a change to playing with the fingertips,
though, as Page (B1981) pointed out, the two methods continued for some time side by side. Tinctoris (c14813) wrote of holding the lute while the strings are struck by the right hand either with
the fingers or with a plectrum, but did not imply that the use of the fingers was a novelty. However, the change was very significant for the lute's future development, for it allowed the playing of
several parts at once, and meant that the huge repertory of vocal part music both sacred and secular became available to lute players. This function was made easier by the invention about this
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time of special systems of notation known as tablature, into which much of this repertory was
transcribed (intabulated). There were three main kinds of tablature for the lute, developed in
Germany, France and Italy respectively. A fourth early system, Intavolatura alla Napolitana, was
also used from time to time. Of the four main types the French may have been the earliest. The
German one was probably written during the lifetime of Conrad Paumann (c14101473), the supposed inventor of the system. Although Tinctoris had mentioned a six-course lute, these first tablatures, and indeed the very names by which the strings of the instrument were known, suggest
five courses as still the most usual number at this time.
By about 1500 a sixth course was commonly in use, which extended the range of the open strings
by another 4th to two octaves. This may have been enabled by improvements in string making.
Gut was used for all the strings and it was usual on the two or three lowest courses to set one of
the pair with a thin string tuned an octave higher, to lend some brilliance to the tone of its thick
neighbour.
By 1500 the first written records confirm the existence of several lute-making families in and
around Fssen in the Lech valley. Most of the famous names of 16th- and 17th-century lute making seem to have originated from around this small area of southern Germany. By 1562 the Fssen makers were suciently well established to form a guild with elaborate regulations which have
survived (see Bletschacher, B1978, and Layer, B1978). A careful reading of these regulations reveals
how much they were predicated on the idea of export. They also show an organized tendency to
keep the trade within individual families, which resulted in much intermarriage. This was a powerful force for continuity which clearly lasted for centuries. However, the number of masters who
could set up a workshop in the town was limited to 20, so there was a built-in pressure to emigrate. It was also precisely this area which was devastated first by the Peasants' Revolt of 1525, the war
against the Schmalkaldic League (154655), and finally by the Thirty Years War which killed more
than half the population of central Europe. It is hardly surprising that lute makers, who already
had international connections, moved away from the area in such numbers.
Many settled in northern Italy, no doubt attracted by the country's wealth and fashion but also
perhaps by the access to exotic woods imported via Venice. The tradition of intermarriage meant
that they remained together in colonies and did not become much integrated into Italian society.
Luca Maler (see Maler) was active in Bologna from about 1503; by 1530 he was a property owner
of considerable substance and had built up an almost industrial scale workshop employing mostly
German craftsmen (see Pasqual and Ragazzi, B1998). The inventory compiled at his death in 1552
lists about 1100 finished lutes and more than 1300 soundboards ready for use; his firm continued
trading until 1613. Among several other lute makers in Bologna were marx Unverdorben (briefly)
and hans Frei. The main characteristic of their lutes is a long narrow body of nine or 11 broad ribs
with rather straight shoulders and fairly round at the base. This form is remarkably close to that
proposed by Bouterse (D1979) in his interpretation of Persian and Arabic manuscripts of the 14th
century. The chief dierence is that these Middle Eastern descriptions, like Arnaut's, indicate a
semicircular cross-section, whereas the instruments of Maler and Frei are somewhat more square.
Often made from sycamore or ash, they remained highly prized as long as the lute was in use, but
became increasingly rare as time went on. No unaltered example is known to have survived, for
their prestige was such that they were adapted (sometimes more than once) to keep abreast of new
fashions. They have all been fitted with replacement necks to carry more strings; sometimes the
vaulted back is the only original part remaining (see Downing, B1978).
In Venice, as in Bologna, the German colony kept to its own quarter and had its own church. By
1521 Ulrich Tieenbrucker is recorded as present in the city, and for the next hundred years the
Tieenbrucker family, especially Magno (i), Magno (ii) and Mois, as well as Marx Unverdorben
8

and Luca Maler's brother, Sigismond, dominated lute making in the city (see Toolo, B1987). The
name Tieenbrucker was taken from their original village of Tieenbruck, but their instruments
are usually signed Dieopruchar and regional spellings abound with variants such as Duioprugcar and even Dubrocard. Another branch of the Tieenbrucker family settled in Padua, including
Wendelio Venere, who has recently been discovered to be Wendelin Tieenbrucker, probably the
son of Leonardo Tieenbrucker the elder. michael Hartung also worked in Padua and may have
been taught by Wendelin, although Baron (C1727) stated that he was apprenticed to Leonardo the
younger. The typical body shape of these Venetian and Paduan lutes was less elongated than that
of Maler's and Frei's instruments, and the shoulders were more curved (fig.10a, cf ). The first
examples had 11 or 13 ribs, but later the number was increased, a feature associated with, but not
exclusive to, the use of yew, which has a brown heartwood and a narrow white sapwood. For purposes of decoration, each rib was cut half light, half dark, which restricted the available width and
required a large number of ribs, sometimes totalling 51 and even more. The yew wood was supplied from the old heartland of lute making in south Germany, and cutting the ribs for Venetian
makers became a valuable source of winter employment there (see Layer, B1978).
The use of geometrical methods of lute design has already been mentioned, and it has been found
by several writers that the shape of these instruments can be readily reproduced by such means
(see Edwards, D1973; D. Abbott and E. Segerman: The Geometric Description and Analysis of Instrument Shapes, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.2, 1976, p.7; Shne, D1980; Samson, D1981; and Coates,
D1985). This may account for the similarity in basic form between instruments of dierent sizes
and by dierent makers. By comparison with the modern guitar, these early lutes, whether of the
Bolognese or Paduan type, are distinguished by the lightness of their construction. The egg-like
shape of the lute body is inherently strong and does not need to be built of very thick materials.
Although the total tension of up to 24 gut strings (for later lutes) can be as much as 7080 kg, the
well-barred thin soundboard withstands this pull remarkably well. Though in the 17th century, as
Constantijn Huygens's correspondence makes clear, it was routine to re-bar old lutes as part of
their renovation, this may have had more to do with alterations in barring layout than structural
weaknesses.
The instruction to tune the top string as high as it will stand without breaking is given in many
early lute tutors (though not by Dowland or Mace). If the highest string is lowered for safety's sake
much beneath its breaking point, the basses will be either too thick and sti or, if thinner, too slack
to produce an acceptable sound. Wire-wound bass strings which could ease this dilemma by increasing the weight without increasing the stiness are not known to have been available until after 1650, and were apparently not much used thereafter either. Therefore, as the breaking pitch of a
string depends on its length but not on its thickness, the working level of a given instrument is
fixed within quite narrow limits.
In the second half of the 16th century there was a tendency to build instruments in families of sizes (and thus pitches), roughly corresponding with the dierent types of human voice. The lute
was no exception. Examples of the variety of sizes available around 1600 are shown in fig.10. The
instrument by Magno Tieenbrucker (fig.10a) has a string length of 67 cm; the string lengths of
the instruments shown as fig.10cg are 299 cm, 44 cm, 442 cm, 666 cm, and 938 cm. Strictly
speaking, the smallest of these (fig.10c) should be called a Mandore (see also Mandolin, 1). In
England the nominal a' or g' lute was known as the mean, and was the size intended in most of the
books of ayres, unless otherwise specified. The only other names used in English musical sources
are bass (nominally at d') and treble, which is specified for the Morley and Rosseter Consort Lessons. The pitch of these treble lutes implied by the other parts was also g' but it is possible that this
music was intended to be played at a pitch level a 4th higher than that of the mean lute (see Harwood, B1981). This nomenclature of treble has caused some interest and, taken together with a
9

number of specifically English pictures of small-bodied long-necked lutes, may indicate a particular English variant (see Forrester, B1994).
It should be noted that although all sorts of sizes were available at most times, the general trend
from 1600 to 1750 was towards larger instruments for common use. Thus, for example, we might
expect Dowland's songs to be accompanied on a lute of about 58 cm string length tuned to a nominal g' or a', whereas most French Baroque music of the mid-17th century calls for an 11-course
lute of about 67 cm with a top string at a nominal f', while the lutes used in Germany in the 18th
century were mostly 13-course instruments of about 7073 cm, also with a nominal top string of
f'. Some of this may represent a drop in the pitch standard, but we must also assume that string
makers had managed to improve their products to increase the total range available, since these
size changes represent considerable changes in the instruments' requirements. Apart from the development of overwound strings, this increase in range could only have been achieved by increasing the tensile strength of the trebles, by making the thick basses more elastic and flexible or by
increasing the density of bass strings, perhaps by the addition of metallic compounds (see Peruo,
D1991). There is currently much interest in trying to reproduce these conjectured developments. It
is noticeable from written accounts that the cost of strings was remarkably high compared to that
of the lutes themselves, leading to the thought that there was more to their manufacture than is
now apparent.
Although seven-course lutes appear as early as the late 15th century, and Bakfark's apprentice,
Hans Timme, wanted to buy an Italian seven-course lute as early as 1556 (see Gombosi, F1935), it
was only in the 1580s that they became at all common with the seventh course pitched at either a
tone or a 4th below the sixth (see 5 below). Improved strings are conjectured to have popularized
this greater range, perhaps providing a better tone and enabling John Dowland, in his contribution
to his son Robert's Varietie of Lute Lessons (1610), to recommend a unison sixth course:
Secondly, set on your Bases, in that place which you call the sixt string, or ut, these Bases must
be both of one bignes, yet it hath beene a generall custome (although not so much used any where
as here in England) to set a small and a great string together, but amongst learned Musitians that
custome is left, as irregular to the rules of Musicke.
The same book, reflecting the growing tendency to increase the number of bass strings, included
English and continental music for lutes with six, seven, eight and nine courses. This only occasionally extended the range to low C; mostly the extra strings were used to eliminate awkward fingerings resulting from having to stop the seventh course. These diapasons were usually strung with
octaves. Already by the early 1600s the ten-course lute had made its appearance, shown in contemporary illustrations as constructed like its predecessors, with the strings running over a single
nut to the pegbox, which has to be considerably longer to accommodate the additional pegs. The
pegbox is also usually shown as being at a much shallower angle to the neck than the earlier Renaissance lute, a fact borne out by the surviving original ten-course lute by Christofolo Cocho in
the Carl Claudius collection, Musikhistorisk Museum, Copenhagen (no.96a). Often the paintings
of ten-course lutes show a treble rider, a small extra pegholder on top of the normal pegbox side,
designed to give a less acute angle on the nut for the fragile top string.
Another innovation reported by Dowland in Varietie was the lengthening of the neck of the instrument:
for my selfe was borne but thirty yeeres after Hans Gerles booke was printed, and all the Lutes
which I can remember used eight frets some few yeeres after, by the French Nation, the neckes
of the Lutes were lengthned, and thereby increased two frets more, so as all those Lutes, which are
most received and disired, are of tenne frets.
10

Initially this may have been done to improve the tone of the low basses, but unless stronger treble
strings became available at the same time, the pitch level of these longer lutes must have been lower than the older eight-fret instruments. Interestingly, one such lengthened neck survived until
quite recently, but when it was restored this important source of evidence for the practice was
removed. Sometimes extra wooden frets were glued on to the soundboard, an invention which
Dowland attributed to the English player Mathias Mason.
It is interesting that Dowland should thus report the prevailing fashion in lutes as coming from
France, for by his death in 1626 France was the dominant culture musically and was the centre for
developments in dierent tunings, starting some time around 1620, which led to the 11-course
lute. Lowe (B1986) has suggested that the 11th course may at first have been only an octave string.
The later surviving 11-course lutes mostly appear to be conversions of ten-course instruments, all
done in the same way, by making the second course single and adding a treble rider for the top
string or chanterelle on the top of the normal pegbox treble side. This eectively gave two extra
pegs which were used for the new bass course, but, because the neck was now too narrow, these
strings were taken over an extended nut which projected beyond the fingerboard and were fastened to the pegs on the outside of the pegbox. The famous portrait of Charles Mouton (fig.12)
clearly shows that this was obviously not regarded as a stopgap measure. This final extra course on
the same string-length has often been attributed to the invention of wire-wound or overspun
strings, first advertised in England by Playford in 1664. However there is distressingly little hard
evidence that these were in fact much used and they are not mentioned by either Mace or the
Burwell tutor even though both wrote about the choice of strings. As Lowe (B1976) has shown,
during the 17th century the French were already buying and converting early 16th-century Bologna lutes, seemingly because of a new aesthetic which valued the antique. There are so few surviving lutes with any claim to have been made in France that it is not possible to be sure what
their makers were producing by way of new lutes at a time when lute playing was so important to
French musical life. One must assume that the French cannot all have been playing on antique instruments. Indeed the inventory of the French maker Jean Desmoulins (d 1648) points to a vigorous rate of production since it lists 249 lutes in various stages of construction as well as 14 theorbos both large and small (see Lay, F1996). Only one lute by this maker has survived (Cit de la
Musique, Marseilles).
Makers working in Italy, where the old tuning held sway, had already addressed the problem of
extending the bass range in the 1590s by the expedient of having longer and therefore naturally
deeper-sounding strings carried on a separate pegbox. The theorbo, chitarrone, liuto attiorbato and
archlute all had extended straight-sided pegboxes carved from a solid piece of wood set into the
neck housing at a very shallow angle and carrying at their ends a separate small pegbox for these
extended bass strings. The form of all these instruments is very similar, diering mainly in the
length of the extended pegbox, the number of courses carried and whether the bass courses were
double or single. It was therefore only to be expected that this principle of longer, and therefore
unfingered, bass strings should also be applied to non-continuo lutes. From about 1595 to 1630
various other types of extended pegboxes were tried for the bass strings. In one version, an extra
piece of neck was added on the bass side which carried its own small bent-back pegbox. One of
these (by Sixtus Rauwolf, 1599, though the extension may be later) has survived in the Carl Claudius collection, Musikhistorisk Museum, Copenhagen and there are several paintings showing this
form, including works by Carlo Saraceni (c15791620) and Jan Miense Molenaer (c16101668).
More widely adopted was a double-headed lute with curved pegboxes (fig.13), one set backwards
at an angle rather like the normal lute, the other extended in the same plane as the fingerboard.
This carried four separate small nuts to take the bass courses in steps of increasing length. This
form usually had 12 courses and was apparently invented by Jacques Gautier in about 1630 (see
11

Spencer, B1976, and Samson, B1977) but was not used much by the French who remained largely
loyal to their single-headed lutes. As the author of the Burwell Lute Tutor (c1670) wrote: All England hath accepted that Augmentation and raunce att first but soone after that alteration hath
beene condemned by all the french Masters who are returned to theire old fashion keeping onely
the small Eleaventh. He, or she, objected to the length of the longer bass strings and felt that they
rang on too much, thereby causing discords in moving bass lines. It was, however, widely used in
England and the Netherlands until at least the end of the 17th century. The apparent thinking behind this form was a desire to avoid the sudden leaps in tone quality between the treble and bass
strings which characterize the theorbo and archlute forms. An important tutor for this type of lute
was Thomas Mace's Musick's Monument (1676), in which it was classed as a French lute; Talbot
(c1695), however, called it the English two headed lute. For Talbot the French lute had 11 courses,
with all the strings on a single head. There has been some discussion as to the size of these instruments (see Segerman, D1998). Talbot measured the string length of a 12-course instrument of
this type as 597 cm; iconographical sources show all sizes. To date, six examples of this type have
been found with fingered string lengths of between 50 and 75 cm.
This same principle of stepped nuts for bass strings of gradually increasing length lay behind a
specifically English form of the theorbo, which is also described in Mace and was measured by
Talbot (see Sayce, B1995; Van Edwards, B1995). Unusually for a theorbo this had double-strung
courses in the bass which still further smoothed the transition across the range. None of these have survived. The French too seem to have developed their own version of the theorbo principle in
the 17th century with a shorter extension than the Italian theorbo and possibly with single stringing (see Theorbo).
In Italy in the 17th century the drive towards extending the bass range of the lute was accommodated somewhat more consistently by incorporating the theorbo design into smaller lutes for solo
use. Thus the liuto attiorbato came to be used in addition to normal lutes and theorbos, and later
archlutes, for accompanying singers and continuo work. Matteo Sellas was part of another large
German family of instrument makers still based in Italy, and produced very elaborate lutes and
liuti attiorbati of ivory and ebony at his workshop alla Corona (at the sign of the crown) in Venice.
His brother Giorgio made equally decorative guitars and lutes alla stella. Working in Rome,
beyond what might seem to be the natural bounds of migration from Germany, were David Tecchler, Antonio Giauna and Cinthius Rotundus, from each of whom has survived an archlute, attesting this instrument's importance in Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries.
By the beginning of the 18th century, the centre of activity in lute music shifted from France to
Germany and Bohemia. The makers extended the range of the instrument still further, and by
1719 composers were writing for 13 courses. There were two types of 13-course lutes developed
and it is hard to say which was first, since both are possible conversions from pre-existing 11course instruments and so labels are not conclusive. Paintings of both types are surprisingly rare.
In one version a single pegbox was used like that of the 11-course lute, but, possibly starting as a
conversion, a small subsidiary pegbox or bass rider with four pegs to take the extra two courses
was added to the bass side of the main pegbox (fig.14). This had the eect of giving between 5 and
7 cm extra length to these two courses. Commonly these lutes were quite large by previous
standards with 70 to 75 cm being the usual string length. From what has been said so far about
stringing this must imply a lower pitch for the main strings. It is clear from the details of the tablature that Silvius Leopold Weiss composed throughout his life for this version of the 13-course lute
which was developed by the new generation of German makers, working in Bohemia and Germany itself. Among the most important at this time were Sebastian Schelle and his pupil Leopold
Widhalm working in Nuremberg (see Martius, B1996), Martin Homann and his son Johann
Christian working in Leipzig, Joachim Tielke and his pupil J.H. Goldt working in Hamburg (see G.
12

Hellwig, B1980) and Thomas Edlinger of Augsburg and his son Thomas, who moved to Prague
and set up his workshop there. All these makers were violin makers as well, reflecting the growing
importance of this instrument at a time when the lute was becoming less in demand.
These makers were also responsible for the other version of the 13-course lute with extended bass
strings, the German Baroque lute (see Spencer, B1976). This had an ornately curved double pegbox carved out of a single piece of wood, usually ebonized sycamore. This type did not usually have a treble rider, but did occasionally feature a small separate slot carved in the treble side of the
main pegbox to take the top string. Typically this kind of lute had eight courses on the fingerboard
and five octaved courses going to the upper pegbox, these five being normally between 25 and 30
cm longer than the fingered strings. This design appears to be a modification of the pre-existing
Anglique form. Some apparently early 13-course lutes, such as the 1680 Tielke instrument, dating
from long before the earliest surviving 13-course music (c1719), seem to be converted angliques.
Others, such as the Fux conversion in 1696 of a Tieenbrucker instrument and the 13-course lute
of Martin Homann dating from the 1690s, raise more awkward questions of dating. An even more elaborate triple pegbox form of this type was also developed and a few examples have survived,
notably by Johannes Jauck, a lute and violin maker working in Graz, and Martin Bruner (1724
1801) in Olomouc. These seem to have been functionally the same as the double pegbox form, and
they may have represented a further attempt to obtain a smoother transition from the treble to
bass courses.
Internally, the barring structure behind the bridge was altered by these makers. Beginning with an
increase in the number of small treble-side fan bars, the characteristic J-bar on the bass side of the
Renaissance soundboard was finally removed and various kinds of fan-barring were introduced
right across this area of the soundboard. These seem to have had the eect of increasing the bass
response. The main transverse bars were also made slightly smaller and more even in height, maybe with the same intention. The body outline of these lutes is remarkably similar to that of the
early 16th-century lutes of Frei and Maler and this resemblance may well have been deliberate, for
the old instruments continued to be highly prized. It was about this time (1727) that the first systematic history of the lute was written, by E.G. Baron. Referring to the lutes of Luca Maler, he wrote:
But it is a source of wonder that he already built them after the modern fashion, namely with the
body long in proportion, flat and broad-ribbed, and which, provided that no fraud has been introduced, and they are original, are esteemed above all others. They are highly valued because they
are rare and have a splendid tone.
This echoes the value placed on Maler lutes in the Fugger inventory of nearly 200 years earlier,
which talks of An old good lute by Laux Maler and One old good lute by Sig[ismond] Maler. Baron's comment on the possibility of fraud is also interesting in this context, since there are several
surviving lutes with supposedly 16th-century Tieenbrucker labels which are clearly the work of
Thomas Edlinger the younger working in Prague at about the time Baron was published. Thomas
Mace too wrote of Maler but the Chief Name we most esteem, is Laux Maller, ever written with
Text Letters: Two of which Lutes I have seen (pittiful Old, Batter'd, Crack'd Things) valued at 100 l
[] a piece.
In the 18th century a much simpler form of German lute, the mandora, emerged with the same
string lengths and barring system as the Baroque lute but usually with only six or eight courses in
a variety of tunings. Apparently mainly used by amateurs, it also found a useful niche in orchestras
in place of the 13-course Baroque lute as well as for continuo and bass lines in sacred music, especially large scale works.
13

Throughout the lute's history the gut strings have been matched by movable gut frets tied around
the neck. The placing of these frets has always been a problem to both theoreticians and players,
and many attempts have been made to find a system that will give the nearest approach to true
intonation for as wide a range of intervals and in as many positions as possible. A number of writers, including Gerle (C1532), Bermudo (C1555), the anonymous author of Discours non plus mlancholique (1557), Vincenzo Galilei (Fronimo, 1568) and John Dowland, put forward various systems,
many of which were based on Pythagorean intervals. Late 16th-century theorists in Italy, as well as
17th-century writers such as Praetorius and Mersenne, habitually assumed that the intonation of
the lute (and other fretted instruments) represented equal temperament, whereas, in contrast,
keyboard instruments were tuned to some form of mean-tone temperament (see Temperaments).
5. Tunings.
The earliest tuning instructions for the Western lute date from the late 15th century and are mostly for five-course lute. The best known is that of Johannes Tinctoris, whose De inventione et usu
musicae (c14813) gives a tuning of 4ths around a central 3rd. However, as both five- and six-course lutes are mentioned, the position of the central 3rd is unfortunately ambiguous. Both the
Knigstein Liederbuch (c147073) and an English manuscript dating from between 1493 and
1509 (GB-Ctc 0.2.13) give intervals of 4344 from bass to treble. Ramis de Pareia (Musica practica,
Bologna, 1482) stated that the most common tuning was Gcead', but mentioned another drone tuning with the lowest three strings tuned to Ada; the trebles were set in various (unspecified) ways. Antonio de Nebrija (Vocabulario Espaol-Latino, Salamanca, c1495) apparently gave an
unlikely diminished 5th between the two lowest courses, then 345, but the correct translation of
his description is disputed. The late 15th-century Pesaro manuscript (I-PESo 1144) includes tablature for a seven-course lute with the tuning 444344, as does a manuscript now in Bologna
(I-Bu 596.HH.24, which probably dates from the same period. The latter gives the tuning EAdg
be'a'.
By around 1500 six courses had become standard; the earliest printed sources, including Spinacino
(1507), Dalza (1508) and Bossinensis (1509 and 1511) require a six-course lute, usually tuned 4
4344. Virdung (Musica getuscht; Basle, 1511) mentioned lutes of five, six and seven courses, the
six-course lute being the most common, and gave a tuning 44344, with the sixth course tuned
to a nominal A. The fourth, fifth and sixth courses were tuned in octaves, the second and third
courses in unisons, with a single first course. Agricola advocated this pattern in the first edition of
his Musica instrumentalis deudsch (Wittenberg, 1529) but gave a tuning a tone lower, in nominal G.
Occasionally the sixth course was tuned down a tone, a variation called Abzug by Virdung and
bordon descordato by Spinacino. In the 1545 edition of Musica instrumentalis deudsch Agricola stated that a seven-course instrument, with the seventh course tuned a tone below the sixth course,
was preferable to this scordatura, which was dicult to manage.
This basic six-course tuning, with octaved lower courses, and an interval of two octaves between
the outer courses, remained the norm for most of the 16th century. Tablature sources with parallel
sta notation (from both the 16th and early 17th centuries) show that the most common nominal
tunings were either in A (Adgbe'a') or G (Gcfad'g'), though lutes in other nominal pitches are encountered. There is a considerable body of literature discussing whether or not these
variable pitches were intended to be interpreted literally. Practical considerations of instrument
availability, together with notational considerations such as the avoidance of leger lines in the sta
notated part, suggest that these apparent lute pitches were only nominal. Cue notes are often provided in the tablature, to clarify the relationship of lute pitch to sta notation. The absolute pitch
of the lute was variable; contemporary tutors typically instruct the player to tune the top course as
high as possible, and set the other strings to that.
14

Surviving 16th-century tablatures for multiple lutes call for a total consort of nominal d'', a', g', e'
and d', to accommodate all of the variations encountered in the duet and trio repertories, though
Praetorius (Syntagma musicum, ii, 1618, 2/1619/R) mentioned other sizes too. The intervals between
courses remained the same, irrespective of the size of the lute. A few lutenists explored other tunings, albeit briefly; these included Hans Neusidler (1544) whose infamous Judentanz requires a
drone tuning; Barberiis (1549) printed pieces using the tunings 45344, 54244, and 44
354; Wol Heckel (1562) also used a drone tuning for a Judentanz and other pieces.
By the 1580s a seventh course, tuned either a tone or a 4th below the sixth course, was in regular
use, and eight-course lutes incorporating both of these options became common in the 1590s. By
the early 1600s ten-course lutes were in use, with diatonically tuned basses descending stepwise
from the sixth course. Around the same period the octave tuning of at least the fourth and fifth
courses was dropped in favour of unisons, though the octaves were certainly retained on the lowest courses and perhaps on the sixth course too. Otherwise the tuning of the six upper courses
remained essentially unchanged, and became known as vieil ton. There was a brief vogue for cordes
avalles tunings in France, used by Francisque (1600) and Besard (C1603), which involved lowering the fourth, fifth and sixth courses to give drone-like 4ths and 5ths. These tunings were used
almost exclusively for rustic dance pieces.
In the early years of the 17th century two distinct traditions began to emerge. The Italians mostly
retained the old tuning, adding extra bass courses (see Archlute) though P.P. Melli and Bernardo
Gianoncelli experimented with variant tunings of the upper courses. Around 1620 French composers began to experiment with several accords nouveaux, first on ten-course lutes, and later on 11and 12-course instruments. (With these new tunings, the interval between the first and sixth courses was always narrower than the two octaves of vieil ton; they should not be confused with the
cordes avalles tunings, where this interval was always wider than two octaves.) This experimentation continued until at least the 1670s, and music for over 20 dierent tunings survives, many of
which were given dierent names by dierent scribes or composers (see Schulze-Kurz, E1990).
However, only a handful were common and these included what is today considered to be the
normal Baroque D minor tuning. This did not become standard until the second half of the 17th
century; the tuning commonly known as Flat French was equally popular until about the 1660s.
The advantages of the new tunings were increased resonance and ease of left-hand fingering,
though only within a very limited range of keys. The derivation of these tunings from vieil ton, and
the subsequent emergence of the D minor tuning, has been somewhat obfuscated by recent editorial methods which transcribe these tunings on the basis of an instrument whose sixth course is
tuned to G. The transition is much clearer (and transcriptions emerge in less obscure keys) if the
sixth course in vieil ton is considered to be A. Some of the more common tunings are shown in Table 1. In all of the above tunings (including vieil ton on lutes with more than eight courses) the basses were tuned diatonically downwards from the sixth course. The lute had become essentially diatonic in its bass register, and the tuning of the lowest courses would be adjusted for the key of the
piece. (This was a major factor in the grouping of pieces by key, which led to the baroque suite.)

15

The first print to use the new tunings was Pierre Ballards Tablature de luth de dirents autheurs sur
laccord ordinaire et extraordinaire (Paris, 1623; now lost). Slightly later collections survive, containing
fine music by Mesangeau, Chancy, Belleville, Robert Ballard (ii), Pierre Gautier (i) and others, in
various accords nouveaux. The tunings were widely used in England after the 1630s; publications by
Richard Mathew (1652) and Thomas Mace (C1676) use Flat French tuning; Mace provided a
translation chart to convert tablatures between Flat French and D minor tunings. By the 1670s
the 11-course single-pegbox lute in D minor tuning had emerged as the preferred norm throughout much of Europe, and remained so until the early years of the 18th century, when two further
courses were added, extending the lutes range down to A'. The last printed sources to make significant use of variant tunings are Esaias Reusner (ii) (1676) and Jakob Kremberg (1689).

6. Technique.
Several writers of instruction books for the lute have remarked that many masters of the art were,
as Mace put it, extreme Shie in revealing the Occult and Hidden Secrets of the Lute. Bermudo had lamented the same characteristic in teachers: What a pity it is (and those who have Christian understanding must weep for it) that the great secrets of music die in a moment with the person of
the musician, for lack of having communicated them to others. The training of professional players was almost certainly carried on through some system of apprenticeship, and this may well be
one of the reasons why comparatively few books give really informative instructions on all aspects
of playing technique. Nevertheless, details have been left by the more conscientious authors that
are suciently clear to establish the main characteristics of lute technique in each period.
Although little was written about left-hand techniques, certain basic rules were mentioned from
the Capirola Lutebook (c1517, US-Cn; ed. O. Gombosi, 1955; see also Marincola, F1983) onwards.
The lute must be held in such a way that no weight is taken by the left hand. The thumb should be
placed lightly on the underside of the neck, opposite the first and second fingers. The tips of the
fingers should always stay as close as possible to the strings so that each one is ready to take its
position without undue movement. Fingers must be kept in position on the strings until they are
required to stop another string, or until the harmony changes. Judenknig went so far as to say
they must never be lifted until needed elsewhere.
In Capirolas lutebook the player was advised to keep the fingers in readiness and not to avoid
using the little finger; the first finger could be laid across several strings to form a barr chord. Sometimes a finger was placed on one string only of a course in order to create an extra voice (a de-

16

vice also described by Valentin Bakfark and the vihuelist Miguel de Fuenllana); the right hand
would then strike through the whole course as usual.
It was, however, the German masters who first codified a system of fingering. Judenknig gave a
series of diagrams of left-hand positions. In the first of these the hand spans the first three frets
and the fourth fret on the sixth course; the first finger is marked with the six characters of the first
fret in German tablature; the second finger is marked with the next series; the third finger takes
the lower three courses on the third fret; and the little finger takes the upper three courses as well
as the fourth fret on the sixth course. Each diagram shows the fingers rigidly aligned on the appropriate fret. A small cross placed above a letter indicates that the finger must be held down and
the following note played with the next finger, whatever fret it may be on. Judenknig did not describe the fingering of chords, or cross-fingering where the counterpoint makes it necessary to depart from the prescribed alignment. Neusidler (Ein newgeordnet knstlich Lautenbuch, 1536) indicated by means of dots the fingering of a number of simple compositions. In general he followed the
rules laid down by Judenknig, but he also showed how chords constantly demand the use of fingers on frets other than those allotted to them in a strict diagrammatic scheme.
In England and France little attention was given to left-hand technique until the publication of
Adrian Le Roys tutor Instruction de luth (?1557, lost, repr. 1567, also lost, Eng. trans., 1568, see
8(v)), which described the barr chord as couching the first finger along overthwart the stoppe.
Robinson (C1603) described how to finger certain chord passages and also how to finger ascending and descending melodic lines. He also added fingering marks to the first five compositions in
his books. Besard (C1603) described in considerable detail the use of the barr, and half barr, and
also gave advice on how to choose the correct finger for holding notes, particularly in the bass. Later in the 17th century more complete markings were given by Nicolas Vallet (Secretum musarum,
1615) and, for a 12-course French lute, Mace.
Until about the second half of the 15th century most representations of lute players (where the
details are visible) show the strings being struck with a quill or plectrum. The hand approaches the
strings from below the bridge and lies nearly parallel with them. The plectrum or quill is held either between the thumb and first finger, or the first and second, or even the second and third.
Gradually the fingers replaced the plectrum. In pictures dating from about 1480 it is common to
see players with the hand in a slightly more transverse position (see fig.9). For any composition
involving chords the advantage of this change is obvious. Tinctoris observed that players were becoming so skilful that they could play four voices together on the lute perfectly.
The earliest printed books gave little information about right-hand techniques. A dot placed under
a note signified that it was to be played upwards, and the absence of a dot downwards; all passages
of single notes were played accordingly. Later sources specified that the downward stroke was always taken by the thumb on the accented beat, while the unaccented beat was taken upwards, usually with the first finger. This type of fingering was to remain standard practice until about 1600. It
was still mentioned by Alessandro Piccinini (Intavolatura di liuto, et di chitarrone, 1623) and by Mersenne (16367), and it survived for runs of single notes across the lute from bottom to top and for
certain other passages until 166070.
According to the instructions in the Capirola manuscript (the first to give any real insight into the
playing position of the right hand), the thumb was held under the second finger, that is, inside the
hand. Adrian Le Roy was the first to mention that the little finger is placed on the belly of the lute,
although many representations of players before 1568 show the hand with the little finger in this
position. Le Roy wrote: the little finger serveth but to keep the hande from [firm] upon the bealie
of the Lute. From then onwards it was frequently mentioned. Robinson, for example, said: leane
17

upon the bellie of the Lute with your little finger onelie, & that neither to far from the Treble
strings, neither to neere. Mace wrote: The 2d. thing to be gaind is, setting down your Little Finger
upon the Belly, as aforesaid, close under the Bridge, about the first, 2d, 3d, or 4th. Strings; for thereabout, is its constant station. It steadies the Hand, and gives a Certainty to the Grasp. From this time onwards, portraits of performing lute players always show the little finger placed either on the
soundboard, in front of or behind the bridge, or on the bridge itself (as in fig.11).
During the Renaissance, chords were usually played with the thumb on the bass, playing downwards, and the first and second, or the first, second and third fingers, playing upwards. For chords
of more than four notes the following procedure was given by Le Roy and Besard: for five-note
chords the thumb plays the bass downwards, the third and fourth courses are raked upwards by
the first finger, and the first and second courses are played respectively by the third and second
fingers; six-note chords are played in a similar way with the thumb playing downwards across
both the sixth and fifth courses. The upper note of two-part chords was generally taken by the second finger, although Robinson preferred the third.
A single dot under a chord of two or three notes generally means that it is played upwards with
the usual fingers, but without the thumb. Gerle, however, used a dot under a chord to show that all
the notes were to be played upwards with the first finger, while Judenknig said that in dance music full chords may be stroked or strummed with the thumb throughout. Neusidler also mentioned the thumb-stroke. Robinson, however, advocated the third finger for notes farthest from the
thumb, the second for the next note, and the first for those nearest. Besard was the first writer to
describe a new position for the thumb; his directions are translated as follows in Dowlands book
of 1610:
stretch out your Thombe with all the force you can, especially if thy Thombe be short, so that the
other fingers may be carryed in the manner of a fist, and let the Thombe be held higher than
them, this in the beginning will be hard. Yet they which have a short Thombe may imitate those
which strike the strings with the Thombe under the other fingers, which though it be nothing so
elegant, yet to them it will be more easie.
Dowland himself is said to have changed to the thumb-out position in mid-career (Beier, B1979),
presumably to take advantage of the consequent greater stretch, perhaps in connection with the
addition of extra courses. The increase in the number of courses was probably also responsible for
a general shift in the position and movement of the hand. Besard suggested:
the first two fingers may be used in Diminutions very well insteed of the Thombe and the fore-finger, if they be placed with some Bases, so that the middle finger be in place of the Thombe, which
Thombe whilst it is occupied in striking at least the Bases, both the hands will be graced and that
unmanly motion of the Arme (which many cannot well avoide) shall be shunned. But if with the
said Diminutions there be not set Bases which are to be stopped, I will not counsell you to use the
two first fingers, but rather the Thombe and the fore-finger: neither will I wish you to use the two
fore-fingers if you be to proceede (that is to runne) into the fourth, fift or sixt string with Diminutions set also with some parts.
Markings comprising a pair of dots or small strokes under the note to indicate the use of the second finger occur in many manuscripts from the early 17th century (e.g. Vallet used the latter
marking). A single vertical line or stroke under a note was an indication to use the thumb, to
which greater attention was paid with the increasing number of bass strings. Piccinini described
an apoyando stroke:

18

The thumb, on which I do not approve of a very long nail, must be employed in this manner, that
every time you sound a string you must direct it [the thumb] towards the soundboard, so that it is
crushed onto the string below, and it must be kept there until it has to be used again.
This type of stroke was mentioned by other writers and appears to have become standard practice
during the Baroque period. In fact, such a technique is almost essential when the thumb has to
make rapid jumps among a number of diapasons. If the thumb is held free, there is no point of
reference from which each movement can be judged accurately.
In the second decade of the 17th century many new technical devices began to appear. Batailles
Airs de dirents autheurs (iv, 1613) used a dot for a quasi-rasgueado device in repeated chords (ex.1)
that is described by Mersenne and became extremely common, especially in pieces in sarabande
rhythm: the dot at the top of the chord stands for an upward stroke with the first finger, while the
dot at the bottom stands for a downward stroke with the back of the same finger (ex.1a). For this
device, sometimes called tirer et rabattre, later composers often distinguished the second, downward-struck chord by dots next to the notes (ex.1b).

Italy was apparently the first country in which the slur was developed as part of normal technique
instead of being confined to the execution of graces. Pietro Paoli Melli (Intavolatura di liuto attiorbato libro secondo, 1614) described the action of the left hand, and placed a ligature under pairs of
notes to be slurred, a marking which was always used to indicate the slur. There seems to be no
evidence that the slur was used in France, England or Germany at this early date, but Mersenne
described it in 1636.
Piccinini introduced some individualistic traits into his playing: although the use of the nails was
deprecated by nearly all other writers, Piccinini said that they should be a little long, in front of
the flesh, but not much, and oval in shape. He played the rapid groppo that is made at the cadence
with the first finger alone, striking upwards and downwards with the tip of the nail. (This is similar
to the vihuelas dedillo, which was usually played with short nails.) He also advocated a change of
tone colour by moving the right hand nearer or farther from the bridge. In France an increasing
number of dierent right-hand strokes were used. Mersenne gave the traditional fingerings both
for chords and single-note passages, and some new strokes which had evidently become popular
by then. He described several ways of playing chords, and a system of marking by which each method could be distinguished. Some chords were played downwards with the thumb: others with all
19

the notes played by the thumb except the top one which was played by the first finger; others with
the thumb playing the single bass note while the first finger raked the rest of the notes upwards.
Unfortunately these detailed notations seem not to have been adopted in other surviving printed
and manuscript sources. Nevertheless many of these devices became part of the French Baroque
style. In volumes such as Denis Gaultiers Pices de luth (1666), Denis and Ennemond Gaultiers Livre de tablature des pices de luth (c1672) and Jacques Gallots Pices de luth (1681), markings are given
for arpeggiating or breaking chords. Some writers described the slipping of the first finger across
two notes on adjacent strings to realize a short mordent, usually at a cadence; this characteristic
device, which was used well into the 18th century, was shown by three dierent markings (ex.2).

Many of these techniques were carefully described in English lute books such as the Mary Burwell
Lute Tutor (c166072, GB-Lam) and in Maces Musicks Monument. The techniques were passed on to
the German school; a similar variety of strokes is described by Baron who also mentioned a change of right-hand position for tone colour. As in other countries, German sources vary greatly in
the extent to which technique marks and left-hand fingerings were added to the tablature, often
reflecting the level of attainment of the person for whom they were written.
The development of playing technique was thus closely related to the continual process of extending the resources of the instrument. Moreover, each technique produces particular qualities suited to its own time, and the modern lutenist must know this in order to do justice to the music.
Most technical indications, such as vibrato or staccato (see 7 below), or the spreading of chords
(indicated by oblique lines separating the notes of a chord; see 8(iii)), come under the general
heading of graces (Fr. agrments; Ger. Manieren), which term adumbrates most aspects of performance as well as ornamentation in treatises, including playing loudly and softly or with rhetorical
intent.

7. Ornamentation.
The use of what in modern terms would be called trills, mordents, appoggiaturas and vibrato has
evidently always been an integral part of the performance of lute music. The fact that in the Renaissance period ornament signs are frequently not included in printed books or manuscripts and
are written about comparatively rarely in early tutors may be due to several causes; probably the
most important was that there was a living tradition that was considered unnecessary to mention
or notate. Another reason may have been that cited by Mersenne, namely that printers lacked the
requisite signs in their equipment. These ornaments never acquired a standardized nomenclature
or system of signs, although some degree of conformity developed towards the end of the Baroque
period.
In the Capirola Lutebook (c1517, US-Cn), the earliest known source of information, two signs are
used: one shows figures notated with red dots; the other consists of two red dots placed over the
figure. Of the first sign it is said only that the finger on the lower fret is held firm and another finger is used to tremolize on or from the fret above. The second sign is said to indicate that the note
is tremolized with a single finger; it probably represents a mordent.
20

More precise information was given by Pietro Paolo Borrono in the second printing (Milan, 1548)
of the Intavolatura di lauto which gives appoggiaturas with both notes carefully indicated by sign.
Only the appoggiatura from above is mentioned in the directions, which also say that it is to be
played on the beat.
Rudolf Wyssenbach printed a transcription in German tablature (Zrich, 1550) of part of the contents of the Francesco-Borrono book of 1546; half circles are said to indicate mordanten, but no
further explanation is given. The word mordanten appears to have been used in German as a general term for ornaments including the appoggiatura rather than as a specific term for any one
type of ornament. It occurs in Martin Agricolas Musica instrumentalis deudsch (1529) and was still
used by Matthus Waissel in his Lautenbuch darinn von der Tabulatur und Application der Lauten (1592).
Waissels remark that the fingers are put a little later on the letters and moved up and down two or
three times indicates (in agreement with Borrono) that the ornament came on or after the beat
and not before.
No information appears to have survived concerning ornamentation of French lute music before
Besard, who made the following remark:
You should have some rules for the sweet relishes and shakes if they could be expressed here, as
they are on the LUTE: but seeing they cannot by speech or writing be expressed, thou wert best to
imitate some cunning player.
Vallet used two signs: a comma, signifying a fall from above the main note (upper appoggiatura),
and a single cross, signifying the same thing repeated several times, i.e. a trill. In his Regia pietas
(1620) Vallet described what is in eect a vibrato, indicated by a double cross.
Mersenne gave the most complete exposition of the art of ornamentation of the period. Excluding
minor variants (such as whether a tone or semitone is involved), seven ornaments may be tallied:
the tremblement (trill); the accent plaintif (appoggiatura from below, equal in duration to half the value of the main note); the martelement or soupir (mordent); the verre cass (vibrato, which Mersenne
said was not much used in his time, although it was very popular in the past; in his opinion, however, it would be as bad a fault to omit it altogether as to use it to excess); the battement (long trill,
more suitable to the violin, he said, than to the lute); a combination (for which no name is given)
of appoggiatura from below with trill from above; and a mordent ending with verre cass. He gave a
sign to indicate each of the seven types, but remarked that in French music the small comma was
generally used to express all sorts.
In Italy, Kapsperger (Libro primo dintavolatura di chitarrone, 1604) placed two dots above many notes
to indicate the trillo, and also added a sign (an oblique stroke with a dot on either side) below certain chords to show that they were to be arpeggiated. Melli marked the notes on which a tremolo
should be performed, but gave no explanation of the meaning of the word, though he described a
method of performing an appoggiatura from below by sliding the auxiliary to the main note with
a single finger. This is indicated by a ligature above the two notes and appears to be unique in this
period. Piccinini, however, gave detailed descriptions of the trill, the mordent and the vibrato,
which he called the first, second and third tremolo, but he did not include signs for them in the
tablature.
Early English manuscript sources show no ornament signs, but all the books copied by Matthew
Holmes (c15801610, GB-Cu) contain them, although their placing is often curious. At least 17
other manuscripts also have signs, and William Barleys A Newe Booke of Tabliture (1596) includes
the double cross, but with no explanation of its meaning. The only English book of this period
containing information on the subject is Robinsons The Schoole of Musicke (1603). He gave no signs
21

nor any indication of where the graces should be placed, but he described three that could be
used: the relish (perhaps an appoggiatura from above, or a trill); the fall (an appoggiatura from
below); and a fall with a relish (possibly the same as Mersenne's combination of lower appoggiatura and upper trill). Robinson said of the relish:
The longer the time of a single stroke the more need it hath of a relish, for a relish will help,
both to grace it, and also it helps to continue the sound of the note his full time: but in a quicke
time a little touch or jerke will serve, and that only with the most strongest finger.
The variety of graces in use around 1625 is indicated in Table 2, taken from the Margaret Board
Lutebook (GB-Lam, f.32). Generally, however, the lack of standardization in signs and the absence
of any indication of their meaning as used by dierent scribes poses a formidable problem in interpretation, and it is possible here only to oer some suggestions based on a study of their context in all the available material.
Table 3 shows the signs most generally found in English manuscript sources. Sign (a) is often the
only sign in a manuscript, and, like the French comma, can be taken to express all sorts. If it appears in company with other signs it seems to signify an ornament from above the main note,
perhaps an appoggiatura or trill. Sign (b) indicates an appoggiatura from below, a mordent, or a
slide (the ornament that comes up to the main note from a minor or major 3rd below). Sign (c)
appears in the Sampson Lutebook (GB-Lam); its possible interpretation as a slide on a major 3rd is
discussed below. Sign (d) indicates an appoggiatura from below, in the Sampson Lutebook; this is
suggested by the fact that the sign appears before a note which is followed by (a), presumably indicating Robinsons fall with a relish. Sign (e) is used similarly (US-Ws 1610.1). Signs (f) and (g) (the
latter from GB-Lbl Add.38539) indicate a mordent, appoggiatura from below or a slide. Sign (h)
occurs in a limited number of pieces in GB-Lbl Add.38539, always on a note immediately preceded
by the note above, and often in fairly fast runs. This may be the little touch or jerke mentioned by
Robinson, or possibly an inverted mordent. Although the latter was clearly described in Spain
from the time of Toms de Santa Mara (in Arte de taer fantasa assi para tecla como para vihuela,
1565) to Pablo Nassare (Escuela musica, 1724), in Italy by Girolamo Diruta (Il transilvano, 1593) and
in Germany by Praetorius (Syntagma musicum, iii, 2/1619), there is no mention of it in any English
source. It would, however, fit into the passages in which the sign is used. Signs (i), (j) and (k) indicate a fall with a relish. In compositions in John Dowlands hand, (c), which appears on both open
and stopped notes, presumably indicates an upper appoggiatura or trill; (f), which appears on
stopped notes only, may indicate an appoggiatura from below; and (b), which appears on open
notes only, may indicate a trill. However, these interpretations are open to question owing to a
marked lack of consistency in the application of gracing, and in its notation. Many sources have
few, if any, grace marks, and in the final analysis musical intuition has to be the arbiter. (The interpretation of ornament signs in English lute music is further addressed, with somewhat diering
results, in studies by Buetens and Shepherd.)

22

Fashion in ornamentation may have varied from country to country; English players of the first
two decades of the 17th century perhaps graced their music to a greater extent than those in any
other part of Europe. A Fantasie by Dowland (GB-Lbl Add. 38539, f.14v; ex.3), with nine ornaments
in the space of five bars, shows an extreme of English practice.

23

No exact line of demarcation can be drawn between Renaissance and Baroque ornamentation.
Most graces used in the earlier period continued in favour, but a few more elaborate combinations
appeared. From Mersennes time onwards, some French manuscripts have a large variety of signs:
the comma, and for martelements, something like an ordinary mordent sign placed under a note,
and, to indicate the appoggiatura from below, a bow-like sign placed beneath the tablature letter,
very like Maces sign for a slur. Double shakes or appoggiaturas began to appear. The touement
(Maces tut) is also mentioned in some sources, and the sign is used. Maces Musicks Monument, in
many ways the most thorough study of the French lute, includes (pp.101) a list of ornaments,
which are summarized in Table 4. He also wrote of loud and soft play and the use of the pause
(indicated by a small fermata sign) as additional graces to be observed.

24

25

In Denis Gaultiers Pices de luth (1666) less elaboration is found. The two ornaments given are indicated by the comma and the slur and are equivalent to Maces back-fall and fore-fall. In Livre de
tablature des pices de luth by Denis and Ennemond Gaultier (c1672) the explanation of the comma
shows that the number of falls should be increased according to the length of the note. According
to Mary Burwells teacher, however, Denis Gaultier would have no shake at all. Undoubtedly personal taste played a part in ornamentation as in all other aspects of performance. Three ornament
signs are listed by Gallot: tremblement, or trill, indicated by a small comma after the tablature letter;
martelement, or mordent, indicated by ; choutte, or tomb, an appoggiatura from below, indicated by
an inverted before the letter. The rhythmical breaking of chords, a universal feature of the French
lute style (see 8(iii) below, esp. ex.3), was explicitly indicated by oblique lines between chord
members. The existence of another explicit notation, a vertical line connecting non-adjacent tablature letters, to indicate that the notes are to be struck together, suggests that a certain degree of
spreading was in fact normal.
German Baroque lutenists at first consciously maintained the tradition of the Parisian luthistes,
using many of the French ornament signs, which they classed under the general heading of Manieren (equivalent to agrments or graces) along with other technical or performance indications. The
Breslau lutenist, Esaias Reusner (ii), who was coached by an unknown French lutenist in Paris in
the 1650s, used a cross, a comma and a fermata sign (Delitiae testudinis, 1667 and Neue Lauten-Frchte, 1676) but did not explain their meaning. The context suggests that the comma indicates a trill
and the cross a mordent, while the fermata probably represents a pause, as it does for his English
contemporary, Mace. Reusner indicated the appoggiatura from below by a bow under the letter. Le
Sage de Riche (Cabinet der Lauten) gave, together with other information about performing practice, three ornaments: the trill indicated by a comma; the appoggiatura from above, which he called Abzug; and the appoggiatura from below (Fall). Both appoggiaturas are written out with a bow
under the pairs of letters (the explanations are somewhat ambiguous). Radolt (Vienna, 1701) provided an exhaustive list of Manieren citing Franois Dufauts example. Hinterleithner (Vienna,
1699) explained that the Abzug (which he called Abriss) divides the ornamented notes duration
equally. Trills are only played on dotted notes; on shorter notes they are abbreviated to an Abriss.
Radolt stressed that the trill always begins on the upper note. Baron (Nuremberg, 1727) used the
same signs as Radolt for the appoggiatura from above (Abziehen) and for the trill (performed from
the upper note, and gradually increasing in speed), but in addition described two forms of vibrato
(Bebung): one (on the higher strings) performed with the thumb released from the back of the
neck, the other with the thumb held firm. He indicated them with a double and slanted cross respectively. Baron added that the ornaments he mentioned were not the only ones that could be
used, as many more could be added with the use of skill and taste: Every player must judge for
himself what sort of aect he wishes to express with this or that ornament. He also stressed the
dierence between solo performance, where a player could use more ornamentation and rubato,
and ensemble playing, where each players performing method had to be known in advance and
accommodated for the sake of good ensemble. For faster music, Baron remarked that the best Manier is nothing more than neatness and clarity, and if someone wanted to make many other additions it would be as ridiculous as chasing rabbits with snails and crabs.
Silvius Leopold Weisss notational practice was remarkably consistent in his numerous autograph
manuscripts. As was common in the period, he tended to use more ornamentation in slow movements, and the ornamental notes are seamlessly integrated into the music, occasionally (especially
the Einfall) being written out explicitly in the tablature, often using separate strings for the ornamental and main notes, rather than being indicated by signs. This two-string appoggiatura (ex.4)
had been in use since the days of the Parisian luthistes, but unlike them Weiss frequently used it in
an unambiguously melodic context. He used the normal comma sign for an Abzug or Triller, sometimes extended by repetition, and the bow under a letter for an appoggiatura from below; someti 26

mes, especially at a cadence, this sign extends backwards towards the previous note, even across a
barline, looking somewhat like a legato slur (ex.5). The mordent is marked by a single cross and
Bebung (vibrato, rarely used by Weiss) by a short wavy line above and to the right of the letter.

There is no surviving treatise or table of ornaments by Weiss although he was much in demand as
a teacher. Whereas he was following earlier practice in not using signs to distinguish the Abzug and
Triller, nor the short and long forms of mordent and trill, later players, whose extensive repertory
of signs was possibly influenced by the practice of their keyboard-playing contemporaries, became
more explicit in their notation. A manuscript from Bayreuth (c1750, D-Ngm M274) contains two
tables of Zeichen der Lauten Manieren (signs for lute graces) attributable to Weisss one-time
pupil, Adam Falckenhagen. The signs therein correspond with Falckenhagens printed works and
with the tablature version of J.S. Bachs Lute Suite in G minor bwv995, which was probably intabulated by Falckenhagen. Signs which seem to be introduced in these tables for the first time include
one for gebrochener Bass (broken bass; the fundamental and octave strings of a bass course
being rhythmically separated), a sign for staccato or damped (gestossen) chords, and a sign for
the full turn (with a written-out realization equivalent to C.P.E. Bachs geschnellte Doppelschlag). A
closely related table was printed by J.C. Beyer with his lute arrangements of Herrn Prof. Gellerts Oden
und Lieder (1760). The principal ornament signs used or explained by Le Sage de Riche, Hinterleithner, Radolt, Baron, Weiss, Falckenhagen and Beyer are summarized in Table 5.

27

From the early years of the 16th century until the end of the 18th, the use of graces was an integral
part of performing practice on the lute as it was on the harpsichord. Because of its lack of sustaining power (compared with bowed instruments) these devices were essential, especially in slower
music. Finally the necessity promoted the fashion and composers expected graces to be added,
whether or not they were actually indicated, since they were an essential feature of lute style.
During the 17th and 18th centuries the art of ornamentation received careful attention in numerous treatises on singing and on playing various instruments, and also in composers prefaces to
their works: this valuable information is often applicable to the lute as well as to the particular
subject under consideration (see Ornaments).

8. Repertory.
From the 1270s, when Jehan de Meung in Le roman de la rose mentioned quitarres e lez, the presence of the lute in western Europe is evident in literary sources, court records and inventories.
The Duke of Orlans is said to have had in his service in 1396 un joueur de vile et de luc called
Henri de Ganire. The names of a few players from other parts of Europe have also survived, such
as a certain Obrecht in Basle in 1363, and the brothers Drayer, minstrels at Mechelen from 1371 to
1374. During the 14th century, representations of the lute in drawings, paintings and sculpture became common, often in combination with other instruments, sometimes accompanying one or
more voices.
28

Extant 15th-century records mention sums of money paid to lute players in service at the French
court. In 1491 for example, Antoine Her, a lute player of the chamber royal, received a monthly
stipend of 10 livres and 10 sols. The great esteem in which virtuosos were held is evident in the
case of Pietrobono, who served the Este family at the court of Ferrara from about 1440 until his
death in 1497. Other courts competed for his services; he was widely travelled, became a rich man
and was celebrated by poets and writers of the time (including Tinctoris). Surviving documents
imply that he accompanied himself in singing and that he was associated with another player who
was listed as a tenorista possibly another lute player or a viol player who, in either case, would
have supplied a tenor against which Pietrobono would have improvised. He seems to exemplify
an age in which Italian lute players were passing from a style that had been mainly improvisatory
to one in which, as Tinctoris suggested, a full training in the technique of contrapuntal writing or
playing was essential.
This development was associated with the change from playing the lute with a plectrum to using
the right-hand fingers. Whereas previously the lute had been a melodic instrument, it could now
be used for polyphony. This in turn soon led to the invention of special forms of notation to overcome the particular problems involved in transmitting the music to the written or printed page.
Examples of German, French and Italian tablatures from the end of the 15th century have come to
light, but these fragments reveal little about the early repertory. In addition, there are in the Segovia Cathedral manuscript some instrumental duos with elaborate divisions by Tinctoris, Agricola
and others that well suit the lute and clearly reflect the improvisational demands on players of the
time; one of these in particular, a setting of Hayne van Ghizeghems De tous biens plaine, ascribed to
Roellrin, also appears in a German manuscript (PL-Wu Mf.20161) and is unlikely to have been
playable on any other contemporary instrument. Some of the compositions in the earliest printed
sources show a similar style.
A common thread that runs throughout the history of lute playing is the improvisatory skill of the
great performers. For this reason, most of the repertory was probably never written down. Lute
playing was passed on by individual tuition, and many lute manuscripts were compiled by teachers
for their pupils, and supplemented (sometimes somewhat inexpertly) from memory by the pupils.
These circumstances, combined with the irrecoverable loss of a great many sources, account for
the fact that much lute music in manuscript carries no composers name, and, as much in the Baroque period as in the Renaissance, there is frequently divergence between versions of the same
piece in dierent sources, especially in matters concerning performance. For a fuller discussion of
lute sources, with illustrations, see Sources of lute music.
(i) Italy.
The earliest surviving significant Italian lute source is a heart-shaped manuscript (I-PESo 1144)
partially copied in the last decades of the 15th century and possibly of Venetian origin. Unusually,
it is notated in a rudimentary form of French lute tablature (the rhythm-signs and sporadic barring being apparently based on the position of the tactus rather than on note durations) using letter-ciphers rather than numbers. This early layer of the manuscript, which includes one piece for
seven-course lute, contains a few song arrangements (including the ubiquitous De tous biens plaine),
a number of ricercares in improvisational style, and a single bassadanza, a setting of the wellknown basse danse tenor La Spagna. From the first decade of the 16th century the Venetian printing press of Petrucci distributed music by the early lutenist-composers of the Italian school, whose influence was felt throughout Europe for the entire 16th century. Although Marco DallAquila
obtained a Venetian privilege to print lute music in 1505, no such publications by him have survived. Petrucci published six volumes of lute tablature between 1507 and 1511. The first two books,
entitled Intabulatura de lauto (1507), contain works by Spinacino, mainly for solo lute but there are
29

also a few duets. There are 25 pieces called recercare but most of the pieces are intabulations of
Flemish chansons (from the 1490s) originally for voices. The Intabulatura de lauto, libro tertio (1508),
devoted to music by Gian Maria Hebreo, is now lost; the Libro quarto by Dalza (1508) contains
dances and a few intabulations of frottolas by contemporary Italians such as Tromboncino. These
books include rudimentary instructions for tablature reading and right-hand technique. Songs for
solo voice and lute appeared in the Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto figurato per cantar e
sonar col lauto (Libro primo, 1509; Libro secundo, 1511), in which the lutenist Franciscus Bossinensis
intabulated the lower parts of frottolas whose vocal originals had already been printed by Petrucci. The first book contains 70 such compositions, the second 56; each contains 20 or more ricercares as well. The six Petrucci volumes form a substantial collection of first-rate music in what must
have been a well-established tradition of lute writing. The types of composition they contain evidently reflect the unwritten procedures of late 15th-century lute playing. The first phase of Italian
printed books for lute included one more collection of frottolas with voice part and tablature, by
Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara. The sole extant copy is undated, but it certainly appeared in
the 1520s.
Among the earliest examples of Italian lute music are two pieces in a Bologna manuscript (after
1484, I-Bu 596). The first page gives an explanation of the tablature headed La mano ala viola. There has been some discussion about the meaning of viola in this instance but, since the discovery
of Francesco Canova da Milanos Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto (Naples, 1536/R), it is clear that it
refers to the flat-backed, waisted instrument which closely resembles the Spanish vihuela and
which was considered suitable for playing lute music. The form of tablature used in this case is the
rare Intavolatura alla Napolitana in which the second volume of Francescos book is printed and
which is explained in Michele Carraras Regola ferma e vera (Rome, 1585). In appearance it resembles Italian tablature but it is the reverse way up, with the figures for the lowest course lying on the
bottom line of the sta. The figure 1 is used throughout for the open course.
Few contemporary manuscripts survive, but two are of special importance, both of Venetian provenance. The earlier (F-Pn Rs.Vmd 27) dates from the first decade of the 16th century, and, like
the earlier Pesaro manuscript, the tablature for the most part omits bar-lines and rhythm-signs. It
comprises two sections, the first of which contains 25 ricercares, dances and frottolas for solo lute;
a ricercare and the bassadanza on La Spagna are also found in the Pesaro manuscript. The second
section contains lute accompaniments to 89 frottolas without the vocal melody. The other manuscript, the Capirola Lutebook (c1517, US-Cn), beautifully written and adorned with drawings by a
pupil expressly to ensure its preservation, includes instructions for playing and the use of ornamentation (see 7 above). The composer, Vincenzo Capirola (b 1474; d after 1548), was clearly the
outstanding figure of the earliest period of written lute music.
The acknowledged leader of the following generation, and one of the most famous lutenists of any
age, was Francesco Canova da Milano. He was already famous for his remarkable skill at improvisation (his contemporaries often referred to him as Il divino) when his first works were published: Intabolatura di liuto (Venice, 1536), and the above-mentioned Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto.
Some 120 to 150 of his compositions are known today; many continued to appear in print until
late in the century and also appeared in manuscript collections in several countries besides Italy.
Francescos lute music consists chiefly of pieces entitled ricercare or fantasia. He expanded the
scope of the quasi-improvisatory ricercare of the older generation of composers, often making
greater use of sequence, imitation and repetition, and sometimes writing in the strictly contrapuntal style that became characteristic of the ricercare during and after the latter part of the 16th century. There are also many intabulations of chansons and other vocal works, most of which were
published after Francescos death. (For a modern edition of Francescos lute works see The Lute Music of Francesco Canova da Milano (14971543), ed. A.J. Ness, HPM, iiiiv, 1970.)
30

From 1536 onwards, publishers, clearly exploiting a growing level of demand from dilettante players, frequently issued lute music in books devoted to more than one composers music. Five distinguished lutenist-composers are represented in the Intabolatura de leuto di diversi autori published
by Castiglione (Milan, 1536); as well as fantasias by Francesco himself, there are several of comparable quality by Marco DallAquila, Giovanni Giacopo Albuzio and Alberto da Ripa, as well as
dances by Pietro Paulo Borrono.
Marco DallAquila is the most important figure immediately preceding Francesco. A number of
his works were printed, but most, including several which may originate from a lost print, are collected in a Munich manuscript (D-Mbs 266). The challenge of marrying a strictly imitative compositional style to the technical resources of the lute was also taken up by Alberto da Ripa (works ed.
J.-M. Vaccaro, CM, Corpus des luthistes franais, 19725), whose fantasias, often of considerable
length, further add a telling use of expressive dissonance. Borrono seems to have specialized in
dance music, although he also composed fantasias. His excellent dances are usually arranged into
suite-like groupings of three or more pieces, sometimes with a concluding toccata.
Borrono published several collections of his own works and those of Francesco from 1546 onwards. In that year a large number of publications appeared containing works by minor composers
such as Giulio Abondante, Melchiore de Barberiis, Giovanni Maria da Crema, MarcAntonio Pifaro, Antonio Rotta and Francesco Vindella. Alongside idiomatic dances, fantasias and ricercares
appears an almost equal number of arrangements or intabulations of ensemble music, usually
originally written for voices but occasionally of instrumental music by Julio Segni and others. Often these are hard to distinguish from original lute compositions, and recent research has begun to
reveal that extracts of previously composed works were sometimes incorporated without
acknowledgement into lute ricercares by many lutenists of the period, including Francesco himself.
Among the great number of Italian composers for the lute working in the second half of the 16th
century, none reached the stature of Francesco Canova da Milano, although Giacomo Gorzanis
(from 1561 to 1579), Giulio Cesare Barbetta and Simone Molinaro (1599) published some excellent works. All the current types of composition are represented in their works: ricercares and fantasias in the contrapuntal style developed by Francesco; intabulations of vocal originals; settings of
dances, including the various popular grounds such as the passamezzo antico, the passamezzo moderno and the romanesca, as well as other famous tunes of the time. Much of this music was for solo
lute, but a collection of dances for three lutes by Giovanni Pacoloni, long thought to have been
lost, survives in an edition printed by Pierre Phalse (i) in Leuven in 1564. In 1559 some of
Francesco Canova da Milanos ricercares were published by the Flemish composer Ioanne Matelart as Recercate concertate, that is, with a second lute-part or contrapunto, ingeniously converting
the original solos into duets. Until the middle of the 16th century, lute music was generally within
the prevailing modal ideas of the time, although some composers occasionally departed from
strict modal structure. In 1567, however, Gorzanis produced a remarkable manuscript of 24 passamezzos, each with its accompanying saltarello, in major and minor modes on all the degrees of
the chromatic scale, rising in succession.
True chromatic writing for the lute was rare, although by the end of the century it was beginning
to be exploited, notably in works by the Genoese maestro di cappella, Simone Molinaro. The few surviving fantasias by the important Neapolitan composer and lutenist Fabrizio Dentice show a great
command of the instrument and its contrapuntal possibilities; they are technically demanding,
being consistently written in four real parts.

31

Vicenzo Galilei was another important figure of the period, though he is less known today as a
composer than as a writer; his theoretical and practical studies are contained in books printed
between 1568 and 1589, while further prints and manuscripts preserve a large body of his excellent lute music (extracts ed. in IMi, iv, 1934). At this time Italian lutenists were in demand throughout Europe; Galileis gifted younger son Michelangelo (15751631) worked as lutenist for the Polish and Bavarian courts (it was said that his brother, the scientist Galileo, was an even finer player). Diomedes Cato and Lorenzini were outstanding composers, each with a very personal style.
Diomedes served the Polish court for many years, while Lorenzini, said to have received a papal
knighthood for his lute playing, was unsuccessfully approached by Lassus as a recruit for the Kapelle of the Duke of Bavaria. His technically demanding and expressive music was later collected
and published by a pupil, the French lutenist Besard, in his Thesaurus harmonicus (Cologne, 1603).
Another distinguished lutenist who does not seem to have left Italy, Giovanni Antonio Terzi, published two books of his own fine music (1593 and 1599) fantasias, vocal intabulations and dances mainly for solo lute but including music for two and four lutes as well as lute parts to be
played with other instruments. In Terzis second collection the courante francese appears for the
first time in Italy, presaging the changes in musical style and lute technique that were to result in
French dominance of the lute scene for most of the following century.
French influence in dance music becomes increasingly important in the few Italian lute collections
of the 17th century, although the expressive Italianate toccata style holds sway in freely composed
genres. Michelangelo Galilei (1620) composed suites each comprising an introductory toccata effectively exploiting expressive dissonance followed by a sequence of dances in French style. This
quasi-improvisatory style was taken somewhat further in the collections for lute and chitarrone or
theorbo (1604, 1611 and 1640) by the lutenist and theorbist of German extraction, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, whose idiosyncratic works have been compared with those for keyboard by his
Roman colleague, Frescobaldi. A more reserved figure is Kapspergers Bolognese rival, Alessandro
Piccinini, who was capable of fine works in a severely contrapuntal idiom as well as tuneful dances, virtuoso variations and expressive toccatas, frequently using chromaticism to good eect. A
number of pieces by various members of the Garsi family of lutenists from Parma are found in a
variety of manuscript sources, suggesting that their music was especially popular among dilettante
players such as the owner of one such book (PL-Kj Mus Ms 41053), the Polish or White Russian
nobleman K.S.R. Dusiacki (see Garsi, santino).
By the 1620s the lute in Italy was normally fitted with several extra bass courses. A full octave of
open basses on an extended neck was standard on the liuto attiorbato (the theorboed lute) as used
in the French-influenced works of Pietro Paolo Melli who, unusually, experimented with scordatura tunings. This type of instrument, whose larger cousin, the arciliuto (archlute), was principally
(although not exclusively) used for accompaniment from around 1680, was also called for in the
highly virtuoso music of Bernardo Gianoncelli (1650), and again in the Corellian sonatas of Giovanni Zamboni (1718). Lute tablature was by this time virtually obsolete in Italy, although the instrument was used throughout the 18th century. The last significant sources, Filippo Dalla Casas
manuscripts of 1759 (I-Bc EE155; ed. O. Cristoforetti, 1984), are written entirely in sta notation, a
fact which raises the question as to whether more Italian lute music may survive in this form as
yet unrecognized.
(ii) Germany, Bohemia and Austria.
Although based in Italy, many of the important figures in the early history of the lute were in fact
German, notably the 15th-century blind organist, harpist and lutenist Conrad Paumann, who is
said to have invented the German lute tablature system. Outside Italy the first printed lute music
appeared in the Germanic states of the Holy Roman Empire. Virdung included instructions for the
32

lute and one piece as a pedagogical illustration. Schlicks Tabulaturen etlicher Lobgesang und Liedlein
(1512) contains 14 songs for voice and lute and three solo pieces. Judenknigs Utilis et compendiaria
introductio (c151519) and Ain schone kunstliche Underweisung (1523) both include instructions for
playing as well as music. The first contains solo lute intabulations of settings of Horaces odes by
Petrus Tritonius published for voices in 1507, together with other similar pieces and dance music;
the second is a mixture of dances, lute versions of vocal originals, and five pieces called Priamel,
corresponding to the Italian ricercare. Gerle (1532) gave instructions and music for viol and rebec
as well as for lute; his book was reprinted in 1537, and in 1546 a revised and enlarged edition was
published. His 1533 book, Tabulatur au die Laudten), comprises music for solo lute, including intabulations and pieces entitled Preambel.
The publications of Hans Neusidler began with his book of 1536. He was the first writer of instruction books to show real pedagogic talent; not only did he give clear instructions for both
right and left hands, but his pieces are carefully graduated, leading the beginner by gentle degrees
through the initial diculties. Two modified tunings are found in his work: one, known as Abzug,
consisted in lowering the sixth course by a tone, and the other was used in his Judentanz. (The
scordatura notation of this piece has been misread by some scholars, who thereby mistook it for
an early example of polytonality.)
Collections of music in German tablature continued to be printed until 1592, some under the name of the publisher, such as those of Rudolf Wyssenbach (1550) and Bernhard Jobin (1572),
others by composer, collector or arranger, such as Sebastian Ochsenkun (1558), Matthus Waissel
(1573, 1591, 1592) and Wol Heckel (including music for two lutes, 1556, 1562). A total of about
20 or 30 volumes appear to have been printed. Most of these show considerable influence from
Italian, French and even Spanish music of the time.
The German system of lute tablature was in use not only in Germanic countries, but was also widespread throughout central and Eastern Europe. Its earliest appearance (the Knigstein Liederbuch; see Sources of lute music, 3), however, records a few single-line melodies which may be more suitable for a bowed instrument (identical tablature notation systems were often used for
plucked and bowed instruments until well into the 18th century). Although there have been a
number of studies of German lute tablature sources, the general lack of modern editions reflects
the reluctance of modern lutenists to play from German tablature, which is commonly perceived
as more dicult to read than the French or Italian systems. The relative importance of German
lute sources has thus been consistently undervalued in the modern revival.
Many of the surviving manuscripts have evident associations with a university milieu, and these
student lutebooks often incorporate an anthology of Latin verses (frequently amorous), classical
quotations and wise proverbs. Their musical content is sometimes less edifying, but they are valuable as repositories of a very wide range of styles and types of music, from solo pieces (fantasies,
preludes etc.), complex intabulated vocal polyphony from the French, Italian and Flemish repertory as well as German chorale settings and Gesellschaftslieder, through to otherwise unrecorded dance and folk music, often explicitly labelled with a regional origin. Some of the dance music can be
shown to have its origins in polyphonic music and in the repertory of the Stadtpfeifer. An interesting characteristic is the late survival in lute sources of otherwise obsolete genres such as the Tenorlied and the Hoftanz. From the late 16th century onwards, formerly popular Hoftnze are often
classed as Polish dances in German lute sources. In manuscript and printed sources, the nonGerman music included tends to be predominantly Italian in the early 16th century, but by the
end of the century a scattering of French, Polish and other Slavic, Hungarian and other Eastern
European, and, increasingly, English dances are identified, many of which prove to be unique survivals.
33

After 1592, German publications for the lute used either Italian or French tablature, although
German tablature continued in manuscript sources until about 1620. Important printed collections were those of Adrian Denss (Florilegium, 1594), Matthias Reymann (Noctes musicae, 1598) and
Johann Rude (Flores musicae, 1600); these are extensive collections of pieces from the international
repertory, and similar compilations continued to appear in the 17th century. The most important
of these anthologies was Besards Thesaurus harmonicus (Cologne, 1603), mentioned above in connection with Lorenzini, Besards lute teacher in Rome, whose works occupy a central position in
the volume. Others were those of Georg Leopold Fuhrmann (Testudo gallo-germanica, Nuremberg,
1615), Elias Mertel (Hortus musicalis, Strasbourg, 1615), and Johann Daniel Mylius (Thesaurus gratiarum, Frankfurt, 1622).
Probably as a consequence of the Thirty Years War (161848), little music for the lute was published in German-speaking lands until much later in the century. A few manuscripts, and the evidence of paintings and literary sources, suggest, however, that the instrument continued in regular
use, in solos and for accompanying the voice. Among the most important manuscripts is that
compiled by Virginia Renata von Gehema in Danzig (now Gdask) around the middle of the century (D-Bsb Mus.ms.40624). In common with most such collections, it consists mostly of music by
French lutenists such as Mesangeau, the Gaultiers, Dufaut and Pinel, or by their German imitators,
leavened with German song settings (and, in this particular case, by an unusual number of Polish
dances). The French influence extended to the use of the accords nouveaux on lutes with ten to twelve courses. Esaias Reusner (ii), who studied with a French lutenist, in his two published collections
(1667 and 1676) mostly used the D minor tuning that was rapidly becoming the standard, but also
employed other tunings in a highly idiomatic fashion. While Reusners debt to French models, especially Dufaut, is clear, his music is characterized by an increasing tendency towards a cantabile
melodic style and an expressive use of dissonance. Philipp Franz Le Sage de Riche seems to have
worked for Baron von Niedhardt in Breslau, capital of the German-speaking province of Silesia, a
region of much importance in the subsequent history of lute music. In his Cabinet der Lauten (n.p.,
n.d.; the copy formerly in Riemanns possession bore the date 1695), he praised Gaultier, Dufaut,
Mouton (his former teacher) and the influential Bohemian aristocratic lutenist Count Jan Antonn
Losy. His valuable lute-playing instructions were frequently copied into manuscripts and his book
was most unusually reprinted as late as 1735. A more mysterious figure is Jacob Bittner who a
decade earlier published a highly accomplished collection of Pieces de lut (Nuremberg, 1682).
In the Hapsburg lands of Austria and Bohemia, French influence on lute music was, if anything,
even stronger, and it seems likely that several French players visited the region. Among the large
number of items of lute and guitar music assembled in the great library of the Lobkowitz family at
Roudnice are several that suggest close personal contact with Mouton, Gallot and others, including the guitarists Derosiers and Corbetta. Local composers for the lute, like their German counterparts, tended to imitate the French, while adding touches of Italianate melody, explicitly in the
case of movements labelled Aria, which may reveal the increasing influence of opera. By 1700 the
lute was unmistakably an aristocratic instrument in Vienna, although T.B. Janovka (Clavis ad thesauram magnae artis musicae, Prague, 1701/R, 2/1715/R as Clavis ad musicam) stated that lutes were so
plentiful in Prague that the houses could be roofed with them. The Viennese lutenists Ferdinand
Ignaz Hinterleithner (1699) and Baron Wenzel Ludwig von Radolt (1701) dedicated their published works to successive music-loving emperors, although neither contains much music of any inspiration; they are both collections of chamber music for lute with other instruments. Their younger contemporary J.G. Weichenberger left no published collection, and much of his music is lost,
but what remains shows some fine qualities, especially in his extended improvisatory preludes.
Count Jan Antonn Losy von Losinthal, the Prince among lutenists according to Le Sage de
Riche, left a significant number of works in manuscript in an idiomatic and appealingly mixed
34

French/Italian style. He is best known, however, as the posthumous dedicatee of a tombeau composed on his death (1721) by the greatest lutenist of the following generation, Silvius Leopold
Weiss (16861750), whose influence was felt throughout the German-speaking world. Weisss long
career embraced early employment in his native city of Breslau, an extended stay in Italy (1708
14) and a lengthy period of employment as one of the stars of the Dresden musical establishment
(171750). A larger body of music by him survives than by any other lutenist of any age (over 650
pieces) dating from all periods of his life, although establishing a reliable chronology for Weisss
works is extremely dicult. In his multi-movement pieces, which he always called sonatas, he
took the standard constituent dance forms of the French suite, working them out into impressive
structures, often, especially in the later music, of great length. Some require a great deal of virtuosity in performance, but all remain highly idiomatic for the lute. In slower movements, such as sarabandes and allemandes, Weiss used a three-part texture, the inner voice contributing greatly to
the expressive eect, while in faster music such as courantes, gigues and other virtuoso finale movements, the texture becomes predominantly two-part. Many of his sonatas are on an unprecedentedly large scale; they can take up to 30 minutes in performance. Most, however, do not survive
with integral preludes; these are sometimes found added later to the manuscripts, in a few cases by
Weiss himself. This suggests that he supplied them as substitutes or models for a movement that
he expected an expert player to improvise. These highly expressive quasi-improvised preludes and
fantasies, often employing chromatic harmony, represent some of Weisss most characteristic music. He also composed a good deal of music of a more contrapuntal nature in fugal sections of
overtures and fantasies as well as in a number of self-standing fugues.
Among the pieces of J.S. Bach believed to have been intended for the lute (or lute-harpsichord,
and thus in direct imitation of lute style) are some fugues (bwv997, 998) which extend the demands on the player beyond the normal bounds of idiomatic technique. Bach, although usually
restrained in the simultaneous activity of the voices in these works, builds towards contrapuntal
climaxes in four real parts, whereas Weiss ingeniously gives the impression of more complexity
than in fact is present. Several of Bachs lute works are adaptations of music originally for solo cello or violin which he made himself or are the work of contemporary lutenists (e.g. bwv997 and
1000, tablature versions by J.C. Weyrauch; bwv995, arranged by Bach, tablature version probably
by Adam Falckenhagen), a precedent which has been successfully followed by many of todays
players. Bach clearly admired the instrument, writing expressive obbligato solo parts for the original versions of the St Matthew and St John Passions and using a pair of lutes in the Trauerode. The
suite for harpsichord and violin bwv1025, for some time suspected as a spurious work, has been
shown to be an arrangement of a lute sonata by Weiss, and contemporary references testify to the
two composers acquaintance and mutual respect.
Weiss was the pre-eminent leader among a flourishing community of both amateur and professional lutenists in his time. Among the best-known were Wol Jacob Lauensteiner (16761754),
Adam Falckenhagen (16971754), and the Breslau-born players Ernst Gottlieb Baron (1696
1760), already mentioned as an early historian of the lute, and Weisss pupil Johann Kropfgans
(1708c1771). Lauensteiners music, and that from the early careers of Baron and Falckenhagen,
is similar in style to that of Weiss (which leads to some confusion in manuscript sources). By the
1740s, however, lute composers began to prefer a simpler two-part texture, with increased treblebass polarization. Later lutenists, such as the expert keyboard player and student of J.S. Bach,
Rudolf Straube (1717c1780) and the Bayreuth violinist Joachim Bernhard Hagen (172087), were
aected by the somewhat dierent idioms of their principal instruments, and no trace of influence
from the earlier French lute tradition remains. All these players, including Weiss himself, composed chamber works for the lute with other instruments, including concertos, although in the
case of Straube and, most regrettably, of Weiss himself, none survive in complete form. There was a
continuing demand for lute music among German amateurs, as is shown by the large quantity of35

fered for sale in Leipzig; over 200 solo works, 23 lute duets, over 150 trios for lute, violin and bass,
and 50 concertos for lute with string ensemble feature in various Breitkopf catalogues between
1761 and 1771. A significant repertory of vocal music arranged for the lute, sometimes fully texted, together with occasional written references to the practice, suggests that the lute at least in
some circles maintained its traditional role in domestic situations as an accompaniment to the
voice. The use of the larger and louder theorbo as a continuo instrument in church and opera
house continued as long as there were expert players; Weiss performed in all the Hasse operas in
Dresden until late in 1749, and Kropfgans took part in Hillers operettas in Leipzig for another two
decades after that. Carl Maria von Weber heard Weisss son, Johann Adolf Faustinus Weiss, play the
theorbo in the Dresden Hofkirche as late as 1811.
Questions of authenticity surround the handful of early works by Haydn in contemporary versions for lute with other instruments, in which the first violin part of a quartet, transposed down an
octave and furnished with a simplified bass line, is given to the lute. Some highly idiomatic music
in a similar style was composed by the Viennese lutenist Karl Kohaut (172682; like Haydn, a
member of Baron van Swietens circle), including ensemble divertimenti, some challenging concertos and a single surviving solo sonata. Towards the end of the century Friedrich Wilhelm Rust
composed a set of three sonatas for lute and violin (dated 1791 on one manuscript, but probably
composed some years earlier). The last work for solo lute was a set of 12 variations by Christian
Gottlieb Scheidler (d 1815) on a theme by Mozart, inspired by the first performance of Don Giovanni in Prague in 1787.
(iii) France.
Although the Pesaro manuscript (see 8(i) above) was written in French tablature, its repertory
and origin are exclusively Italian. The first printed French tablature, using a five-line sta, appeared in Guillaume Vorstermanns Livre plaisant et tres utile (Antwerp, 1529), a translation of Virdungs book of 1511. Virdungs musical example was replaced with the Flemish chanson Een vrolic
wesen (in organ tablature and sta notation as well as for lute). Also in 1529 Pierre Attaingnant at
Paris printed his Tres breve et familire introduction; his Dixhuit basses dances of 1530 contained some
66 lute pieces (for a modern edition of some of Attaingnants music, see Preludes, Chansons and Dances for the Lute, ed. D. Heartz, 1964).
Between 1551 and 1596 Adrian Le Roy printed books of music for guitar and cittern as well as for
lute. His surviving lutebooks extend from Premier livre de tablature de luth (1551) to Livre dairs de cour
(1571) for voice and lute. His instructions for playing the lute survive in English translation, and
give a clear description of the technique used in France at the time.
Guillaume Morlaye was associated with the printer Michel Fezandat, also of Paris, who brought
out not only Morlayes own works (15528) but also those of the Italian, Alberto da Ripa (1552
62). Julien Belins Premier livre (1556) was printed by Nicolas Du Chemin, and Giovanni Paolo Paladins (1560) at Lyons by Simon Gorlier.
In the latter part of the 16th century French music publishing declined somewhat, and few lutebooks were issued except for some reprints of earlier works. With the increase of diapason strings,
the use of a five-line tablature sta gave way to six lines, and around the end of the century further
changes began to appear. Somewhat earlier, the term cordes avalles had been used in one of
Gorliers guitar books to denote the lowering of certain strings. The application of this term to the
lute in Anthoine Francisques Le trsor dOrphe (1600) signified a departure from the basic Renaissance tuning and foreshadowed a period of transition in which many tuning systems were adopted, though the old set of intervals continued in use for some time (see 5 above). The most notable collection of this period was Besards Thesaurus harmonicus (1603); the same editors Novus par 36

tus (1617) includes several pieces for an ensemble of lutes and instruments or voices as well as for
solo lute. The ten-course lute figured largely in the books of Robert Ballard (ii) (1611, 1614) and of
Vallet (1615, 1619, 1620), who also included a set of pieces for a quartet of lutes. Other distinguished composers for the lute in vieil ton include Julien Perrichon, Victor de Montbuisson, Mercure
dOrlans and Charles Bocquet. Their excellent works include a number of preludes or other improvisational genres, although dance music predominates.
Together with the increase in the number of diapason strings and the new tunings a marked
change of style became apparent. Preludes, courantes, voltas and sarabandes became the favourite
forms in the first decades of the 17th century, while intabulations of polyphonic music and the
contrapuntal fantasie all but disappeared. The characteristic form of French lute song, the air de
cour, sprang from the elaborate court ballets, and flourished between 1571 and 1632.
The eight volumes of Airs de dirents autheurs (160818), the first six of which were arranged by
Gabriel Bataille, include works by all the finest French songwriters of the time and show the influence of musique mesure lantique. Although the exact setting of long and short syllables was not
always strict, the verbal rhythms and poetic structure became of prime importance, and the
restriction of the bar-line almost entirely disappeared. Many songs of great beauty were written in
this style, notably by Pierre Gudron. (See also Chansons au luth et airs de cour franais du XVIe sicle,
ed. L. de La Laurencie, A. Mairy and G. Thibault, 1934; and Airs de cour pour voix et luth (16031642),
ed. A. Verchaly, 1961.)
Early works by Ren Mesangeau and Ennemond Gaultier use the vieil ton, but both composers left
a larger body of music in the later tunings. Gaultier in particular favoured the D minor tuning
which was to become the norm by the mid-17th century. Three important anthologies under the
title Tablature de luth des dirents autheurs sur les accords nouveaux were issued at Paris by Pierre Ballard (1623, 1631, 1638); unfortunately the earliest does not survive. These present informal suites
of dances grouped by composer and tuning (strongly associated with key); although the numbers
of each dance vary, the order of the core component movements allemande, courante, sarabande
remains fixed. Among the dances, which include sets of branles, there are a few song settings.
Some of the composers, including Belleville and Chancy, were fashionable dancing masters who
were closely associated with the ballet de cour; others, especially Mesangeau, Pierre Dubut le pre
and Franois Dufaut, together with the eminent royal musician Germain Pinel, were prominent
and influential lutenists whose works make up a large proportion of the manuscript repertory preserved in France, Britain and German-speaking countries during the rest of the century.
Coinciding with the emergence of the D minor tuning as the favourite accord nouveau, the 11-course lute (see 3 above) became established as the norm, and seems to have ousted the 12-course instrument in France by the middle of the century, although the latter retained its popularity in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands for much longer. Players such as Dufaut and Dubut le pre
adapted to the new tuning with great success, while a new generation of lutenists, among them
Denis Gaultier, Jacques Gallot and Charles Mouton produced a major body of expressive work in
the classic style prcieux of the Paris salon. In the pursuit of rhetorical expression (a goal made explicit in the famous and sumptuously decorated manuscript of Denis Gaultiers music, La rhtorique
des dieux, Paris, c1652; ed. A. Tessier, PSFM, vivii, 1932/R) a variety of strokes and fairly extensive
ornamentation were expected, even more than those specifically indicated in the notation, and the
use of notes ingales was also left to the taste and discretion of the player. (For the solo lute music
see Corpus des luthistes franais, a series produced by the CNRS, 1957.)
An integral characteristic of the music of the French Baroque school was a convention of performance, reflected in the notation, that came to be known as style bris; in many passages the
37

notes of the treble and bass (or other voices) were sounded one after another (the bass first) instead of simultaneously as was the more general practice in polyphonic music. A related feature
was the rhythmic breaking or arpeggiation of chords that were often written plain. This could be
indicated by oblique lines placed between the component notes; often, however, such signs, like
the explicit notation of notes ingales, were omitted altogether. Perrine, in a passage addressed to
harpsichordists as well as lutenists, referred to the convention as the special manner of playing all
sorts of lute pieces; ex.6 shows the interpretation given in his Pieces de luth en musique (1680). It was
this style in particular that exerted a considerable influence on the writing of contemporary keyboard players and visitors such as the young Froberger. These conventions in the performance of
French lute music were clearly considered characteristic of the genre by Germans adopting the
French lute style. They are almost always more explicitly notated in the many important German
sources of 17th-century French lute music which formed the basis of the German repertory well
into the 18th century. Since, furthermore, these manuscripts often preserve large numbers of
works (for example, by Dufaut, Gallot and Mouton) not found in French sources their importance
is considerable.
(iv) The Netherlands, Spain and eastern Europe.
In Antwerp Guillaume Vorstermann, who had published the French translation of Virdungs Musica getutscht, brought out a Flemish translation, Dit is een zeer schoon boecxken opt clavecordium luyte
ende fluyte (1554, 2/1568). Of greater scope were the activities of Pierre Phalse (i), whose first lutebook, Des chansons reduictz en tabulature de lut (Leuven, 1545), contained works by many composers. Phalse, something of a pirate among publishers, specialized in large anthologies of music
from all over Europe, collecting vocal as well as instrumental music of many kinds. The only surviving edition of Giovanni Pacolonis book, with music for three lutes, was published by Phalse at
Leuven in 1564. He later moved his press to Antwerp, where he joined Jean Bellre. Emanuel Adriaenssens books Pratum musicum, 1584, and Novum pratum musicum, 1592, with other editions up to
1600, were printed by Pierre Phalse (ii) at Antwerp, and contain work by other composers besides
Adriaenssen himself, in arrangements for one to four lutes with and without voices.
Joachim van den Hove produced two large collections of works by internationally famous composers: Florida (1601) and Delitiae musicae (1612). His own compositions and arrangements, which
demand a sure technique, also appear in them and in a number of manuscripts, two of which are
autograph (the Schele manuscript, D-Hs; and Hove, D-Bs). In 1626 Adriaen Valerius published an
unusual collection of music for voice, lute and cittern with or without other instruments called
Neder-landtsche gedenck-clanck. This was a thinly disguised book of patriotic songs directed against
the occupying Spanish forces, using many popular tunes, some of them English. The enormous
Thysius manuscript (see Thysius, johan) contains lute music in all the genres of the early 17th century, including much English music, a large repertory of intabulated sacred and secular vocal music and a number of pieces for an ensemble of lutes. As far as the rest of the 17th century is concerned, although copious iconographical evidence suggests continuing popularity of the instrument in the Netherlands, there are almost no surviving musical sources for the lute.
After the expulsion of the Moors in 1492 the history of the lute in Spain becomes obscure. It was
referred to by Bermudo as vihuela de Flandes, implying a degree of unfamiliarity. The only extant
books of tablature printed in Spain are for the vihuela, which, though tuned to the same intervals
as the lute, is a quite distinct instrument (for an account of its history and repertory see Vihuela).
Nevertheless there is much evidence to suggest that the lute was more commonly used than has
been generally recognized.

38

The most famous 16th-century east European lutenist was Valentin Bakfark, born in Transylvania.
He wrote some fine fantasias in the Italian manner, and his great renown as a player took him to
various courts and the houses of nobles and magnates all over the Continent. His books testify to
his cosmopolitan reputation: Intabulatura liber primus (1553) was printed in Italian tablature in
Lyons and was partially reprinted as Premier livre de tabelature de luth (1564) in French tablature, by
Le Roy & Ballard in Paris. His Harmoniarum musicarum in usum testudinis factarum tomus primus
(1565) was printed in Krakw and reprinted in Antwerp (1569), both editions using Italian tablature. Wojciech Dugoraj, born in Poland about 1557, published no books of his own, but his works
are found in several collections. Jakub Reys (Polonois) was also born in Poland, but went to
France when quite young and was appointed lutenist to Henri III; his works are mostly found in
French anthologies.
(v) England.
Little is known about the use of the lute in England before the 14th century. Social development
was hardly ripe for the general spread of art music outside the church, the court and a few great
houses. Under the Tudors, however (following the Wars of the Roses which ended with the seizure
of the English throne by Henry VII), a wealthy middle class began to appear, and the few urban
centres of population grew at an unprecedented rate. From the time of Henry VIII onwards, manuscripts containing lute tablature began to appear, though none extant dates from before 1540.
Most of the professional lutenists at Henrys court were Flemish or Italian. The three royal children were taught to play, and evidence suggests that in general some amateur performers were beginning to become quite proficient.
The growth of the leisured classes by about the middle of the 16th century led to a demand for
instructions for playing the lute, which was best satisfied by printed books. The register of the Stationers Company records licences to John Alde for The Sceyence of Lutynge (1565) and to Robert
Ballard (i) for An Exortation to All Kynde of Men How they shulde Learn to Play of the Lute (1567), but neither of these is now extant. The first three surviving instruction books in English are all derived
from a single French source, Le Roys Tres breve et tres familire instruction, now lost. A Briefe and easye
Instru[c]tion (1568) englished by J. Alford Londenor contains instructions in the form of rules
with music examples, followed by a collection of fantasias and dances. The rules, with certain minor variants, are reprinted as the second part of A Briefe and Plaine Instruction (1574), which also
teaches to set all music of eight divers tunes in Tableture for the Lute (almost all the examples
being chansons by Lassus). The third part comprises a collection of music, quite dierent from
that of 1568, conteinynge diverse Psalmes, and manie fine excellente Tunes; the latter are versions
of French chansons that Le Roy had set for voice and lute in his Livre dairs de cour (1571). English
Protestant taste (the book is dedicated to Edward Seymore, Earl of Hertford) is catered for by the
inclusion of metrical psalm tunes.
Le Roys instructions were again translated, but without acknowledgment, by William Barley in A
New Booke of Tabliture (1596), which also contains sections for the orpharion and bandora. This
work is the first printed collection for lute by English composers, and includes, in the bandora section of the book, the earliest English solo songs with tablature accompaniment. Robinsons The
Schoole of Musicke is a thorough lute method, written in the form of a dialogue between a Knight,
having children to be taught, and Timotheus, who should teach them. The music that follows is all
by Robinson himself, and includes some pieces for two lutes as well as fantasias, dances and settings of popular tunes for solo lute.
The last English instruction book for the Renaissance lute was Robert Dowlands Varietie of LuteLessons (1610), comprising a translation of the instructions from Besards Thesaurus harmonicus
39

(1603) and other observations on lute playing, by John Dowland. These are the only words on the
subject that John Dowland left, despite references to my fathers greater work in Robert Dowland's other publication of the same year, the songbook A Musicall Banquet. The Varietie contains a
selection of fantasias, pavans, galliards, almains, currants and voltes (by English and continental
composers) which must surely have been collected originally by John Dowland on his European
travels.
These books, together with a considerably larger body of manuscript collections dating from
about 1580 to about 1625, reveal music of the highest quality by composers such as John Johnson
(i), Francis Cutting, Richard Allison, Daniel Bacheler, Philip Rosseter, Robert Johnson (ii), Alfonso
Ferrabosco (i) (who spent most of his time in England between about 1562 and 1578), and above
all John Dowland whose international fame at this time was unique among lutenists.
Solo lute music circulated mainly in manuscript, but starting with Dowlands First Booke of Songes
(1597) a series of songbooks for voice and lute was published in England some 30 volumes averaging about 20 songs apiece. The duration of this vogue was only 25 years (the last collection was
John Atteys First Booke of Ayres of 1622) but it was responsible for some of the finest English songs
of any period. A few of the composers also wrote in the madrigal style, and a few also composed
solo lute music; but in general the writers of lute-songs in England kept almost entirely to that
genre. Its appeal lay in a direction other than that of madrigals or solo lute music, for it entailed a
much more concise setting of the text than the former, and had a less abstract emotional eect
than the latter.
Many books of ayres were arranged so that they could be performed either as solo songs with lute
and usually bass viol accompaniment, or as partsongs for four voices with lute. The favouring of a
sustained bass line to balance the melody in the voice reflects the tendency to think in terms of a
polarization of harmonic interest between those two parts. Many collections include lute parts as
contrapuntal as the texture of a madrigal, but eventually accompaniments showed a tendency towards simplification, with less imitative part-writing and more straightforward chordal structure.
Ultimately this led to the continuo song, where only the melody and bass were written down and
the lutenist or theorbo player was expected to fill out the harmonies according to certain conventions known as the rule of the octave. The partsong alternative, started by Dowland in his First
Booke and originally intended to appeal to a public eagerly immersed in madrigal singing, lent a
characteristic stamp to the English ayre that makes it quite distinct from anything produced on
the Continent. (For a modern edition of some of Dowlands music, see Collected Lute Music, ed. D.
Poulton and B. Lam, London, 1974, 3/1984.)
Another English use of the lute was in the mixed consort of three melody instruments (treble viol,
flute, bass viol) and three plucked (lute, cittern, bandora), a grouping almost certainly conceived
originally as an accompaniment to a solo voice somewhat in the manner of the older songs with
viols (see Consort, 2). The treble viol, flute and bass viol played in three-part harmony which, often incomplete on its own, was filled in by the three plucked instruments. The cittern and bandora
(both wire-strung) formed the alto, tenor and deep bass, while the lute had a dual role. Much of
the music was in dance forms, with repeated sections, in the first of which the lute played chords;
but in the repeats the lute played elaborate and rapid divisions, giving a silvery, shimmering quality to the music. This technique was known as breaking the ground in division; hence the expression broken music. The light texture of the three melody instruments allowed the lute prominence, while the cittern and the deep bandora provided fullness and body.
Printed collections of music for such a combination include the First Booke of Consort Lessons edited
by Morley in 1599 and reissued with additional pieces in 1611 (ed. S. Beck, 1959) and Philip Ros 40

seters 1609 edition of Lessons for Consort. No complete set of partbooks has survived for any of the
editions. There are, however, two manuscript collections (the Matthew Holmes manuscripts in GBCu and the Walsingham consort books in GB-BEV and US-OAm), both also incomplete but whose
contents overlap to some extent with those of the printed books. Part of William Leightons The
Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soule (1614) is devoted to consort songs set for four voices
with the same six instruments.
With the development of the Jacobean and Caroline masque, larger groups of instruments began
to appear. In Ben Jonsons Oberon (1611) 20 lutes for the Princes dance were required, and the
description of Love freed from Ignorance (1611) tells of the entrance of 12 Musitions that were preestes that songe and played and 12 other lutes. The theorbo, said to have been introduced into England by Inigo Jones in 1605, soon found its way into favour in these entertainments. In James Shirleys masque, The Triumph of Peace (1634), as many as seven lutes and ten theorbos were used.
Soon after the death of John Dowland in 1626, however, the English school of lutenist-composers
declined. For some time the popularity of the lute had been overshadowed by that of the lyra viol,
which was now cultivated by those amateurs who were also avid players of ensemble music for
viols. With the coming of Charles Is wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, and her entourage from France,
a fashion grew up at court for all things French. The famous lutenist Jacques Gautier arrived from
Paris with the Duke of Buckingham in 1617, was appointed to the court in 1619 and soon became
popular in London, where he entered the literary circles of writers such as John Donne.
An interesting English manuscript spanning the change from the old lute music of the Elizabethan and Jacobean composers to that of the new French style was compiled by Lord Herbert of
Cherbury. It includes music by Dowland, Rosseter, Holborne and other such composers, along
with that of Gautier and some compositions of Cherbury himself, the latest dated 1640. Also represented in this manuscript is Cuthbert Hely, who is otherwise virtually unknown. His music is
of astonishing intensity: firmly grounded in the earlier English tradition, it nonetheless explores
previously untried harmonic territory. Cherbury retained the old tuning of the main six courses
despite his interest in the new music and the French lute, but the new tunings are in evidence in
other manuscripts, such as the latter part of Jane Pickerings Lutebook where compositions by
John Lawrence (d c1635) and Gautier demonstrate the Harpe way, flat way and tuning Gautier.
With a few exceptions, such as the solos and duos by William Lawes, of which only three pieces
survive, and the large quantity of (lost) lute music said to have been composed by John Jenkins,
little music of any great value was written for the lute by English composers up to the time of the
Civil War; but Lawes, using the theorbo as thoroughbass in his Royal and Harpe consorts, produced some of the most distinguished instrumental music of his time. During the Commonwealth
and at the Restoration, trio sonatas continued to appear for viols or violins with the theorbo specified as a suitable continuo. A set of 30 unnamed pieces for solo lute or theorbo by John Wilson
(15951674) is of outstanding interest. The pieces are in a distinctive improvisatory preludial style
and systematically cover all 24 major and minor keys, with tuning indications to match. Such a
scheme was only possible on the lute, whose tablature was unaected by aspects such as enharmonic spellings and double accidentals, which would have caused great problems in the sta notation of the time.
Meanwhile, the French lute and music by French composers began to enjoy considerable popularity, although the contents of Richard Mathews The Lutes Apology for Her Excellency (which he claimed
was the first printed book for the French lute to appear in England) fall well below the standard of
excellence maintained in such manuscript collections as the Hender Robarts Lutebook, the Mary
Burwell Lute Tutor (GB-Lam) and the Panmure Lutebook (GB-En). These collections, all compiled
41

by, or under the supervision of, lutenists from Paris, show that the works of the Gaultiers, Vincent,
Pinel and other distinguished French composers were familiar to English and Scottish players of
the second half of the 17th century. An early 18th-century repertory for the French lute in Scotland is found in the Balcarres Lutebook, whose approximately 200 pieces consist of dance-tunes
(often arranged from fiddle versions) and intabulations of Scottish melodies and well-known
English songs such as Lillibulero and The King Enjoys his Own Again, as well as a few French
lute pieces.
The last great figure in the history of the lute in England was Mace, whose Musicks Monument contains the most thorough extant set of instructions for the French lute, as well as some appealing
music. He discussed technique, ornamentation, playing style, stringing, tuning, care of the instrument and many aspects of its history. The section on the theorbo is also valuable.
As a continuo instrument, particularly in accompanying the voice, the theorbo was important
throughout the 17th century and well into the first half of the 18th. The theorbo or theorbo-lute is
mentioned on the title-pages of many volumes ranging from Angelo Notaris Prime musiche nuove
(London, c1613) through most of Playfords songbooks to Purcells Orpheus Britannicus (1698
1702), John Blows Amphion Anglicus (1700) and John Eccless Songs for One, Two and Three Voices
(1704). Walter Porter included both lutes and theorbos among the accompanying instruments of
the consort in his Madrigales and Ayres (1632).
The lute and theorbo were used by Handel in a number of his operas and other works, both as
continuo and as obbligato in certain arias, such as The soft complaining flute in his Ode for St Cecilias Day (1739). Players of the instrument were becoming rare, however, and Handels occasional
use of it was usually due to the presence of a visiting virtuoso player, such as Carlo Arrigoni (in
London between 1731 and 1736), who played in the Concerto op.4 no.6, originally scored for Lute, Harp and Lyrichord. According to Burney, the final appearance of the lute in an opera orchestra
in England was in the aria Due bellaline in Handels Deidamia (1741).
Little more is heard of the lute in England in the 18th century, although the names of distinguished foreign players are occasionally encountered in newspaper advertisements for concerts; S.L.
Weiss visited London and gave a short series of concerts in 1718. One player who settled in London was J.S. Bachs former pupil, Rudolf Straube, from whom Thomas Gainsborough bought a lute
and requested lessons in 1759. A manuscript partially compiled by Straube (GB-Lbl Add.31698)
contains annotations in a later hand suggesting that pieces from it were copied by a player of the
Theorboe Lute up to the late date of 1813. However, the instrument mentioned on a few title
pages dating from about 1800 as the lute was in actual fact the harp-lute, whose music shows no
discernible relationship with the real lute. (For other modern editions of English lute music see
the series English Lute Songs, London, 196771, and Music for the Lute, ed. D. Lumsden, 1966.)
Lute (ii): Bibliography
a: ancient and non-european lutes
C. Sachs and E.M. von Hornbostel : Systematik der Musikinstrumente, Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie, xlvi
(1914), 55390 [Eng. trans. in GSJ, xiv (1961), 329; repr. in Ethnomusicology: an Introduction, ed. H.
Myers (London, 1992), 44461]
F. Behn : Die Laute im Altertum und frhen Mittelalter, ZMw, i (191819), 89107
K. Geiringer : Vorgeschichte und Geschichte der europischen Laute bis zum Beginn der Neuzeit,
ZMw, x (19278), 560603

42

L. Picken : The Origin of the Short Lute, GSJ, viii (1955), 3242
H. Hickmann : gypten, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, ii/1 (Leipzig, 1961)
W. Stauder : Zur Frhgeschichte der Laute, Festschrift Helmuth Ostho zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. L.
Homann-Erbrecht and H. Hucke (Tutzing, 1961), 1525
G. Fleischhauer : Etrurien und Rom, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, ii/5 (Leipzig, 1964, 2/1978)
R.A. Higgins and R.P. Winnington-Ingram : Lute-Players in Greek Art, Journal of Hellenic Studies,
lxxxv (1965), 6271
H. Turnbull : The Origin of the Long-Necked Lute, GSJ, xxv (1972), 5866
L. Manniche : Ancient Egyptian Musical Instruments (Munich, 1975)
S. Marcuse : A Survey of Musical Instruments (London, 1975), 406
L. Picken : Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey (London, 1975), 261, 583
C. Ziegler : Les instruments de musique gyptiens au muse du Louvre (Paris, 1979)
M. Maas and J. Snyder : Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece (New Haven, CT, 1989)
b: western lute, general
LtgendorGL
VannesE
M. Brenet : Notes sur l'histoire du luth en France, RMI, v (1898), 63776; vi (1899), 144; pubd separately (Turin, 1899/R)
O. Krte : Laute und Lautenmusik bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1901/R)
R. Donington : VI: Plucked Strings: IB, 1: The Family of Lutes, The Instruments of Music (London,
1949, 3/1970)
A. Baines : Fifteenth-Century Instruments in Tinctoris's De inventione et usu musicae , GSJ, iii (1950),
1926
B. Disertori : Remarques sur l'volution du luth en Italie au XVe sicle et au XVIe, Le luth et sa musique: Neuilly-sur-Seine 1957, 1924
D. Gill : The Elizabethan Lute, GSJ, xii (1959), 6062
LSJ (1959) [renamed The Lute in 1982]
G. Hayes : Musical Instruments: Mandora and Lute, Ars Nova and the Renaissance, 13001540,
NOHM, iii (1960/R), 4878
A.L. Lloyd : The Rumanian Cobza, LSJ, ii (1960), 1316
M. Morrow and M. Graubart : Lutes and Theorboes: their Use as Continuo Instruments described
by Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma musicum , LSJ, ii (1960), 2632
M.W. Prynne : James Talbot's Manuscript, IV: Plucked Strings the Lute Family, GSJ, xiv (1961),
5268
M.W. Prynne : Some Remarks on Lute Forgeries, LSJ, iii (1961), 1721

43

M.W. Prynne : The Fretted Instruments, I: the Lute, Musical Instruments through the Ages, ed. A. Baines (Harmondsworth, 1961/R, 2/1966/R)
M.W. Prynne : The Old Bologna Lute-Makers, LSJ, v (1963), 1831
H. Radke : Wodurch unterscheiden sich Laute und Theorbe, AcM, xxxvii (1965), 734
J. Jacquot and A. Souris, eds.: Thomas Mace: Musick's Monument, ii: Commentaire et transcriptions (Paris,
1966)
R.G. Campbell : Zur Typologie der Schalenlanghalslaute (Strasbourg, 1968)
L. Cervelli : Brevi noti sui liutai tedeschi attivi in Italia dal secolo XVIo al XVIIIo, AnMc, no.5
(1968), 299337
JLSA (1968)
E. Pohlmann : Laute, Theorbe, Chitarrone: die Instrumente, ihre Musik und Literatur von 1500 bis zur Gegenwart (Bremen, 1968, enlarged 5/1982)
F. Hellwig : Makers' Marks on Plucked Instruments of the 16th and 17th Centuries, GSJ, xxiv
(1971), 2232
B. Tonazzi : Liuto, vihuela, chitarra e strumenti similari nelle loro intavolatura: con cenni sulle loro letterature
(Milan, 1971, 2/1974)
H. Radke : Theorbierte Laute (liuto attiorbato) und Erzlaute (arciliuto), Mf, xxv (1972), 4814
F. Hellwig : Zur Terminologie der europischen Zupfinstrumente: das Vokabularium in den Quellen zum historischen Lautenbau, Festschrift fr Ernst Emsheimer, ed. G. Hillestrm (Stockholm,
1974), 816
FoMRHI Quarterly (1975)
I. Harwood and M. Prynne : A Brief History of the Lute (Richmond, 1975)
M. Sae : Lute and Related Instruments in Eight Important European and American Collections,
JLSA, viii (1975), 2248; ix (1976), 4361
D. Gill : Gut-Strung Plucked Instruments Contemporary with the Lute (Richmond, 1976)
M. Lowe : The Historical Development of the Lute in the 17th Century, GSJ, xxix (1976), 1125
R. Spencer : Chitarrone, Theorbo and Archlute, EMc, iv (1976), 40723
D. Abbott and E. Segerman : The Names, String-Lengths and Pitch-Standards of Extended-Neck
Lutes of the 17th Century, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.7 (1977), 2632
H.M. Brown : Trecento Angels and the Instruments they Play, Modern Musical Scholarship: Oxford
1977, 11240
D. Poulton : The Lute in Christian Spain, LSJ, xix (1977), 3449
W.B. Samson : The Twelve-Course English Lute, LSJ, xix (1977), 5053
L. Wright : The Medieval Gittern and Citole: a Case of Mistaken Identity, GSJ, xxx (1977), 842
R. Bletschacher : Die Lauten- und Geigenmacher des Fssener Landes (Hofheim am Taunus, 1978)
J. Downing : The Maler and Frei Lutes: some Observations, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.11 (1978), 6064

44

A. Layer : Die Allguer Lauten- und Geigenmacher (Augsburg, 1978)

D.B. Lyons : Lute, Vihuela, Guitar to 1800: a Bibliography (Detroit, 1978)
P. Pgen : Laute und Lautenspiel in der ersten Hlfte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1978)
D.A. Smith : The Lutes in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich, JLSA, xi (1978), 3644
P. Beier : Right Hand Position in Renaissance Lute Technique, JLSA, xii (1979), 524
Gitarre & Laute (Kassel, 1979 )
J. Griths : Lutes in the Museo Municipal de Msica in Barcelona, JLSA, xii (1979), 4866
F. Hellwig : Die Lauteninstrumente im Germanischen Nationalmuseum in Nrnberg, Gitarre &
Laute, i/6 (1979), 6, 815
J. Klima : The D minor Lute in Central Europe after the Second World War, JLSA, xii (1979), 737
K. Ragossnig : Handbuch der Gitarre und Laute (Mainz, 1979)
K. Rottmann : The Resurrection of the Lute in Twentieth Century Germany, JLSA, xii (1979), 67
72
D. and E. Segerman : On Baroque Lute Stringing and Tunings, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.16 (1979), 26
33
P. Abondance : L'apport de l'iconographie la connaissance du luth, Le luth et sa musique II: Tours
1980, 13956
G. Hellwig : Joachim Tielke, eine Hamburger Lauten- und Violenmacher der Barockzeit (Frankfurt, 1980)
H. Heyde and P. Liersch : Studien zum schsischen Musikinstrumentenbau des 16./17. Jahrhunderts, Jb Peters, ii (1980), 23159
H. Radke : Zur Spieltechnik der deutschen Lautenisten des 16. Jahrhunderts, AcM, lii (1980), 134
47
D.A. Smith : The Musical Instrument Inventory of Raymund Fugger, GSJ, xxxiii (1980), 3644
I. Harwood : A Case of Double Standards? Instrumental Pitch in England c1600, EMc, ix (1981),
47081
F. Hellwig : The Morphology of Lutes with Extended Necks, EMc, ix (1981), 44754
D. Gill : Mandores and Colachons, GSJ, xxxiv (1981), 13041
C. Page : The 15th-Century Lute: New and Neglected Sources, EMc, ix (1981), 1121
R. Spencer : Lute and Guitar, How Music Works, ed. K. Spence and G. Swayne (New York and London, 1981), 7992
G. Ferraris : Liuto, arciliuto, chitarrone, strumenti dell'et barocca in Italia, Il Fronimo, xxxix
(1982), 1118
C. Page : German Musicians and their Instruments, EMc, x (1982), 192200
J.M. Ward : Changing the Instrument for the Music, JLSA, xv (1982), 2739
J. Dugot : Description des luths de muse instrumental du C.N.S.M., Musique ancienne, xix (1985),
7884
45

J. Dugot : Some Lutes in Paris Museums, JLSA, xvi (1983), 2756; xviixviii (198485), 53105
F. Rossi : Il liuto a Venezia dal Rinascimento al Barocco (Venice, 1983)
S. Toolo : The Corporation of Lute-Makers in Venice: Historical Aspects, The Lute, xxiii (1983),
2932
C. Young : Zur Klassification und ikonographischen Interpretation mittelalterlicher Zupfinstrumente, Basler Jb fr historische Musikpraxis, viii (1984), 67104
F. Getreau : The Lute Collection of the Paris Museum of Musical Instruments: its Character, Formation and Development, JLSA, xviixviii (19845), 5052
O. Cristoforetti : Les Piccinini et l'volution organologique du luth la fin du XVIe sicle, Musique
ancienne, xix (1985), 419
C. Gonzales Marcos : Les luths du Museu de la Msica de Barcelona, Musique ancienne, xvixvii
(1983), 2273; xix (1985), 6277
S. Howell : Ramos de Pareja's Brief Discussion of Various Instruments, JAMIS, xi (1985), 1437
N. North : Continuo Playing on the Lute, Archlute and Theorbo (London, 1985)
P.L. Polato : Liutai veneziani nei secoli XVI, XVII e XVIII: ricerca documentaria nell'Archivio di
Stato di Venezia, Flauto dolce, no.12 (1985), 615
S. Toolo and M.P. Pedani : Una famiglia di liutai tedeschi a Venezia: I Tieenbrucker, Il Fronimo,
xiii (1985), 5662
D. Gill : Alternative Lutes: the Identity of 18th-Century Mandores and Gallichones, The Lute, xxvi
(1986), 5162
H. Heyde : Musikinstrumentenbau im 15.19. Jahrhundert: Kunst, Handwerk, Entwurf (Wiesbaden, 1986)
Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986 [incl. M. Lowe: Renaissance and Baroque Lutes: a False Dichotomy:
Observations on the Lute in the Seventeenth Century, 12439]
I. Watschorn : Einige bau- und spieltechnische Aspekte der Barocklaute anhand zeitgenssischer
Beschreibungen, Ikonographien und vorhandener Instrumente, Zupf- und Schlaginstrumente des 17.
und 18. Jahrhunderts: Blankenburg, Harz, 1986, 3347
S. Toolo : Antichi strumenti veneziani 15001800: quattro secoli di liuteria e cembalaria (Venice, 1987)
D. Poulton : The Early History of the Lute, JLSA, xxxxi (19878), 121
A. Bollini : L'attivit liutistica a Milano dal 1450 al 1550: nuovi documenti, Il Fronimo, xvi (1988),
923
C. Massip : Facteurs d'instrument et matres danser parisiens au XVIIe sicle, Instrumentistes et
luthiers parisiens: XVIIeXIXe sicles, ed. F. Getreau and B. de Andia (Paris, 1988), 1734
H. Minamino : Sixteenth-Century Lute Treatises with Emphasis on Process and Techniques of Intabulation
(diss., U. of Chicago, 1988)
F. Pavan : Liutisti itinerati e rapporti culturali fra le corti italiane del primo Cinquecento, Il Fronimo, xvii (1989), 4253
A. Corona-Alcalde : The Vihuela and the Guitar in Sixteenth-Century Spain: a Critical Appraisal
of some of the Existing Evidence, The Lute, xxx (1990), 324

46

S. Toolo : Sul rapporto tra liuteria e iconografia in area veneto-lombarda tra Cinque e Seicento,
Liuteria e musica strumentale a Brescia tra Cinque e Seicento: Sal 1990, 4561
K. Martius and K. Schulze : Ernst Busch und Paul Hiltz: zwei Nrnberger Lauten- und Violenmacher der Barockzeit, Anzeigen des Germanischen Nationalmuseums (1991), 14583
G.M. Ongaro : The Tieenbruckers and the Business of Lute-Making in Sixteenth-Century Venice, GSJ, xliv (1991), 4654
R. Lundberg : In Tune with the Universe: the Physics and Metaphysics of Galileo's Lute, Music and
Science in the Age of Galileo, ed. V.A. Coelho (Dordrecht, 1992), 21139
J. Sage : A New Look at Humanism in 16th-Century Lute and Vihuela Books, EMc, xx (1992), 633
41
E. Neubauer : Der Bau der Laute und ihre Besaitung nach arabischen, persischen und trkischen
Quellen des 9. bis 15. Jahrhunderts, Zeitschrift fr Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, viii
(1993), 279378
S. Toolo : Sui liutai tedeschi a Venezia nel Cinque e Seicento e sui rapporti tra liuteria tedesca e
pittura Veneziana, Venedig und Oberdeutschlang in der Renaissance, Studi, ix (Sigmaringen, 1993), 197
205
P. Forrester : An Elizabethan Allegory and some Hypotheses, The Lute, xxxiv (1994), 1114
C. Meyer : Eine Lauten-Unterweisung aus dem spten 15. Jahrhundert, Musik in Bayern, no.49
(1994), 2533
M. Burzik : Quellenstudien zu europischen Zupfinstrumentenformen (Kassel, 1995)
S. Court : Renaissance Instrumental Ensembles: the Role of the Lute in Sixteenth-Century Consorts Evidence from Terzi's Intabulations, Performance Practice Review, viii (1995), 14770
P. Kirly : A lantjtk Magyarorszgon a XV. szzadtl a XVII. szzad kzepig [Lute playing in Hungary
from the 15th century until the mid-17th century] (Budapest, 1995) [with Ger. summary]
L. Sayce : Continuo Lutes in 17th and 18th-Century England, EMc, xxiii (1995), 66684
D. Van Edwards : Talbot's English Theorbo Reconsidered, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.78 (1995), 323
K. Martius : Leopold Widhalm und der Nrnberger Lauten- und Geigenbau im 18. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt,
1996)
V.A. Coelho, ed.: Performance on Lute, Guitar and Vihuela: Historical Practice and Modern Interpretation
(Cambridge, 1997)
Die Laute (1998)
S. Pasqual and R. Regazzi : Le radici del successo della liuteria a Bologna (Bologna, 1998)
Acoustique et instruments anciens: Paris 1998
D.A. Smith : History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance (forthcoming)

c: theoretical and pedagogical

MersenneHU
PraetoriusSM, ii
47

VirdungMG
H. Arnaut de Zwolle : Treatise (MS, c1440; F-Pn lat.7295); facs., Fr. trans. and commentary in G. Le
Cerf and E.-R. Labande: Instruments de musique du XVe sicle (Paris, 1932/R)
J. Tinctoris : De inventione et usu musicae (Naples, c14813); ed. K. Weinmann (Regensburg, 1917,
rev. 2/1961 by W. Fischer)
H. Gerle : Musica teusch (Nuremberg, 1532/R, rev. 3/1546/R as Musica und Tabulatur)
J. Bermudo : Declaracin de instrumentos musicales (Osuna, 1555/R)
J.-B. Besard : Thesaurus harmonicus (Cologne, 1603/R; Eng. trans. of appx in R. Dowland: Varietie of
Lute-Lessons, 1610)
T. Robinson : The Schoole of Musicke (London, 1603/R); ed. in CM (1971)
R. Dowland : Varietie of Lute-Lessons (London, 1610/R) [incl. section by J. Dowland, and Eng. trans.
of appx to J.-B. Besard: Thesaurus harmonicus, 1603]
T. Mace : Musick's Monument (London, 1676/R)
E.G. Baron : Historisch-theoretisch und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg,
1727/R; Eng. trans., 1976, as Study of the Lute)
M. Southard and S. Cooper : A Translation of Hans Newsidler's Ein Newgeordent knstlich Lautenbuch
, JLSA, xi (1978), 525

d: construction
I. Harwood : A Fifteenth-Century Lute Design, LSJ, ii (1960), 38
M.W. Prynne : Lute Bellies and Barring, LSJ, vi (1964), 712
F. Hellwig : On the Construction of the Lute Belly, GSJ, xxi (1968), 12945
F. Hellwig : An Example of Lute Restoration, GSJ, xxiii (1970), 648
D. Edwards : A Geometrical Construction for a Lute Profile, LSJ, xv (1973), 489
D. Abbott and E. Segerman : Strings in the 16th and 17th Centuries, GSJ, xxvii (1974), 4873
F. Hellwig : Lute Construction in the Renaissance and the Baroque, GSJ, xxvii (1974), 2130
F. Hellwig : Lute-Making in the Late 15th and the 16th Century, LSJ, xvi (1974), 2438
R. Lundberg : Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Lute-Making, JLSA, vii (1974), 3150
D. Abbott and E. Segerman : On Lute Bridges and Frets, EMc, iii (1975), 295 only
D. Abbott and E. Segerman : Gut Strings, EMc, iv (1976), 43037
D. Abbott and E. Segerman : The Geometric Description and Analysis of Instrument Shapes,
FoMRHI Quarterly, no.2 (1976), 713
J. Downing : Lute Bridges and Frets, EMc, iv (1976), 3657
I. Firth : Acoustical Experiments on the Lute Belly, GSJ, xxx (1977), 5663
C. Bouterse : Reconstructing the Medieval Arabic Lute, GSJ, xxxii (1979), 29
48

M. Lowe : An Assessment of the Progress of Twentieth-Century Lute-Making, with Suggestions

for Future Development, Le luth et sa musique II: Tours 1980, 15762
G. Shne : On the Geometry of the Lute, JLSA, xiii (1980), 3554
W. Samson : Lute Outlines: a Pragmatic Approach to Geometrical Description, FoMRHI Quarterly,
no.25 (1981), 358
R.H. Wells : Number Symbolism in the Renaissance Lute Rose, EMc, ix (1981), 3242
S. Barber : Making Lute Moulds, The Lute, xxii (1982), 213
K. Coates : Geometry, Proportion and the Art of Lutherie (Oxford, 1985)
J. Dugot : La facture du luth, La facture instrumentale europenne: suprmaties nationales et enrichssement mutuel, Muse instrumental du Conservatoire national suprieur de musique de Paris, 6 Nov
1985 1 March 1986 (Paris, 1985), 3551 [exhibition catalogue]
D. Edwards : Gut Strings and Angled Bridges, The Lute, xxv (1985), 1728
Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986 [incl. R. Nurse: Design and Structural Development of the Lute in the
Renaissance, 10112; J. Dugot: Some Aspects of the Construction of Archlutes and Theorboes in
Venice (ca. 16001650), 11323]
R. Lundberg : Historical Lute Construction: the Erlangen Lectures, American Lutherie, no.19 (1989),
619; no.20 (1989), 4053; no.21 (1990), 1629; no.22 (1990), 2027; no.23 (1990), 4253; no.24
(1990), 4053; no.28 (1991), 817; no.29 (1992), 1019; no.30 (1992), 2839; no.31 (1992), 4654;
no.35 (1993), 3443; no.36 (1993), 328; no.37 (1994), 328; no.38 (1994), 817
M. Peruo : New Hypothesis on the Construction of Bass Strings for Lutes and other Gut-String
Instruments, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.62 (1991), 2236
E. Segerman : The Size of the English 12-Course Lute, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.92 (1998), 312

e: notation and tunings

W. Apel : The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 9001600 (Cambridge, MA, 1942, 5/1961; Ger. trans., rev.,
1970)
G. Hayes : Instruments and Instrumental Notation: the Lute, The Age of Humanism, 15401630,
NOHM, iv (1968), 70983, esp. 721
J. Tichota : Intabulationen und tschechischer Gemeinschaftsgesang an der Wende des 16. Jahrhunderts, Musica bohemica et europaea: Brno V 1970, 639
H.M. Brown : Embellishment in Early Sixteenth-Century Italian Intabulations, PRMA, c (19734),
4983
D. Poulton : Graces of Play in Renaissance Lute Music, EMc, iii (1975), 10714
M. Lindley : Luis Milan and Meantone Temperament, JLSA, xi (1978), 4562
H. Charnass : Transkription deutsches Lautentabulaturen par Computer, Gitarre & Laute, i/4
(1979), 1623
W. Boetticher : Zum Problem der ltesten handschriftlich berlieferten Lautentabulaturen, Ars musica, musica scientia: Festschrift Heinrich Hschen, ed. D. Altenburg (Cologne, 1980), 615

49

Le luth et sa musique II: Tours 1980 [incl. J. Tichota: Problmes d'dition des tablatures de rdaction
dfectueuse, 4358; H.M. Brown: La Musica Ficta dans les mises en tablatures d'Albert de Rippe et
Adrian Le Roy, 16382]
G. Shne : Regelmssige Temperaturen auf der Laute, Gitarre & Laute, iv (1982), 9891
M.L. Gllner : On the Process of Lute Intabulation in the Sixteenth Century, Ars iocundissima: Festschrift fr Kurt Dorfmller, ed. H. Leuchtmann and R. Mnster (Tutzing, 1984), 8396
M. Lindley : Lutes, Viols and Temperaments (Cambridge, 1984)
H. Minamino : Transformation in Intabulation, JLSA, xviixviii (19845), 11417
H.M. Brown : The Importance of Sixteenth-Century Intabulations, Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986, 1
29
H.M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert, and Verdelot: Pitch and the Conventions of Transcribing Music for Lute and Voice in Italy in the Early Sixteenth Century, RdM, lxxv (1989), 2546
F. Dry : Accords et frettages du luth et de la vihuela d'aprs quelques traits des XVI et XVII sicles (Paris,
1989)
E. Schulze-Kurz : Die Laute und ihre Stimmungen in der ersten Hlfte des 17 Jahrhunderts (Wilsingen,
1990)
S. Buetens : The Meaning and Performance of Ornament Signs in English Lute Tablatures (Menlo Park, CA,
1991)
J. Le Cocq : The Pitch and Tuning in French Lute Song: 16031643, The Lute, xxxii (1992), 4671
D. Tunley : Tunings and Transpositions in the Early 17th-Century French Lute Air, EMc, xxi
(1993), 20311
M. Shepherd : The Interpretation of Signs for Graces in English Lute Music, The Lute, xxxvi (1996),
3784
f: repertory
A. Koczirz : sterreichische Lautenmusik zwischen 1650 und 1720, SMw, v (1918), 4996; also
pubd as introduction to DT, 1, Jg.xxv/2 (1918/R)
H. Sommer : Lautentraktate des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in Rahmen der deutschen und franzsischen Lautentabulatur (diss., U. of Berlin, 1923)
A. Koczirz : Bhmische Lautenkunst um 1720, Alt-Prager Almanach (1926), 88100
P. Warlock : The English Ayre (London, 1926/R)
J. Zuth : Handbuch der Laute und Gitarre (Vienna, 19268/R)
L. de La Laurencie : Les luthistes (Paris, 1928/R)
O.J. Gombosi : Bakfark Blint lete s mvei (15071576)/Der Lautenist Valentin Bakfark (15071576) (Budapest, 1935, rev. 2/1967 by Z. Falry in Ger. only)
H.-P. Kosack : Geschichte der Laute und Lautenmusik in Preussen (Kassel, 1935)
R. Newton : English Lute Music of the Golden Age, PMA, lxv (19389), 6390
F.J. Giesbert : Schule fr die Barocklaute (Mainz, 1940)
50

A. Koczirz, ed.: Wiener Lautenmusik des 18. Jahrhundert, EDM, 2nd ser., i (1942)
W. Boetticher : Studien zur solistischen Lautenpraxis des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1943)
J.M. Ward : The Vihuela da Mano and its Music (15361576) (diss., New York U., 1953)
La musique instrumentale de la Renaissance: Paris 1954
M. Rollin : Le tombeau chez les luthistes Denis Gautier, Jacques Gallot, Charles Mouton, XVIIe
sicle, nos.212 (1954), 46379
D. Lumsden : The Sources of English Lute Music, 15401620 (diss., U. of Cambridge, 1955)
L.H. Moe : Dance Music in Printed Italian Lute Tablatures from 1507 to 1611 (diss., Harvard U., 1956)
Le luth et sa musique: Neuilly-sur-Seine 1957
D. Heartz : Sources and Forms of the French Instrumental Dance in the Sixteenth Century (diss., Harvard
U., 1957)
A. Malecek : Beitrge zur Geschichte der Wiener Lautenspieler, Jb des Vereins fr Geschichte der Stat
Wien, xiii (1957), 6392
J. Jacquot : Le luth et sa musique: vers une organisation internationale des recherches, AcM, xxx
(1958), 8999
W.S. Casey : Printed English Lute Instruction Books, 15681610 (diss., U. of Michigan, 1960)
G. Lefko, ed.: Five Sixteenth Century Venetian Lute Books (Washington DC, 1960)
J. Ward : The Lute Music of MS Royal Appendix 58, JAMS, xiii (1960), 11725
W. Rubsamen : Scottish and English Music of the Renaissance in a Newly-Discovered Manuscript,
Festschrift Heinrich Besseler, ed. E. Klemm (Leipzig, 1961), 25984
Z. Stszewska : Tance polskie z tabulatur lutniowych [Polish dances in lute tablature], iii (Krakw,
19626)
H. Radke : Beitrge zur Erforschung der Lautentabulaturen des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, Mf, xvi
(1963), 3451
J. Tichota : Tabulatory pro loutnu a pibuzn nstroje na zem SSR [Tablatures for lutes and
related instruments in Czechoslovakia], Studie a materily k djinm star esk hudby (Praha, 1965),
13949
E. Vogl : Lautenisten der bhmischen Sptrenaissance, Mf, xviii (1965), 28901
J. Ward : Parody Technique in 16th-Century Instrumental Music, The Commonwealth of Music, ed. G.
Reese and R. Brandel (New York, 1965), 20828
C.M. Simpson : The British Broadside Ballad and its Music (New Brunswick, NJ, 1966)
K. Dorfmller : Studien zur Lautenmusik in der ersten Hlfte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Tutzing, 1967)
H.B. Lobaugh : Three German Lute Books: Denss's Floregium, 1594; Reymann's Noctes musicae, 1598; Rude's Flores musicae 1600 (diss., U. of Rochester, 1968)
E. Pohlmann : Laute, Theorbe, Chitarrone: die Instrumente, ihre Musik und Literatur von 1500 bis zur Gegenwart (Bremen, 1968, enlarged 5/1982) [incl. bibliography]
W.H. Rubsamen : The Earliest French Lute Tablature, JAMS, xxi (1968), 28699
51

K. Dorfmller : Die Edition der Lautentabulaturen, Musikalische Edition im Wandel historischen Bewusstseins, ed. T.G. Georgiades (Kassel, 1971), 189202
H. Radke : Zum Problem der Lautentabulatur-bertragung, AcM, xliii (1971), 94103
P. Danner : Before Petrucci: the Lute in the 15th Century, JLSA, v (1972), 417
D. Heartz : Mary Magdalen, Lutenist, JLSA, v (1972), 5267
W. Rave : Some Manuscripts of French Lute Music, 16301700 (diss., U. of Illinois, 1972)
A. Rooley and J. Tyler : The Lute Consort, LSJ, xiv (1972), 1324
R. Henning : German Lute Tablature and Conrad Paumann: Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of his Death, LSJ, xv (1973), 710
U. Henning : The Lute made Easy: a Chapter from Virdung's Musica getutscht (1511), LSJ, xv (1973),
2036
J. Tichota : Francouzsk loutnov hudba v echch [French lute music in Bohemia], MMC,
nos.256 (1973), 777 [with Ger. summary]
T. Heck : Lute Music: Tablatures, Textures and Transcriptions, JLSA, vii (1974), 1930
H. Tischler : The Earliest Lute Tablature?, JAMS, xxvii (1974), 10003
C.N. Amos : Lute Practice and Lutenists in Germany between 1500 and 1750 (diss., U. of Iowa, 1975)
L. Nordstrom : The English Lute Duet and Consort Lesson, LSJ, xviii (1976), 522
D. Fallows : 15th-Century Tablatures for Plucked Instruments: a Summary, a Revision and a Suggestion, LSJ, xix (1977), 733
W. Boetticher : Handschriftlich berlieferte Lauten- und Gitarrentabulaturen des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts:
beschreibender Katalog (Munich, 1978)
J. Jacquot : Le luth et sa musique: from the Neuilly Colloquium to the Corpus of French Lutenists,
LSJ, xx (1978), 717
D. Lyons : Lute, Vihuela, Guitar to 1800: a Bibliography (Detroit, 1978)
P. Pgen : Laute und Lautenspiel in der ersten Hlfte des 16. Jahrhunderts: Beobachtungen zur Bauweise und
Spieltechnik (Regensburg, 1978)
Le luth et sa musique II: Tours 1980 [incl. A. Bailes: An Introduction to French Lute Music of the XVIIth Century, 21329]
C. Page : French Lute Tablature in the 14th Century?, EMc, viii (1980), 48891
W.F. Prizer : Lutenists at the Court of Mantua in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries,
JLSA, xiii (1980), 534
J.-M. Vaccaro : La musique de luth en France au XVIe sicle (Paris, 1981)
D. Ledbetter : Aspects of 17th-Century Lute Style Reflected in the Works of the Clavecinistes, The
Lute, xxii (1982), 5567
E.A. Bowles : La pratique musicale au Moyen Age/Musical Performance in the Late Middle Ages (Geneva,
1983)

52

C.P. Comberiati : On the Threshold of Homophony: Texture in Sixteenth-Century Lute Music,

JMR, iv (1983), 33152
J. Glixon : Lutenists in Renaissance Venice: some Notes from the Archives, JLSA, xvi (1983), 1526
F. Marincola : The Instructions from Vincenzo Capirolas Lute Book: a New Translation, The Lute,
xxiii (1983), 238
V. Coelho and others: Studies in the Lute and its Music: Prospects for the Future, JLSA, xviixviii
(19845), 11832
V. Ivano : Das Lautenduo im 15. Jahrhundert, Basler Jb fr historische Musikpraxis, viii (1984), 147
62
J.M. Meadors : Italian Lute Fantasias and Ricercars Printed in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century
(diss., Harvard U., 1984)
J. Tichota : Bohemika a esk repertor v tabulaturch pro renesann loutnu [Bohemiana and the
Czech repertory in tablature for the Reniassance lute], MMC, no.31 (1984), 143222
D.J. Buch : Style bris, style luthe, and the choses luthes, MQ, lxxi (1985), 5267, 22021
P. Pgen : Ein artliches Lob der Lauten: Blte und Niedergang von Laute und Lautenspiel im 16.
18. Jahrhundert, Concerto, ii (1985), 4855
R. Toft : An Approach to Performing the Mid 16th-Century Italian Lute Fantasia, The Lute, xxv
(1985), 316
L. Homann-Erbrecht : Lautenspiel und Lautenkomposition in Schlesien, Musikgeschichte Schlesiens
(Dlmen, 1986), 7789
Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986 [incl. A.J. Ness: The Siena Lute Book and its Arrangements of Vocal
and Instrumental Part-Music, 3049; L. Nordstrom: The Lute in Settings for Consort, 5063]
S. McCoy : Lost Lute Solos Revealed in a Paston Manuscript, The Lute, xxvi (1986), 2139
T.J. McGee : Instruments and the Faenza Codex, EMc, xiv (1986), 48090
C. Meyer : Contributions l'tude des sources de la musique de luth dans les Pays germaniques au XVIIme
sicle (diss., U. of Strasbourg II, 1986)
H. Minamino : Conrad Paumann and the Evolution of Solo Lute Practice in the Fifteenth Century, JMR, vi (1986), 291310
W.F. Prizer : The Frottola and the Unwritten Tradition, Studi musicali, xv (1986), 337
D. Ledbetter : Harpsichord and Lute Music in 17th-Century France (London, 1987)
S. McCoy : Edward Paston and the Textless Lute-Song, EMc, xv (1987), 2217
P. Pgen : Lautenmusik vor 1500, Gitarre & Laute, ix/6 (1987), 5861
M. Spring : The Lute in England and Scotland after the Golden Age, 16291750 (diss., U. of Oxford, 1987)
D.J. Buch : Texture in French Baroque Lute Music and Related Ensemble Repertories, JLSA, xxxxi
(19878), 12054
R. d'A. Jensen : The Lute Ricercar in Italy, 15071517 (diss., U. of California, 1988)
J.J. Kmetz, ed.: Die Handsschriften der Universittsbibliothek Basel. Katalog der Musikhandschriften des 16.
Jahrhunderts: Quellenkritische und historische Untersuchung (Basle, 1988)
53

A. Schlegel : Bemerkungen zur Rhtorique des dieux, Gitarre & Laute, xi/2 (1989), 1723
J. Griths : Une fantaisie de la Renaissance: an Introduction, JLSA, xxiii (1990), 116
D. Ledbetter : French Lute Music 16001650: Towards a Definition of Genres, The Lute, xxx (1990),
2547
D. Fabris : Influenze stilistiche e circolazione manoscritta della musica per liuto in Italia e in Francia nella prima met del Seicento, RdM, lxxvii (1991), 31133
D. Fabris : Voix et intruments pour la musique de danse: propos des airs pour chanter et danser
dans les tablatures italiennes de luth, Le Concert des voix et des instruments la Renaissance: Tours 1991,
389422
C. Meyer and others: Sources manuscrites en tablature: luth et thorbe (ca. 1500ca. 1800), catalogue descriptif, iiii (Baden-Baden, 19919)
R. Eberlein : The Faenza Codex: Music for Organ or for Lute Duet?, EMc, xx (1992), 46066
M. Gmez : Some Precursors of the Spanish Lute School, EMc, xx (1992), 58393
C. Meyer : Quelques aspects de la diusion de la musique de luth dans les Pays rhnans l'poque
de la Renaissance et du Baroque, Mitteilungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft fr mittelrheinische Musikgeschichte, lix (1992), 36372
K. Polk : German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages: Players, Patrons and Performance Practice
(Cambridge, 1992)
J.M. Ward : Music for Elizabethan Lutes (Oxford, 1992)
J. Craig-McFeely : English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes 15301630 (diss., U. of Oxford, 1993)
D. Kirsch and L. Meierott : Berliner Lautentabulaturen in Krakau (Mainz, 1993)
V.A. Coelho : The Manuscript Sources of Seventeenth-Century Italian Lute Music (New York, 1995)
P. Lay : French Music for Solo Theorbo: an Introduction, Lute News, no.40 (1996), 37
V.A. Coelho, ed.: Lute, Guitar and Vihuela: Historical Practice and Modern Interpretation (Cambridge,
1997) [incl. D. Fabris: Lute Tablature Instructions in Italy: a Survey of the Regole from 15071759,
1646]
A. Brinzing : Formen und Traditionen in den deutschen Lautentnzen des 16. Jahrhunderts, Die
Laute, i (1998), 517
P. Kirly : Einige Beobachtungen und Anmerkungen ber Lautenmusikquellen, Lautenisten und
Amateure im 16. und frhen 17. Jahrhundert, Die Laute, i (1998), 2444

54

Tablature
Although the German system of notating lute music is possibly the oldest, it appears that the three
principal systems of lute tablature were developed almost simultaneously in the second half of the
15th century. Their basic principle was to guide the fingers of the players left hand over the lattice,
formed by courses and frets crossing at right angles, on the fingerboard. (In the following explanations course will have its standard meaning. The usual 16th-century lute had seven frets and six
courses of strings, usually tuned Gcfad'-g' or Adgbe'a'; in general, France and England
used the G tuning, Italy, Spain and Germany the A tuning. Each course consisted of either a single
string or a pair of strings, the strings of a pair being tuned either in unison or at the octave; later
instruments acquired extra frets and more strings: see Lute). Each intersection of fret and course
corresponded to a specific note, and an ecient system of notation therefore needed to identify
each such intersection clearly and unmistakably. Even on a 15th-century lute with only five courses and five frets there were 30 such intersections (including the open strings) and on an early
17th-century theorbo-lute there might have been seven courses, up to 12 frets, and also six or seven diapasons (open strings running clear of the fingerboard). The tablature for such an instrument needed to be capable of directing the player to form almost 100 notes. Moreover, the lute
was required to give the impression of polyphonic part movement, so the tablature symbols needed to be capable of being grouped together two, three or four at a time. One area of inadequacy
that lute tablatures share with Spanish keyboard tablatures is that the value of only the shortest of
the notes to be played simultaneously could be notated precisely.
(i) Germany, 15111620.
Although the earliest known printed example of the cumbersome German tablature, in Sebastian
Virdungs Musica getutscht (fig.4), dates from 1511, the fact that the system was clearly designed for
a five-course lute with five frets shows that it must have been invented considerably earlier. According to Virdung the system was attributed to the blind organist Conrad Paumann (141073).
The open courses are numbered 1 to 5, with 1 corresponding to the bottom course, and each intersection of fret and course is denoted by a letter of the alphabet running across the fingerboard
from bottom course to top. In order to provide the 25 symbols required, the common abbreviations for et and con were added to the 23 letters of the German alphabet; for higher frets the alphabet was repeated either in doubled letters or in letters with a dash above them (aa or , bb or
betc.). When a sixth course was added below the original five it was not possible to extend this
closed system in any logical way, and several compromise solutions were used. The German tablature, with the most important of its alternative forms, is given in the diagram shown as ex.9. In
practice, symbols intended to be played simultaneously were grouped in vertical columns; rhythm
signs were placed above each note or group of notes, often grouped in twos or fours. The music
was usually barred regularly (ex.10).

55

The German tablature was strongly criticized as early as 1528 by Martin Agricola, although the
alternative system he proposed was not adopted anywhere. Melchior Neusidler tried to introduce
Italian lute tablature into Germany in the mid-16th century, but he met with much opposition.
(ii) Italy, 15001650.
The Italian system was more logical than German lute tablature since it was a visual representation
of the fingerboard. Its clarity and ease of application remained, however many courses or frets the
instrument possessed. Each course was represented by a horizontal line, the bottom course corresponding to the top line (fig.5; in the playing position the bottom course of the lute is nearest to the
56

players eye). The sta formed in this way normally had six lines (i.e. as many as there were courses). The open course was represented by a figure 0 on the appropriate line, the first fret by 1, the
second by 2 and so on, the 10th, 11th and 12th frets being represented by the special single symbols x, x and x since a double symbol like 10 might be confused with the two separate symbols 1
and 0. Rhythm signs were shown above the notes; at first they were repeated for each note or
chord (see ex.11), but from about 1530 onwards a more economical system prevailed whereby
each rhythm sign remained valid until it was replaced by another. In later sources, both printed
and manuscript, the normal sta notation rhythm signs tended to replace the traditional lute ones.
Diapasons were shown as numbers (from 7 to 14) set between the sta and the rhythm signs. Italian tablature was used for some books printed in Krakw, Lyons and Strasbourg in the second
half of the 16th century, and a few English and Austrian manuscripts are known (e.g. GB-Lbl
Add.292467 and 31992); but it was mainly confined to Italy.

(iii) Spain, 153080.

The indigenous Spanish instrument of the lute family was the vihuela, tuned and played like a lute,
but shaped and strung slightly dierently. Spanish tablature closely resembled Italian, although
exceptionally, as in Milns El maestro (1536), the six-line sta was inverted so that the top line represented the highest course of the vihuela (fig.6). Occasionally a vocal line was included in sta
notation above the tablature, as in Germany and Italy; or it might be incorporated in the tablature
itself in red numerals. In some collections of Spanish lute music the compositions are barred in
units of one semibreve, a system of barring that diers from that of most barred lute sources. Ordinary sta notation rhythm signs were used (see ex.12).

57

(iv) France, 15001815.

The French form of lute notation, adopted by English composers, was the most successful of all
lute tablatures, and it eventually superseded the others (although not for guitar music). It used a
five- or six-line sta in which, as in Milns book, the top line represented the highest course. The
frets, however, were lettered and not numbered, the open string being a or A, the first fret b or B,
and so on. To assist the eye in distinguishing between similar letters these were soon given special
forms; the commonest lute alphabet is shown in ex.13. The letters were placed either on or above
the line to which they referred. Lute and, later, sta notation rhythm signs were used, placed as
usual above the sta. Letters or figures beneath it denoted diapasons (fig.7); their tuning sometimes varied according to the key of the piece, but they usually descended diatonically (a, /a, //a,
///a, ////a ; 7, 8, 9, 10 or X, 11 ). In English lute music plain letters below the sta often denoted a seventh course running over the fingerboard and tuned a 4th below the sixth course.

(v) Supplementary signs.

Many of the niceties of lute playing were indicated by special signs, the most important of which
are listed here. A dot beneath a symbol sometimes meant that the chord was to be struck from
above instead of, as normally, from below; it was more likely, however, to have been a fingering indication for the right hand ( = 1st, = 2nd, or = 3rd, = little finger). A vertical line facilitated orientation when the components of a chord were widely spaced. An asterisk, cross or oblique
stroke by the side of a symbol showed that the stopping finger must be held down on its fret for as
long as possible, thus sustaining the note or notes in question. A numeral by a symbol showed lefthand fingering. Slurs joining two symbols indicated a special kind of legato playing, only the first
of the two notes being plucked. A wide variety of special signs was used to indicate trills and ornaments (see Dodge and Spencer).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
WolfH
G. Gasparini: Storia della semiografia musicale (Milan, 1905/R1984 in BMB, section 2, lix)
J. Dodge: Ornamentation as Indicated by Signs in Lute Tablature, SIMG, ix (19078), 31836
O. Chilesotti: Notes sur les tablatures de luth et de guitare, EMDC, I/ii (1914), 63684
L. Schrade: Die ltesten Denkmler der Orgelmusik (Mnster, 1928)
58

W. Apel: The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 9001600 (Cambridge, MA, 1942, 5/1961; Ger. trans.,
rev., 1970)
K. Dorfmller: La tablature de luth allemande et les problmes ddition, Le luth et sa musique:
Neuilly-sur-Seine 1957, 24557
A. Woodford: Music for Viol in Tablature: Manuscript Sources in the British Museum, Chelys, ii
(1970), 2333
H. Ducasse: Un problme de saisie de linformation: le traitement des tablatures, Informatique
musicale: Paris 1973, 4865
J. Eppelsheim: Buchstaben-Notation, Tabulatur und Klaviatur, AMw, xxxi (1974), 5772
R. Spencer: Introduction to The Board Lute Book (Leeds, 1976) [facs.]
R. Rastall: The Notation of Western Music (London and New York, 1983, 2/1998)

Silvius [Sylvius] Leopold Weiss

(b Breslau [now Wrocaw], ?12 Oct 1686; d Dresden, 16 Oct 1750). A son of (1) Johann Jacob
Weiss, he was trained by his father and in his seventh year he performed for Emperor Leopold I.
By 1706 he was in the service of Count Carl Philipp of the Palatinate, who was then resident in
Breslau. His earliest datable sonata, no.7 (1706), was written while he was on a visit to the court of
the counts brother in Dsseldorf. He spent 171014 in Italy with the Polish Prince Alexander Sobiesky. The prince lived in Rome with his mother Queen Maria Casimira, who engaged first Alessandro and later (1709) Domenico Scarlatti as her music director. Thus Weiss doubtless worked
with the Scarlattis, and probably was exposed to the music of Corelli and other composers in Rome. After the princes death in late 1714 Weiss returned to the North. He reentered the service of
Carl Philipp, now Imperial Governor of the Tyrol, perhaps as early as 1715. By 1717 he was listed
as a member of the chapel at the Saxon court in Dresden. He was formally appointed to the chapel
in August 1718 with a high salary, and by 1744, he was the highest-paid instrumentalist at the
court. Weisss activity as a performer nearly came to a premature end when in 1722 he was attacked by a French violinist named Petit who attempted to bite o the top joint of his right thumb.
Handwritten notes by Weiss found in continuo parts to operas by J.A. Hasse which were performed at court between 1731 and 1749, suggest that Weiss was regularly involved in ensemble performance (see Burris); this activity may have been as important as his duties as a solo performer.
Weisss travels took him to many other courts for short visits. He was in Prague in 1717 (and again
in 1719); in September 1718 he was sent in the company of the Saxon Crown Prince Frederick
Augustus with eleven of the court's best musicians to Vienna where again he played for the Emperor. In 1722 he performed at the Bavarian court in Munich with the flautist P.G. Buardin. Together with Quantz and C.H. Graun, Weiss went to Prague in 1723 to play in the orchestra in Fuxs
opera Costanza e fortezza celebrating the coronation of Charles VI. In 1728, along with Pisendel,
Quantz and Buardin, he accompanied Elector August to Berlin, where he made a profound impression on the future King Frederick the Great and his sister Wilhelmine, herself an accomplished lutenist, to whom Weiss gave lessons. Weiss was much in demand throughout his career as a
teacher of both amateurs and professionals. He taught Prince Philipp Hyacinth Lobkowitz and his
wife in Bohemia and Vienna and in Dresden he trained several distinguished professional lutenists, including Adam Falckenhagen and Johann Kropfgans. With Kropfgans he visited J.S. Bach in
Leipzig in 1739; this was likely not their first meeting nor their last since Bach came numerous
times to Dresden to see his son Wilhelm Friedemann and to hear the court musicians. Despite his
high salary, Weisss material circumstances may not have been particularly comfortable. He married Maria Elizabeth (c170059) about the time of his appointment in Dresden and together they
59

had 11 children. At his death seven of them were still living and his impoverished widow appealed
to the Elector for aid.
Both as virtuoso performer and as composer Weiss can be regarded as the greatest lutenist of the
late Baroque and a peer of keyboard players such as J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. He left the
largest corpus of music for lute of any composer in the history of the instrument. Most of the
hundreds of pieces which survive are grouped into six-movement sonatas with the sequence allemande, courante, bourre, sarabande, minuet and gigue (or allegro). The structure of these sonatas, called Suonaten or Partien, remained remarkably unchanged from the earliest to the latest period, although substitutions for one or more of the movements are common. Some begin with an
unbarred prelude or a fantasia; Weisss practice was probably to improvise the prelude and most
were never written down. The style of Weiss's music is, like Bachs, a German fusion of French and
Italian influences. It is not as densely contrapuntal or chromatic as Bach's the baroque lute (particularly the diatonic arrangement of the basses) does not permit it but Weisss harmonic usage
is highly sophisticated and involves modulations to remote keys, particularly in the later works, by
means of diminished seventh chords and enharmonic changes. His allemandes and sarabandes are
often serious or melancholy while the fast movements are exhilarating, displaying a virtuosity
which, like Corellis, serves the forward drive of the music rather than the desire to dazzle. In his
own day he was famous for his Weissian method of playing (Baron), which probably refers to his
masterly fingerings and idiomatic legato style. In the course of his career Weiss wrote increasingly
extended movements and began to coordinate thematic motifs with the harmonic structure in a
manner strikingly similar to Classical sonata form. Bach clearly had great respect for Weisss sonatas since he arranged no.47 as a duo for harpsichord and violin (BWV 1025), composing new material for the violin part and constructing an introductory fantasia using lutenistic motifs that may
stem from Weiss. As well as solo sonatas, Weiss is known (from Breitkopf 's and other catalogues)
to have composed several concertos and much chamber music for the lute and a number of lute
duets; unfortunately none of these concerted pieces has survived in complete form. Occasionally a
single tablature lute part has been discovered; in such cases only speculative reconstruction is possible.
Editions:
Silvius Leopold Weiss, Smtliche Werke fr Laute in Tabulatur und bertragung, iiv, ed. D.A. Smith
(Frankfurt, 198390), vx, ed. T. Crawford (Kassel, 2000) [SC]
Silvius Leopold Weiss, Intavolatura di liuto, ed. R. Chiesa (Milan, 19678) [CH]
Deutsche Lautenmusik des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts: Solowerke von Esaias Reusner und Silvius Leopold Weiss,
ed. H. Neemann, EDM, 1st ser., xii (1939) [N]
The Moscow Weiss Manuscript, ed. T. Crawford (Columbus, OH, 1995) [CR]
Silvius Leopold Weiss: 34 Suiten fr Laute Solo, ed. W. Reich (Leipzig, 1977) [facs. of MS in D-Dlb; incl.
SC nos.3360]
Music for the Lute: Ernst Gottlieb Baron and Sylvius Leopold Weiss, with introduction by A. Schlegel (Peer,
1992) [facs.of MS in B-Brl] [SCH]
Catalogue in BrookB [repr. of 1769 Breitkopf catalogue], cols.36975 [60 numbered partitas and 6
Partite Grande] [B]
Catalogue in Klima (1974) [K]
Catalogue in appendix to Smith (1977) [S]
E.G. Baron: Historisch-theoretisch und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg,
1727/R; Eng. trans., 1976, as Study of the Lute, 1976)

60

J.C. Gottsched: Handlexicon oder Kurzgefasstes Wrterbuch der schnen Wissenschaften und freyen Knste
(Leipzig, 1760)
H.L. Volkmann: Silvius Leopold Weiss, der letzte grosse Lautenist, Die Musik, vi (19067), 27489
H. Neemann: Die Lautenhandschriften von Silvius Leopold Weiss in der Bibliothek Dr. Werner
Wolffheim, ZMw, x (19278), 396414
K. Prusik: Die Sarabande in den Solopartien des Lautenisten Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Festschrift
Adolph Koczirz, ed. R. Haas and J. Zuth (Vienna, 1930), 367
H. Neemann: Die Lautenistenfamilie Weiss, AMf, iv (1939), 15789 [with extensive work-list]
J. Klima: Silvius Leopold Weiss, 16861750: Kompositionen fr die Laute: Quellen und Themenverzeichnis
(Vienna, 1975)
D.A. Smith: Baron and Weiss contra Mattheson: in Defense of the Lute, JLSA, vi (1973), 4862
D.A. Smith: The Late Sonatas of Silvius Leopold Weiss (diss., Stanford U., 1977) [incl. index of incipits
and concordances for 580 solo lute pieces of S.L. Weiss]
D.A. Smith: Sylvius Leopold Weiss: Master Lutenist of the German Baroque, EMc, viii (1980), 47
58
D.A. Smith: : Editing 18th-Century Lute Music: the Works of Silvius Leopold Weiss, Le luth et sa
musique II: Tours 1980, 25360
K. Spaar: : A Poet's Description of the Lute Playing of Silvius Leopold Weiss, and a Possible Link
between Weiss and David Kellner, JLSA, xix (1986), 5867
O. Arnautova: "Moskovskiy manuskript" Leopol'da Sil'viusa Vaysa', Starinnaya muzka v kontekste
sovremennov kul'tori: Moscow 1989, 52737
D.A. Smith: La ricerca su Weiss: il passato, il presente e il futuro', Bollettino della Societa Italiana del
Liuto, iii (1993)
C. Wol: Das Trio A-Dur BWV 1025: eine Lautensonate von Silvius Leopold Weiss bearbeitet und
erweitert von Johann Sebastian Bach', BJb 1993, 4767
K.-E. Schrder: Zum Trio A-Dur BWV 1025', BJb 1995, 4760
T. Crawford: Introduction to The Moscow 'Weiss' Manuscript (Columbus, OH, 1995), 242
T.A. Burris: Lute and Theorbo in Vocal Music in 18th-Century Dresden (diss., Duke U., Durham, NC,
1997)

Vise, Robert de
(b ? c1655; d 17323). French guitarist, theorbo, lute and viol player and composer. He was possibly
a pupil of Corbetta. He is first mentioned (as theorbist and guitarist) by Le Gallois in 1680, and
about that time became a chamber musician to Louis XIV. In the dedication of his first guitar
book (1682) he mentions that he was often called upon by the king to amuse the dauphin, and the
diary of the Count of Dangeau from the year 1686 states that he regularly played the guitar at the
kings bedside in the evenings. Between 1694 and 1705 Vise frequently performed at the French
court, particularly at the evening gatherings of Mme de Maintenon, with the flautists Descoteaux
and Philibert, the harpsichordist Jean-Baptiste Buterne and the viol player Antoine Forqueray. In
1709 he was appointed to the post of singer in the royal chamber in recognition of his service to
the court, in which he had not until then held a position. In 1719 he was formally appointed guitar
teacher to the king, although he had actually been the kings instructor since 1695; his son Franois succeeded him in this post in 1721. A letter of Jean Rousseau of 1688 indicates that Vise was
a respected musician at Versailles and that he also played the viol.
61

Vises two published guitar books contain a total of 12 suites as well as several miscellaneous pieces. The longer suites generally begin with the usual allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue and
end with lighter pieces such as the gavotte, minuet and bourre. In the shorter suites there is no
consistent order of movements. The Suite no.6 in C minor includes a beautiful tombeau dedicated
to Corbetta. Vises guitar compositions are intended for a five-course instrument tuned a/ad/d'g/
gb/be'. Exploiting the instruments resources to the fullest extent, they constitute along with the
later works of Corbetta the apex of the French Baroque guitar literature. Vises works for Baroque
lute and theorbo comprise the same types of dance pieces as are found in his guitar music and often duplicate the guitar works, although it is dicult to determine for which instrument the original versions were written. The fact that a substantial number of theorbo works survives in manuscript sources shows the regard in which Vise was held. Though they lack character pieces and
Italian influence, they reveal him as a fitting partner for his colleagues Marin Marais and Franois
Couperin. These pieces also include various tombeaux as well as arrangements of pieces by Lully,
Marais, Forqueray and Franois Couperin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BenoitMC
La BordeE
C. Liddell: The Guitar, Theorbo and Lute Works of Robert de Vise: a Study in his Process of Arranging (diss.,
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, 1976)
A. Dunn: Style and Development in the Theorbo Works of Robert Vise: an Introductory Study (diss., U. of
California, San Diego, 1989)
B.L. Prudhomme: A Source Study and Thematic Catalogue of Robert de Vises Theorbo Works (diss., U. of
Colorado, 1992)
A. Miteran: Manuscrit indit de Robert de Vise, Guitare, lv (1995), 324

Gallot.
French family of lutenists. They were active in the 17th century. Jacques and Pierre, who were also
composers, were considered by their contemporaries to be among the most accomplished players
of their time.
(1) Alexandre Gallot
(b 162530; d 1684). Lutenist and composer. He was known as vieux Gallot d'Angers and he was
matre de luth in that town about 1663. Four pieces are attributed to him in Ren Milleran's manuscript lutebook (F-Pn Rs.823) which was compiled in about 1690.
2) Jacques Gallot
(d Paris, c1690). Lutenist and composer, brother of (1) Alexandre Gallot. He was known as vieux
Gallot de Paris. He was a pupil of Ennemond Gaultier. His Pices de luth composes sur dierens modes
(Paris, n.d.) includes a brief method for the lute. The inclusion of minuets and the arrangement of
pieces by keys and forms anticipate the later suite. In addition to this collection most of the pieces
in an untitled lute manuscript (D-LEm II614) are signed vieux Gallot. These two sources comprise
almost all his identified music, but a few other pieces by him are among those signed simply Gallot found in other manuscripts (in F-Pn, B, GB-Ob, HAdolmetsch, A-G, KR, Wn, CZ-Pu and S-K). His
compositions include several musical portraits La Fontange and La Montespan among others and
62

tombeaux among them those in memory of Turenne, Cond and Madame inspired by members
of the court. Vise in turn composed a tombeau in memory of Gallot.

3) Pierre Gallot
(b c1660; d Paris, after 1716). Lutenist and composer, son of (1) Alexandre Gallot. He was known
as Gallot le jeune and is reputed to have been a remarkable performer. He also taught the lute and
guitar to wealthy foreigners. The incomplete tablature of Gallot Paris (CZ-Pu KK83) contains
one lute piece by him, and others appear in manuscripts (at F-Pn, B, PL-Lw, US-NY and A-G). His
Tombeau de la Princesse de Monaco is in a manuscript in Vienna (A-Wn 17706).
(4) Henry Franois de Gallot, Sieur de Franlieu
(d after 1684). Guitarist and lutenist. His relationship to the other Gallots is uncertain. He was
known as Gallot d'Irlande. In Nantes between 1664 and 1684 he compiled a manuscript (GB-Ob
M.Sch.C94) entitled Pices de guittarre de dierends autheurs, containing music by Gallot le vieux,
Gallot dAngleterre (possibly his son, who may have served Charles II), Gallot le jeune and Gallot le cadet, as well as Francisque, Dufaut, Corbetta and other composers. An Antoine Gallot (d
Vilnius, 1647), also a lutenist and composer, is not thought to be related to the other members of
the Gallot family. He was employed at the Polish court, where he served King Wadisaw IV, and a
vocal canon by hiim servives in Marco Scacchis Cribrum musicum (Venice, 1643).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. de La Laurencie: Les luthistes (Paris, 1928)
A. Tessier: Quelques sources de lcole franaise de luth du XVIIe sicle, IMSCR I: Lige 1930, 217
24
M. Rollin: Le tombeau chez les luthistes Denis Gautier, Jacques Gallot, Charles Mouton, XVIIe
sicle, nos.212 (1954), 46379
M. Rollin: La suite pour luth dans l'oeuvre de Charles Mouton, ReM, no.226 (1955), 7688
H. Radke: Bemerkungen zur Lautenisten-Familie Gallot, Mf, xiii (1960), 515
D. Gill: The de Gallot Guitar Books, EMc, vi (1978), 7987
R.T. Pinnell: The Theorboed Guitar: its Repertoire in the Guitar Books of Granata and Gallot,
EMc, vii (1979), 3239
C. Massip: Recherches biographiques, Preface to Oeuvres de Gallot (Paris, 1987), xvxxiii
M. Rollin: La musique pour le luth des Gallot, Preface to Oeuvres de Gallot (Paris, 1987), xxixxliii

Mouton, Charles
(b Paris 1617; d before 1699). French lutenist and composer. His mothers family included musicians, one of whom had a career at court. By the mid-1640s Mouton was being lionized by Parisian literary society, to which he may have been introduced by the Gaultiers. Around 1664 he was
still in Paris, teaching a number of well-placed pupils. In 1673 he directed the lutes and theorbos
in an entertainment at the court of Savoy in Turin. From at least 1680 he was back in Paris, where
he published his two surviving books of Pices de luth sur dirents modes (Paris, before 1679, c1680;
ed. in Corpus des luthistes franais, Paris, 1992), and where his pupils included Milleran and Le
Sage de Riche. The famous portrait by Franois de Troy (in the Louvre) was painted in 1690.
63

Mouton represents, with Jacques Gallot, the final flowering of the French lute school. His first
book contains an important Avertissement on the performance of his pieces.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Rollin: La suite pour luth dans loeuvre de Charles Mouton, ReM, no.226 (1955), 7688
F. Lesure: Introduction to C. Mouton: Pices de luth sur dirents modes (Geneva, 1978), viixii [in Fr.
and Eng.]
K. Sparr: French Lutenists and French Lute-Music in Sweden, Le Luth et sa musique II, ed. J.-M. Vaccaro (Paris, 1984), 5967
C. Goldberg: Stilisierung als kunstvermittelnder Prozess: die franzsischen Tombeau-Stcke im 17. Jahrhundert (Laaber, 1987)
P. Vendrix: Le tombeau en musique en France lpoque baroque, RMFC, xxv (1987), 10538
F.-P. Goy and C. Meyer: Sources manuscrites en tablature (Baden-Baden, 1991)

Falckenhagen [Falkenhagen], Adam

(b Grossdalzig, nr Leipzig, 26 April 1697; d Bayreuth, 6 Oct 1754). German lutenist. He was the son
of Johann Christian Falckenhagen, a schoolmaster. When he was ten he went to live for eight years
with his uncle Johann Gottlob Erlmann, a pastor in Knauthain near Leipzig. There he underwent
training in literis et musicis, particularly the harpsichord and, later, the lute. He then perfected his
lute playing with Johann Jacob Graf in Merseburg, where in 1715 he is mentioned as a footman
and musician in the service of the young Count Carl Heinrich von Dieskau. In the winter term of
1719 he entered Leipzig University; a year later he went to Weissenfels, where he remained for seven years as a lute teacher. From about 1724 he was also employed as a chamber musician and lutenist at the court of Duke Christian, where his presence is documented for 1726, together with
that of his wife, the singer Johanna Aemilia. During this time he undertook various tours and enjoyed several months instruction from the famous lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss in Dresden. After
two years in Jena, he was in the service of Duke Ernst August of Saxony-Weimar from May 1729
to 15 August 1732. By 1734 he was employed at the Bayreuth court. In 1736 Margrave Friedrich
appointed him Virtuosissimo on the Lute and Chamber Musician Second to the Kapellmeister
Johann Pfeier. About 1746 he referred to himself as Cammer-Secretarius Registrator of Brandenburg-Culmbach.
Falckenhagen was one of the last important lute composers. Although some of his works are rooted in the Baroque tradition like those of his teacher, Weiss, they show a progressive tendency towards the galant style. His keyboard-influenced lute writing is freely contrapuntal and usually limited to two voices. His output ranges from modest pieces suitable for amateurs to others (e.g. the
Sonata op.1 no.5 and the concertos) of much greater diculty, exploiting virtuoso techniques. His
Preludio nel quale sono contenuti tutti i tuoni musicali, lasting over 20 minutes in performance, contains
labelled sections in the 24 major and minor keys. There may be a more direct connection with J.S.
Bach in the strong possibility that the tablature version of the G minor Suite bwv995 (D-LEm
III.II.3) was arranged by Falckenhagen himself (see Schulze, 1983). The ornament signs and other
technical signs are the same as those used exclusively by Falckenhagen in his printed works and
found in a manuscript table of signs associated with his Bayreuth period (D-Ngm M274).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GerberL
GhlerV
64

NDB (K. Dorfmller)

WaltherML
H.-J. Schulze: Wer intavolierte Johann Sebastian Bachs Lauten-kompositionen?, Mf, xix (1966),
3648
H. Kner: Eine Augsburger Sammelhandschrift als Quelle zur Geschichte der Bayreuther Hofmusik, Archiv fr Geschichte von Oberfranken, xlix (Bayreuth, 1969), 10396
J. Doming: Der Lautenist Adam Falckenhagen, Laute und Guitarre, v (1983), 3228
H.-J.Schulze: Monsieur Schouster ein vergessener Zeitgenosse Johann Sebastian Bachs, Bachiana et alia musicologica: Festschrift Alfred Drr, ed. W. Rehm (Kassel, 1983), 24350

Kapsperger, Giovanni Girolamo [Giovanni Geronimo];

Kapsberger, Johann Hieronymus; [Il Tedesco della tiorba]
(b ?Venice, c1580; d Rome, Jan 1651). Italian composer, lutenist, theorbist and guitarist of German
descent. (He seems to have used the spelling Kapsperger rather than the Kapsberger favoured by
German scholars.) His father, Colonel Guglielmo Kapsperger, was a noble military ocial with the
Imperial House of Austria and may have settled in Venice. Kapsperger was in Rome soon after
1605, where through his reputation as a virtuoso and his status as a nobile alemano he moved in the
circles of powerful families such as the Bentivoglio and the Barberini. Other supporters in Rome
included the Orders of S Stefano and S Giovanni and the academies of the Umoristi and the Imperfetti whose members arranged for the publication of his works; the academies Kapsperger organized in his house were described as among the wonders of Rome. Around 1609 he married the
Neapolitan Gerolima di Rossi, by whom he had at least three children. In 1612 his Maggio Cantata,
dedicated to the Grand duchess Maria Maddalena, was performed in Florence at the Palazzo Pitti.
In 1622 his Apotheosis, on Jesuit themes, was performed at the Collegio Romano on the canonizations of the first two Jesuit saints, Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier; the most elaborate musical
production in Rome before the Barberini operas, it marked the period of Kapsperger's deepening
relationship with the papal circle. In 1624 his settings of verses by the newly-elected Pope Urban
VIII Barberini were published as Poematia et carmina, which G.B. Doni forwarded enthusiastically
to Mersenne. In the same year Kapsperger entered the service of Urban's nephew, Cardinal
Francesco Barberini, where for 30 years he worked alongside Frescobaldi, Luigi Rossi, Domenico
Mazzocchi, Stefano Landi and Doni, and collaborated with the poets Ottavio Tronsarelli, Giovanni
Ciampoli and Giulio Rospigliosi (the future Pope Clement IX). His son Filippo Bonifacio also
joined Francesco's household. Doni wrote that Kapsperger's music was often sung in the chamber
of His Holiness and in 1626 and 1627 his masses were performed in the Cappella Sistina at Urban's request. Later, Doni denounced Kapsperger for attempting to replace Palestrina's music with
his own at the Sistine Chapel, an allegation uncritically accepted by Hawkins and Ambros (and
eectively contaminating Kapsperger's later reputation); Baini, however, remained sceptical of
Doni's story and no such incident is documented, although other contemporary accounts describe
him as an extraordinary talent but opportunistic, unco-operative and vainglorious. Kapsperger
continued as a salaried member of Francesco's household until the death of Urban in 1644 and
the dissolution of Francesco's establishment in 1646. Curiously, only two of his works were printed
after 1633, when Allacci published an inventory of Kapsperger's music that included the titles of
many additional collections that he was preparing for publication. Kapsperger died in 1651 and
was buried in the church of St Blaise outside Rome.

65

Kapsperger was a prolific, highly original and often extraordinary composer and was seminal in
the development of the theorbo as a solo instrument. The theorbo collections contain virtuoso
toccatas, variations and dances (some for a 19-course instrument) that combine arpeggiated sections, unusual rhythmic groupings, broken-style figuration and slurred passages within an ornamented and highly syncopated context that has many parallels with the keyboard works of Frescobaldi. The 1640 book also contains an important preface regarding performance. The 1611 lute
book includes eight toccatas described by Gilbert as possibly the finest set of its kind in the Italian repertoire that employ more fluid textures proceeding almost spontaneously from suspended harmonies over long pedals to recitative-style passages, motivic sequences, short ricercare sections and dramatic bursts of scales. Among his other instrumental works are one of the few collections of instrumental ensemble dances of this period (1615) and the more canzona-like Sinfonie a
quattro of the same year, which feature solo-tutti contrasts, echo eects and multiple continuo
parts.
In his vocal music, Kapsperger explored the limits of both Baroque opulence and Counter-Reformation austerity. The Mottetti passeggiati and Arie passeggiate contain monodies (1612) and duets
(1623) with extensive (and sometimes exaggerated) written-out ornamentation. The larger Petrarch and Guarini settings stand out among the 1612 Arie (which are actually solo madrigals); the
1623 collection is less ornate, but more satisfying musically. The Mottetti suer from lengthy and
predictable florid passages but reflect aspects of current Roman taste and were influential in Germany. The Thomaskirche Kantor Tobias Michael acknowledged in his Musicalischer Seelen-Lust
(1637) that the art of Herr Kapsberger is very attractive to me, and I have followed him as much
as I was able. The madrigals of 1609 rely mainly on homorhythmic textures and reveal Kapsperger's awareness of current literary trends through his setting of Marino. But Kapsperger's most
engaging and popular secular works (as testified by concordant versions) are found among his seven books of villanellas, which use simple poetry, set mostly syllabically in contrasting sections of
duple and triple metre, often with attractive dance rhythms.
In the finely crafted Poematia et carmina (1624), Kapsperger's intense setting of Urban VIII's poetry
was lauded by Doni for its absence of aectations and its pure and simple melody. Similarly, the
lavishly staged Apotheosis (1622) sets a monological Latin text to a remarkably restrained declamatory style, occasionally relieved by triple-time choruses. This stylistic template is maintained in the
Christmas cantata I pastori di Bettelemme and the Litaniae Deiparae Virginis. The three Missae Urbanae,
dedicated to Urban VIII, and the Cantiones sacrae (1628) feature homorhythmic textures as well,
and in the case of the masses polychoral technique. Similar to the 1612 passeggiate collections but
displaying greater sensitivity to textual-musical relationships are the motets of Modulatus sacri diminutis (1630) which employ lavish embellishment and challenging rhythmic figures (e.g. Beata
Dei genitrix). Kapsperger's stage works, which include La vittoria del principe Vladislao in Valacchia
(1625), an opera about the Polish-Turkish war of 1621, are all lost, apart from the Apotheosis.
In a time of intense musical polemics, Kapsperger was praised by moderns and conservatives,
from the art collector Vincenzo Giustiniani and the world-traveller Pietro della Valle, to the neoclassic theorist G.B. Doni and the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher, who annointed him as the
successor to Monteverdi. The collective applause oered from individuals of such diverse backgrounds testifies to the wide stylistic breadth and uncommon invention of a composer whose
works are representative of early 17th-century Roman music.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AmbrosGM, iv
Grove6 (W. Witzenmann)

66

GroveO (V. Coelho)

L. Allacci: Apes urbanae, sive De viris illustribus (Rome, 1633), 15960
G.B. Doni: De praestantia musicae veteris libri tres (Florence, 1647/R), 4, 32
G. Baini: Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Rome, 1828/
R), 3539
P. Kast: Biographische Notizen ber Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger aus den Vorreden zu seinen
Werken, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, xl (1960), 20011
P. Kast: Biographische Notizen zu rmischen Musikern des 17. Jahrhunderts, AnMc, no.1 (1963),
3869, esp.478
P. Kast: Tracce monteverdiane e influssi romani nella musica sacra del Kapsberger, RIM, ii (1967),
28793
O. Wessely: Der Indice der Firma Franzini in Rom: Versuch einer Rekonstruktion, Beitrge zur Musikdokumentation: Franz Grasberger zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. G. Brosche (Tutzing, 1975), 43992
J. Forbes: The Non-Liturgical Vocal Music of Johannes Hieronymous Kapsberger (diss., U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1977)
V. Coelho: Frescobaldi and the Lute and Chitarrone Toccatas of Il Tedesco della tiorba, Frescobaldi Studies: Madison, WI, 1983, 13756
V. Coelho: G.G. Kapsberger in Rome, 16041645: New Biographical Data, JLSA, xvi (1983), 103
133
V. Coelho: Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger della tiorba e l'influenza liutistica sulle Toccate di Frescobaldi, Girolamo Frescobaldi: Ferrara 1983, 34157
O.C. Henriksen: Libro Primo di Sinfonie del Signor Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger: the Music and Application Possibilities of Lute Family Instruments (thesis, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basle, 1985)
A. and Z. Szweykowski: Un'opera ignota di G.G. Kapsperger in onore del Principe Vladislao Waza,
Studi in onore di Giuseppe Vecchi, ed. I. Cavallini (Modena, 1989), 22132
F. Hammond: Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Barberini Patronage under Urban VIII (New Haven,
1994)
E. Sala and F. Marincola: La musica nei drammi Geuisitici: il caso dell' Apotheosis sive Consecratio
Sanctorum Ignatii et Francisci Xaverii (1622), I Gesuiti e i primordi del teatro barocco in Europa, ed. M. Chiab and F. Doglio (Viterbo, 1995), 389440
V. Coelho: Kapsberger's Apotheosis of Francis Xavier (1622) and the Conquering of India, The
Work of Opera: Genre, Nationhood, and Sexual Dierence, ed. R. Dellamora and D. Fischlin (New York,
1997), 2747
Z.M. Szweykowski: Kapsperger: Successor to Monteverdi?, Claudio Monteverdi und die Folgen, ed. L.
Silke and J. Steinheuer (Kassel, 1998), 31125

Galilei, Michelagnolo [Michelangelo]

(b Florence, 18 Dec 1575; d Florence, 3 Jan 1631). Italian lutenist and composer, son of vincenzo
Galilei. His father destined him for a musical career at an early age. The young Michelagnolo wrote the dedicatory epistle of Vincenzo's Contrapunti a due voci (1584). He went to Poland, probably in
the service of the Radziwi family in 1593 and remained until 1606, having applied unsuccessfully
in 1599 for a post at Archduke Ferdinando de Medicis court in Florence. In 1607 he was appointed to the Hofkapelle of Duke Maximilian I in Munich, where he spent the rest of his life. His last
years were clouded by his disastrous relationship with his brother Galileo as well as by the
67

misconduct of his eldest son Vincenzo (b 1608), a talented lutenist. Of his eight children, Alberto
Cesare (b 1617) and Cosimo (b 1621) also followed their fathers example.
Galileis music, sought after even before his departure for Poland, was first published in the anthologies of Fuhrmann, Mertel, Besard and Mylius; its circulation seems to have been limited to
Southern German countries. Almost all his compositions appear in his first and only book for tencourse lute, engraved in French tablature. Galliards, correntes and voltas, generally provided with
varied repeats, are grouped by modes into 10 suites each preceded by a toccata; two passamezzos
with saltarellos complete the collection. Galileis works, in which tradition is wedded to modernity
(especially of dissonance treatment), express their authors elegance of invention, cosmopolitanism
of style and eminently poetic nature.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
K. Trautmann: Die Familie Galilei in Mnchen, Jb fr Mnchener Geschichte, iii (1889), 5534
A. Favaro, ed.: Le opere di Galileo Galilei (Florence, 192939), xxix
A. Einstein: Vincenzo Galilei and the Instructive Duo, ML, xviii (1937), 36068
D.A. Smith: Introduction to facs. of M. Galilei: Il primo libro dintavolatura di liuto (Munich, 1981)
C. Chauvel: Introduction to facs. of M. Galilei: Il primo libro dintavolatura di liuto (Geneva, 1988)
[incl. list of sources]

Piccinini, Alessandro
(b Bologna, 30 Dec 1566; d probably at Bologna, c1638). Italian lutenist, composer and writer on
music. His father, Leonardo Maria Piccinini, his brothers Girolamo and Filippo (see below) and
his son Leonardo Maria were all lutenists too. Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga summoned him to his
court at Mantua in 1582, but, because of commitments that his Father had entered into, he went
instead with his family to the Este court at Ferrara, where he and his brothers remained until the
death of Duke Alfonso II on 27 October 1597. He then entered the service of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, papal legate at Bologna and Ferrara, who died in 1621. He was a member of the Accademia dei Filomusi, Bologna. Three autograph letters from him survive (in I-MOs), one of 31 January 1595 to the Duke of Ferrara and two, of 2 June 1622 and 1 January 1623, to the Duke of Modena.
Piccinini published two volumes, Intavolatura di liuto, et di chitarrone, libro primo, nel quale si contengano
delluno, & dellaltro stromento arie, baletti, correnti, gagliarde, canzoni, & ricercate musicali, & altre dui, e tr
liuti concertati insieme; et una inscrittione davertimenti, che insegna la maniera, & il modo di ben sonare con
facilit i sudetti stromenti (Bologna, 1623: facs and edn. in AntMI, Monumenta bononiensis, ii, 1962)
and Intavolatura di liuto, nel quale si contengono toccate, ricercate musicali, corrente, gagliarde, chiaccone, e
passacagli alla vera spagnola, un bergamasco, con varie partite, una battaglia, & altri capricci (Bologna,
1639), which was seen through the press after his death by his son. The first of these volumes has a
particularly important preface in which he described a type of archlute that he claimed to have
developed and had made in Padua in 1594. While these claims have aroused scholarly controversy
(see in particular Kinsky, and MGG1), Piccininis claim to have invented the archlute the first extended-neck lute in the 1590s is plausible, although the extended-neck chitarrone (as a restrung
and retuned bass lute) predated his invention. Piccinini also made significant modifications to the
chitarrone and according to Giustiniani invented an instrument similar to the kithara of Apollo,
which he called a pandora and which was perhaps akin to the English poliphant (see Bandora). His
preface also includes a short but detailed manual on performance, which advances several interes 68

ting ideas: in imitative writing the theme must be played louder so that it stands out; a technique
of playing forte and piano (ondeggiato) should be adopted in pieces rich in dissonances, which
should be highlighted (as, according to him, they were at Naples); embellishments should be left to
the taste of the player, but the cadential gruppo should always be pronounced, its notes being given
equal value, and it should be completed as quickly as possible. Piccinini was a talented composer.
His toccatas, which are very varied in form and style, are specially rewarding. The dances have attractive melodies and varied, piquant rhythms; some of them are arranged in suites. Piccinini wrote the music (apparently lost) to La selva sin amore (libretto by Lope de Vega Carpio), the first opera
performed om Spain.
After working with him at the Ferrara court, Piccininis brothers both went abroad: Girolamo (b
Bologna; d Flanders, 1615) entered the service of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio and accompanied
him when he was appointed papal nuncio in Flanders, and Filippo (b Bologna; d Bologna, 1648)
worked at the Spanish court until about 1645, when he returned to Bologna; a two-part madrigal
by Filippo survives (RISM 161017).
See also Archlute; Chitarrone; Lute, 5, 6

BIBLIOGRAPHY
MGG1 (O. Mischiati, L.F. Tagliarini)
A. Banchieri: Discorso di Camillo Scaliggeri della Fratta (Bologna, 1626), 107f
V. Giustiniani: Discorso sopra la musica de suoi tempi (MS, 1628, I-La); pr. in A. Solerti: Le origini del
melodramma (Turin, 1903/R), 111, 124; Eng. trans., MSD, ix (1962), 6380
A. Masini: Bologna perlustrata (Bologna, 1650/R), 687
P. Canal: Della musica in Mantova (Venice, 1881/R), 37, 71
L.F. Valdrighi: Nomocheliurgografa antica e moderna (Modena, 1884/R), 174, 272
L. Frati: Liutisti e liutai a Bologna, RMI, xxvi (1919), 94111
G. Kinsky: Alessandro Piccinini und sein Arciliuto, AcM, x (1938), 10318
F. Vatielli: Lultimo liutista, RMI, xlii (1938), 46991
N. Fortune: Giustiniani on Instruments, GSJ, v (1952), 48
L. de Grandis: Famiglie di musicisti del 500. I Piccinini: vita col Liuto, NRMI, xvi (1982), 22632
O. Cristoforetti: Les Piccinini et l'volution organologique du luth la fin du XVIe sicle, Musique
Ancienne, no.19 (1985), 420
J. Dugot and M. Horvat, eds.: Piccinini: Avertimenti, 1623: Les Avertimenti, ou instructions prcdent l'Intavolatura de liuto et di chitarrone, libro primo, Musique Ancienne, no.19 (1985), 2139

Reusner [Reussner], Esaias (ii)

(b Lwenberg, Silesia [now Lwwek lski, Poland], 29 April 1636; d Clln, Berlin, 1 May 1679).
German composer and lutenist, son of esaias Reusner (i). He was taught the lute by his father and
became a child prodigy. About 1645, after the death of his mother, the family moved to Breslau,
where at about the age of 12 he entered the service of the Swedish general Count Wittenberg as a
page. He spent the next year in the household of the royal war commissioner, Mller. In 1651 he
was employed in Poland as a valet at the court of Princess Radziwi, where he became a pupil of
69

an unidentified French lutenist. He returned to Breslau in 1654 and in the following year became
lutenist to Georg III, Duke of Silesia, an appointment he retained until 1672. He then moved to
Leipzig, where he taught the lute for a year at the university. From 5 February 1674 until his death
he was a chamber musician at the court of the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg in Berlin. His two collections of suites for the lute, Delitiae testudinis and Neue Lauten-frchte, are important
as showing the first application of French lute style by a German composer and also as early documents in the development of the instrumental suite. They contain a total of 28 suites, varying in
number of movements from four to nine. Each suite is unified by a major or minor tonality. They
all include the basic structure of later dance suites, allemandecourantesarabandegigue. Most of
the longer suites begin with another dance, such as a paduana or ballo, or the characteristically
French improvisatory prelude, and many conclude with a dance other than the gigue. Reusners
influence was widely felt in Germany in the 17th century, and the style of his music established a
precedent evident in the works of subsequent lutenists such as Silvius Weiss.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Sparmann: Esaias Reusner und die Lauten-Suite (diss., Freie U. of Berlin, 1926)
F. Blume: Introduction to E. Reusner: Smtliche Suiten fr die Laute, i: Suite 1 bis 5 aus den Neuen Lautenfrchten (1676), ed. W. Gerwig (Wolfenbttel and Berlin, 1928)
K. Koletschka: Esaias Reussner der Jngerer und seine Bedeutung fr die deutsche Lautenmusik
des XVII. Jahrhunderts, SMw, xv (1928), 345
K. Koletschka: Esaias Reussner Vater und Sohn und ihre Choralbearbeitungen fr die Laute: eine
Parallele, Festschrift Adolph Koczirz, ed. R. Haar and J. Zuth (Vienna, 1930), 1417

Le Sage de Riche, Philipp Franz

(fl c1695). German lutenist and composer of French birth. In early sources he is stated to have
been a pupil of Charles Mouton. In 1695 he seems to have been in the service of Baron von Neidhardt in Breslau. He was an aristocrat and must have travelled in a number of countries, gaining a
broad knowledge of the lute repertory in Bohemia, Austria and France. One publication of his has
survived, Cabinet der Lauten, in welchem zu finden 12 neue Partien, aus unterschiedenen Tonen und neuesten
Manier so aniezo gebruchlich (n.p., n.d.; it must have appeared in Breslau and the copy formerly in
Riemanns possession bore the date 1695). It contains 98 pieces engraved in French lute tablature
and arranged in 12 suites. The preface mentions Dufaut, Mouton, Losy and Gaultier (though
which one is unspecified). The following types of piece occur: praeludium, allemande, courante,
sarabande, gigue, gavotte, minuet, bourre, chaconne, passacaglia, ouverture and rondeau (with
echo). One piece is attributed to Graf Logi [Losy]; presumably Le Sage de Riche composed all
the others himself. Surprisingly, he is seldom mentioned in manuscripts, but the sumptuous appearance of his volume bears witness to the outstanding esteem in which he was held.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T. Wortmann: Philipp Franz Le Sage de Riche und sein Cabinet der Lauten (diss., U. of Vienna, 1919)
W. Boetticher: Studien zur solistischen Lautenpraxis des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1943), 169
E. Pohlmann: Laute, Theorbe, Chitarrone (Bremen, 1968, rev., enlarged 5/1982)
E. Vogl: Loutnov hudba v echch [Lute music in Bohemia], asopis nrodnho musea, cxxxiii
(1964), 1120 [incl. Ger. summary]

70

Losy, Jan Antonn, Count of Losinthal [Logi, Loschi, Losymthal]

(b teke Castle, near Strakonice, c1650; d Prague, 9 Aug 2 Sept 1721). Bohemian lutenist and
composer. He was born into a wealthy family of Swiss origin; his father had settled in Prague in
the 1620s and was raised to the Bohemian nobility for his bravery during the defence of the city
against the Swedes in 1648. Losy studied at Prague University from 1661, taking the doctorate in
philosophy in 1668. After this he probably undertook the customary European tour; he is known
to have visited Italy, and he probably went to France and the Low Countries as well. He had a great
enthusiasm for French music, especially that of Lully, and also for the music of Fux. He played the
lute and violin in concerts at his palace in Prague. At the height of his fame (16967) he travelled
in the German lands and engaged in a friendly musical competition in Leipzig with Pantaleon
Hebenstreit and the Thomaskantor Johann Kuhnau, who subsequently dedicated to Losy his Frische Clavier Frchte (1696). Losy's son Adam Philipp (170581), who lived in Vienna and became
music director to the imperial court, was a competent double bass player in aristocratic orchestras.
Losy was the best-known and most respected lutenist in late 17th-century Prague, but his reputation extended far outside his own land. He was praised by Ernst Gottlieb Baron (Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten, 1727) and one of his courantes was printed in Le Sage de Riche's Cabinet der Lauten (1695). Silvius Leopold Weiss wrote a highly expressive tombeau in his honour. The real measure of his popularity is seen in the number and wide distribution of manuscripts containing his compositions, which also exist in arrangements for mandore, anglique and keyboard. Several manuscripts of compositions by him for guitar are probably
also arrangements. Losy adopted the traditional French style and genres, but he somewhat moderated the characteristic bris texture of Parisian lute music in favour of more distinct melody and
bass lines, probably influenced by contemporary Austrian composers. Vogl identified 100 or so
individual pieces, to which about 50 more may be added (see Crawford), although attributions are
rarely entirely reliable. A few pieces are grouped into suites or partitas, but Losy's intentions in this
regard remain unclear. About 60 pieces survive only in guitar tablature, most of which may be arrangements of lute originals.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Koczirz: sterreichische Lautenmusik zwischen 1650 und 1720, SMw, v (1918), 7485, 8893
J. Pohanka: Loutnov tabulatura z rajhradskho kltera [Lute tabulatures from the Rajhrad monastery], asopis Moravskho Musea, xl (1955), 193203
E. Vogl: Zur Biographie Losys, Mf, xiv (1961), 189192
E. Vogl: Johann Anton Losy: Lutenist of Prague, JLSA, xiii (1980), 5886
E. Vogl: The Lute Music of Johann Anton Losy, JLSA, xiv (1981), 558
T. Crawford: New Sources of the Music of Count Losy, JLSA, xv (1982), 5283

Bittner [Bithner, Bttner], Jacob [Jacques]

(fl 1680). Austro-Bohemian lutenist and composer. The few lines devoted to him in Baron's Untersuchung (1727) are misleading as regards his publications. His Pieces de lut (1682), engraved by G. de
Groos, then residing in Prague, and with a title-page by Karel Skreta, contains 53 technically demanding pieces for 11-course lute. The collection is dedicated to Johann Peter Pedroni, a wealthy
citizen and tradesman in Prague. The pieces are grouped into ten suites, generally following the
allemandecourantesarabandegigue pattern, each (except the second) preceded by a prlude non
mesur. French influence is evident, for example in the ornamentation, but the cantabile style of the
71

music, praised by Baron, reveals the aesthetic approach of the Germanic school initiated by Esaias
Reusner (ii).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E.G. Baron: Historisch-theoretisch und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg,
1727/R), 73
R.G. Kiesewetter: Die Tabulaturen der lteren Practiker seit der Einfhrung des Figural- und
Mensuralgesanges und des Contrapunctes, aus des Gesichtspuncte der Kungstgesichte betrachtet,
AMZ, xxxiii (1831), suppl.8
W.J. Rave: A Baroque Lute Tablature: Jacob Bittner Pieces de Lut, 1682 (diss., U. of Illinois, 1965)

Dufaut [Du Faut, Du Fault, Dufau], Franois

(b Bourges, before 1604; d ?London, before 1672). French lutenist and composer. According to Titon du Tillet he was a pupil of the Gaultiers. He was one of the most renowned lutenists of the
17th century. Ren Milleran (in his collection of lute music, c1690, F-Pn Rs.823) mentioned him
as one of the finest players of his day, ranking him with the Gaultiers, Gallots and Mouton. Nor
was this opinion confined to France, for in Germany both Baron and Le Sage de Riche (in his Cabinet der Lauten, 1695) referred to him as a model, while in England Mary Burwell's teacher praised
his very grave and learned playing. These tributes are confirmed by the large number of his compositions in over 90 lute manuscripts in France, England and the German lands.
Born into a well-to-do middle-class family in Bourges, he was established in Paris by 1629, when
he was described as bourgeois de Paris at his marriage to Marie Mongin, witnessed by his friend the
distinguished lute maker Edmond Hotman. Although he apparently never held a court appointment, his outstanding ability was recognized in 1631 by the inclusion of 13 of his pieces in the Tablature de Luth de dierens autheurs (published in Paris by the royal music printer Pierre Ballard) beside compositions by senior members of the court music such as Robert Ballard and Mesangeau.
He was again included in the Tablature of 1638 (10 pieces). Various Parisian documents mention
him up to 1642, the date of his second marriage, to Marie Hotman, perhaps the sister of Edmond.
Probably after 1652, the presumable date of his tombeau for the wealthy lutenist Blancrocher who
died that year, Dufaut moved to England, where the Civil War (16429) had caused French musicians at the English court to return to France, but where there was still a demand for French music. Of his patrons there we know only of Elizabeth Warwick, whom he taught, and whom Christiaan Huygens, visiting London in 1663, heard play excellent goet with her teacher. In 1671 Constantijn Huygens referred to Dufaut in the past tense.
In his music Dufaut used the new tunings introduced into French solo lute music in the 1620s and
30s, including the D minor tuning, which became standard from the 1640s. Of around 165 pieces
attributed to him (ed. A. Souris and M. Rollin, Paris, 1965, 2/1988; further source information in
Goy, Meyer and Rollin) the great majority are in the usual genres of the solo instrumental suite:
prlude non mesur (of which the Recherche in the 1631 Tablature is one of the earliest fully developed examples), allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. Few have the subtitles that later became
common in this repertory. While there is wit and charm in the lighter pieces, his most impressive
works are the weightier allemandes and pavanes. These have a rich chordal sonority, an unusual
consistency of part-writing, and a sophisticated contrapuntal craftsmanship which probably accounts for his appeal, particularly in the German area. Dufaut was a strong influence on Esajus
Reusner and the German lute school generally, and his works continued to be played in Germany
up to the middle of the 18th century.
72

BIBLIOGRAPHY
E.G. Baron: Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg,
1727/R; Eng. trans., 1976, as Study of the Lute)
E. Titon du Tillet: Le Parnasse franois (Paris, 1732/R)
W.J.A. Jonckbloet and J.P.N. Land, eds.: Correspondance et oeuvres musicales de Constantin Huygens
(Leiden, 1882)
L. de La Laurencie: Les luthistes (Paris, 1928)
T. Dart: Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book for the Lute, GSJ, xi (1958), 362
W.J. Rave: Some Manuscripts of French Lute Music 16301700 (diss., U. of Illinois, 1972)
D. Ledbetter: Harpsichord and Lute Music in Seventeenth-Century France (diss., U. of Oxford, 1985)
C. Goldberg: Stilisierung als kunstvermittelnder Prozess: Die franzsischen Tombeau-Stcke im 17. Jahrhundert (Laaber, 1987)
T. Crawford: Review of Oeuvres de Dufaut, EMc, xviii (1989), 2635
F.P. Goy, C. Meyer and M. Rollin, eds.: Sources manuscrites en tablature (Baden-Baden, 1991) [catalogue]

Baron, Ernst Gottlieb [Theofil]

(b Breslau, 17 Feb 1696; d Berlin, 12 April 1760). German lutenist, composer and writer on music.
Neither Barons life nor his works have as yet been fully explored by scholars. His father Michael
was a maker of gold lace and expected his son to follow in his footsteps. The younger Baron showed an inclination towards music in his youth, however, and later made it his profession. He first
studied the lute from about 1710 with a Bohemian named Kohott (not to be confused with the
later Karl von Kahaut). In Breslau he attended the Elisabeth Gymnasium, and from there went in
1715 to Leipzig, where he studied philosophy and law at the university for four years.
Much of the period from 1719 to 1728 was spent in travels from one small court to another. He
first visited Halle for a short period, then in quick succession Cthen, Schleiz, Saalfeld and Rudolstadt. He arrived in Jena in 1720 and remained for two years. Thereafter he travelled to Kassel,
Fulda, Wrzburg, Nuremberg and Regensburg, returning in 1727 to Nuremberg where his Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten, the work for which he is principally remembered, was published the same year. In 1728 he replaced the lutenist Meusel, who
had recently died, at Gotha and held the post for four years. With the death of the Duke of Gotha
he moved on to Eisenach. In 1737, after visits to Merseburg, Cthen and Zerbst, Baron joined the
musical ensemble of Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia. He was immediately granted permission
to go to Dresden to purchase a theorbo, and there met the highly esteemed lutenists S.L. Weiss and
Hofer. When Frederick became king in 1740, Baron continued to serve as theorbist in the much
expanded royal musical establishment. He remained at this post until his death.
Barons Untersuchung is a valuable though not always reliable source of information about lutenists
and lute playing in the late Baroque era, when the instrument was still widely cultivated in solo
and ensemble performance in Germany. The work is divided into two main parts. The first deals
with the history of the lute, and contains important references to contemporary players. The second is devoted to the practice of the instrument. Barons other writings, as yet incompletely studied, supplement the Untersuchung, and explore several other subjects.
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The few accessible examples of Barons compositions suggest that he cultivated a characteristic late
Baroque idiom in his suites, but moved in the direction of the galant style in his concertos. The latter are in fact trio sonatas in texture, cast in the three-movement form of the concerto.
WRITINGS
Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg, 1727/R; Eng.
trans., 1976, as Study of the Lute)
Herrn Barons Fortsetzung seiner in dem Waltherischen Lexico befindlichen Lebensumstnde, in
F.W. Marpurg: Historisch-kritische Beytrge zur Aufnahme der Musik, i (Berlin, 1755/R), 5446
Herrn Ernst Gottlieb Barons Beytrag zur historisch- theoretisch- und practischen Untersuchung
der Laute, ibid., ii (Berlin, 1756/R), 6583
Herrn Barons Abhandlung von dem Notensystem der Laute und der Theorbe, ibid., 11923
Herrn Barons zufllige Gedanken ber verschiedene musikalische Materien, ibid., 12444
Abriss einer Abhandlung von der Melodie: eine Materie der Zeit (Berlin, 1756)
Versuch ber das Schne (Altenburg, 1757) [trans. of Y.M. Andr: Essai sur le beau (1741)]; suppl. Des
Herrn Gresset Rede von dem uralten Adel und Nutzen der Musik im Jahr 1751 gehalten [trans. of Gresset:
Discours sur lharmonie], also pubd separately (Berlin, 1757)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GerberL
GerberNL
MGG1 (Boetticher)
WaltherML
J. Mattheson: Der neue gttingische, aber viel schlechter, als die alten lacedmonischen urtheilende Ephorus
(Hamburg, 1727), 10927
F.W. Marpurg: Legende einiger Musikheiligen (Cologne [recte Breslau], 1786), 15864
A. Koczirz: Verschollene neudeutsche Lautenisten, AMw, iii (1921), 27084
H. Neemann: Philipp Martin, ein vergessener Lautenist, ZMw, ix (19267), 54565
H.-P. Kosack: Geschichte der Laute und Lautenmusik in Preussen (Kassel, 1935)
D.A. Smith: Baron and Weiss contra Mattheson: in Defence of the Lute, JLSA, vi (1973), 4862
J. Klima: Ernst Gottlieb Baron, 16961760: Partiten aus den verschollenen Handschriften Berlin Mus. ms.
40633 und Knigsberg 3026: Themenverzeichnis (Enzersdorf, 1976)

Kropfgans [Kropgans, Kropfganss], Johann

(b Breslau [now Wrocaw], 14 Oct 1708; d c1771). German lutenist and composer. He probably received his earliest lessons from his father, also called Johann (b Neustadt an der Orla, 12 Sept 1668;
d after 1731), who had studied with the eminent lutenists Le Sage de Riche and S.L. Weiss and
was active as a lutenist and merchant in Breslau. The younger Johanns brother Johann Gottfried (b
Breslau, 17 Dec 1714) was also a lutenist and composer, and it is possible that, with such similar
names, biographies of the three musicians have been somewhat confused. Johanns sister Johanna
Eleonora (b Breslau, 5 Nov 1710) also played the lute.

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By 1732 Kropfgans had impressed J.G. Walther with his ability to extemporize, play thoroughbass,
transpose and compose for his instrument. Soon after 1735 he became, like his father, a pupil of
Weiss when he joined the private Kapelle of the Saxon chief minister, Count Heinrich von Brhl.
In 1737 he visited Berlin and in summer 1739 joined Weiss and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach to visit
J.S. Bach in Leipzig, where, according to the report of a family member, there was extra-special
music during their four-week stay. After Brhls death in 1763 Kropfgans moved to Leipzig, where
he was active as a freelance musician and member of J.A. Hillers Grosses Concert, performing regularly in concerts until 1769. It is said that he displayed on these occasions his fluency in accompanying recitative on the theorbo and with his instrument was much in demand for all operas and
oratorios.
Kropfganss music for his instrument was extensive, to judge from that listed in various Breitkopf
catalogues, but only a tiny proportion has survived. The extant solo works are mostly minuets or
character pieces in a light, galant style, possibly intended for amateurs. The chamber music is notable for the independence of some of the cello parts. Kropfgans seems also to have made something
of a speciality of arranging vocal music for the lute; three of the four sets of Hiller operetta arrangements listed in Breitkopf s catalogues were probably his work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
EitnerQ
GerberL
WaltherML
E.G. Baron: Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg,
1727/R; Eng. trans., 1976)
J.A. Hiller: Lebensbeschreibung berhmter Musikgelehrten und Tonknstler neurer Zeit, i (Leipzig, 1784),
70
C.J.A. Homan: Die Tonknstler Schlesiens (Breslau, 1830), 269
T. Crawford: Haydns Music for Lute, Le luth et sa musique II: Tours 1980, 6985
T. Crawford: Contemporary Lute Arrangements of Hasses Vocal and Instrumental Music, Johann
Adolf Hasse und Polen: Warsaw 1993, 7395

Lauensteiner, Wol Jacob

(b Steyr, bap. 28 April 1676; d Munich, 26 March 1754). Austrian lutenist. He was the son of Wol
Jacob Lauensteiner, towerkeeper in Steyr, and Anna Susanna Wererin. By 1709 he had settled in
Graz as a lutenist. From 1712 he was a valet and lutenist in the service of the Bavarian court, and
was in the service of the Bavarian princes during their internment in Graz; he taught them the
lute and other instruments. In 1715 he went with the prince's retinue to Munich, entering the private service of the prince, Duke Ferdinand; as valet he accompanied his master in the field and on
his travels. In 1739, on the duke's death, he was granted a pension. For his services to the electoral
House of Bavaria Duke Clemens August, Archbishop of Cologne, appointed him chamber counsellor (Hofkammerrat).
Lauensteiner's works include several ensemble concertos in suite or partita form. His music as a
whole is highly idiomatic for the lute, in a style uniting traditional French forms, textures and ornaments with a tendency towards italianate cantabile melody over a supporting bass line. In this
his pieces, of which over 100 movements survive, come close to those of S.L. Weiss, to whom his

75

music is frequently misattributed in manuscript sources a measure of its high quality in the estimation of his contemporaries.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BrookB
GerberL
E.G. Baron: Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nuremberg,
1727/R; Eng. trans., 1976)
H. Federhofer: Die Grazer Stadtpfarrmatrikeln als musikgeschichtliche Quelle, Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereines fr Steiermark, xlv (1954), 15868, esp. 163
R. Flotzinger: Rochus Berhandtzky und Wol Jacob Lauensteiner. Zum Leben und Schaen
zweier Lautenisten in kurbayerischen Diensten, SMw, xxvii (1966), 20040

Mace, Thomas
(b ?Cambridge or York, 1612/13; d ?Cambridge, ?1706). English lutenist, singer, composer and writer. He must have been born in either 1612 or 1613 since the title-page of his pamphlet Riddles,
Mervels and Rarities, or A New Way of Health, from an Old Mans Experience (Cambridge, 1698) describes
him as being now in the Eighty Six Year of his Age; branches of the Mace family lived in Cambridge and York. As a boy he was probably a chorister. On 10 August 1635 he was appointed a singing-man in the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge. Royalist sympathies no doubt caused him to
leave Cambridge during the Civil War; in 1644 he witnessed the siege of York. But he is known to
have given singing lessons in Cambridge in May 1647.
He lived through the plague in Cambridge in 16656 and afterwards is known to have left there
on only two occasions: for a visit to London in 1676 to arrange for the publication of Musicks Monument and, at the age of 77, presumably in 1690, when he went to London again for four months
to sell instruments and music books which his increasing deafness made less useful to him. In the
Riddles he still described himself as Healthful, Lively, Active and Brisk. On 17 April 1706 a singing-mans place was voided by Mr Mace at Trinity College: though other Maces were associated
with the choir this possibly refers to Thomas following his death.
As well as the Riddles, Mace wrote (in 1675) another non-musical work, a discourse concerning the
highways of England called Profit, Conveniency and Pleasure to the Whole Nation. But it is for Musicks
Monument that he principally deserves to be remembered. The quaintness of his English style, with
its multiple adjectives and his predilection for expressing himself in execrable verse, has sometimes caused it to be read for the wrong reasons. It is in fact an important source of information on
a wide range of musical activity in England during the second and third quarters of the 17th century. The book is divided into three sections, on church music, lute music, and viol music and music in general (see illustration).
Mace was a conservative. He believed that church music had reached perfection early in the century, and distrusted and disliked the extrovert qualities of the French style that began to find increasing favour at the Restoration and to oust more traditional forms of English instrumental music.
Musicks Monument, which he wrote between 1671 and 1675, is in fact a defence of the English tradition and an attempt to recover its values by showing how the decline in the standards of performance of parochial and cathedral music might be reversed.

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Maces primary aim in the second and longest section of the book is explained in its title, The Lute
made Easie. It is a complete handbook for the instrument, including important information on
practical matters such as stringing, fretting and removing the belly, along with a guide for the
complete beginner working systematically through the basis of technique. It contains suites in C,
F, A minor, D minor, G, E minor and B minor in the French flat tuning, and a supplementary D
minor suite in D minor tuning, the so-called New Tuning; because, as Mace said with some sarcasm, I suppose, you may love to be in Fashion. Throughout his book Mace was at once both oldfashioned and innovatory. He wrote for a 12-course lute, the instrument made popular by Jacques
Gaultier in the 1620s and 30s, and the basic style of his pieces is that of the Caroline period. He
aimed to draw together the best of this Anglo-French style and updated it by the addition to the
suites of such forms as the old galliard and the new Tattle de Moy of his own invention, thereby
putting the instrument on a new footing. His suites are unified sets of pieces with more in common than merely key and tuning. Indeed, Mace may well have been the first person to have written suites for the lute with a prescribed number of movements to be played in a certain order. He
stressed that the movements of a suite ought to be something a Kin or to have some kind of
Resemblance in their Conceits, Natures, or Humours and should all be in the same key. In a concert there should be a smooth transition between the tonalities of successive items, and to this end
he provided modulating interludes for the lute.
Mace was one of the few 17th-century musicians who attempted to convey the importance and
nature of the aective aspect of his music. In learning a piece the pupil is to consider its fugue
(generally the opening theme), form (the shape of the lesson) and humour (its projected aect).
Having decided on the humour, the principal means available to the player to achieve it are ornamentation, which Mace describes in detail, variation in dynamics and tempo, and the judicious
selection of pauses. Mace gives an account of continuo playing on the theorbo, then the primary
instrument for the accompaniment of vocal music and also much used in consort music. His theorbo is a 13-course double-strung instrument with a re-entrant top course (tuning: G', A', B', C, D,
E, F, G, c, f, a, d', g), described by James Talbot as an English Theorbo and dierent in many respects to continental instruments, but probably the norm in England at this time.
The third section of the book gives a condensed account of viol technique and a small amount of
music. He promised more such music for the viol and probably wrote the 15 manuscript pieces to
fulfil his pledge. This section also covers music in general and includes much useful information
on consort practice in the Caroline and Commonwealth periods, with hints on the use of organ
and harpsicord in consort music. Mace had a particular dislike of Squaling-Scoulding-Fiddles,
though he did allow that violins could responsibly be used if balanced by Lusty Full-Scizd Theorboes. He usefully describes the musical qualities associated with various kinds of instrumental ayre in his day, their proper speeds and manner of notation.
Mace was of an inventive turn of mind and Musicks Monument describes a table organ which he
developed. Approaching 60 and suering from increased deafness such that he could not hear his
own lute, he constructed the quixotic Dyphone: or Double-Lute, The Lute of Fifty Strings, a lute
and theorbo combined in one instrument that was loud enough for him to hear. His plans for a
music room, apparently never constructed, show his interest in acoustic problems as well as an
awareness that proper accommodation would have to be found for the type of public concerts
which had gradually come into existence during his lifetime. Maces tragedy was that by 1676 the
lutes decline in popular esteem was irreversible. Few people probably ever used his book as an instruction method for the lute and many copies remained unsold in 1690.

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WRITINGS
only those on or containing music
Musicks Monument, or A Remembrancer of the Best Practical Musick (London, 1676); facs. with commentary and transcr. by J. Jacquot and A. Souris (Paris, 1958/R)
Riddles, Mervels and Rarities, or A New Way of Health, from an Old Mans Experience (Cambridge, 1698)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BurneyH
HawkinsH
H. Watson: Thomas Mace: the Man, the Book, and the Instruments, PMA, xxxv (19089), 87107
D. Gill: The Lute and Musicks Monument, GSJ, iii (1950), 911
R.M. Thackeray: Thomas Mace, MT, xcii (1951), 3067
J. Jacquot: Musicks Monument de T. Mace et lvolution du got musical en Angleterre, RdM, xxxi
(1952), 217
E.D. Mackerness: Thomas Mace: Additions to a Biography, MMR, lxxxiii (1953), 439
E.D. Mackerness: Thomas Mace and the Fact of Reasonableness, MMR, lxxxv (1955), 21117, 235
40
J. Jacquot: Thomas Mace et la vie musicale de son temps, Festschrift fr Ernst Hermann Meyer, ed. G.
Knepler (Leipzig, 1973), 21522
G.G. Butler: The Projection of Aect in Baroque Dance Music, EMc, xii (1984), 201-07
M. Spring: The Lute in England and Scotland after the Golden Age 16201750 (diss., U. of Oxford, 1987)
M. Spring: Solo Music for Tablature Instruments, Music in Britain: the Seventeenth Century, ed. I.
Spink (Oxford, 1992), 367405, esp. 396

Gaultier [Gautier, Gaulthier], Denis

(b Paris, 1597 or 1603; d Paris, 1672). French composer and lutenist. To distinguish him from his
cousin, ennemond Gaultier, he was often referred to as Gaultier le jeune; he was also known as
Gaultier de Paris. He was a pupil of Charles Racquet, on whose death he wrote a tombeau. Married
in 1635 to Franoise Daucourt, he had one son, Philippe Emmanuel, who became adviser to the
king. Unlike Ennemond, he held no ocial court appointment, despite the high esteem in which
he was held by the king and certain of his musicians. He practised his art in the city of Paris and
in the salons, including that of Ninon de LEnclos. Until 1631, when Ennemond left Paris, his career was so closely linked with his cousins that writers of the time refer to them without attempting to distinguish between them. Both had dealings with Blancrocher and LEnclos and enjoyed a
fame at least equal to that of the lutenists Dufaut, Dubut le pre, Jacques Gallot and Charles
Mouton, who were influenced by them and with whom they were united in expressions of general
admiration.
Denis and Ennemond Gaultier are also confused in many French and foreign printed and manuscript collections of lute music; a number of pieces are signed simply with the surname. Moreover,
it is sometimes impossible to be certain about the authorship of pieces attributed to Vieux Gaultier, Denis Gaultier, Gaultier de Paris or Gaultier le jeune since the same pieces are sometimes
ascribed to both in dierent collections. La rhtorique des dieux and Pices de luth sur trois direns mo 78

des nouveaux, which according to the title-pages consist only of works by Denis Gaultier, include
pieces attributed elsewhere to Ennemond. The Livre de tablature, which Denis Gaultier began and
which was completed after his death by his pupil Montarcis, does however contain an almost equal
number of pieces clearly attributed either to Denis or to Ennemond.
Pices de luth (c1669) and the Livre de tablature (c1672) both begin with brief instructions on how to
play the lute. La rhtorique des dieux (c1652), a sumptuous manuscript compiled under the patronage of Anne de Chambr, is divided into 12 parts, each named after one of the Greek modes, and is
illustrated with engravings after Le Sueur, Abraham Bosse and Robert de Nanteuil. His output
(and that of Ennemond too), which was originally entirely for lute, comprises principally dances,
some of which are indicated by subtitles selected from mythology. The two composers developed
the tombeau, which in fact they pioneered in lute music. Their use of tonality is often more adventurous than that of their predecessors. Froberger was one of several composers of keyboard music
who found inspiration in the style of their music, not least the textures; some compositions by the
Gaultiers indeed were transcribed for harpsichord in the 17th century. Perrine also used pieces by
them when he experimented about 1680 with the writing of lute music in sta notation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
O. Fleischer: Denis Gaultier, VMw, ii (1886), 1180
E.W. Hfner: Die Lautenstcke des Denis Gaultier (Endingen, 1939)
M. Rollin and F.P. Goy, eds.: Oeuvres de Denis Gautier (Paris, 1996)

Gaultier [Gautier, Gaulthier], Ennemond

(b Villette, Dauphin, 1575; d Nves, nr Villette, 11 Dec 1651). French composer and lutenist. To
distinguish him from his cousin denis Gaultier, he was often referred to as le vieux Gaultier; he
was also known as Gaultier de Lyon (Lyon is the nearest important city to his birthplace). He was
page to the Duchess of Montmorency in Languedoc. He then served as valet de chambre to Henri
IVs queen (the former Maria de Medici) from the beginning of her reign in 1600 until her exile
in 1631. During these years he won fame at court as a lutenist and teacher of the lute; about 1630
he was sent to England, where he played before Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria and the Duke of
Buckingham. He retired to Dauphin in 1631: presumably this is why none of his works, which
were widely admired, were published during his lifetime.
Lack of publication is one of the factors that have made it so dicult to separate Ennemond Gaultiers music (all originally for lute) from that of his cousin Denis, with whom he was so closely
identified: the question is discussed more fully in the article on Denis Gaultier, as is the nature of
their music. They were the most important French lutenists of the 17th century, and their works
are the most significant French contribution to the lute music of the period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Brenet: Notes sur lhistoire du luth en France, RMI, v (1898), 63776; vi (1899), 144; pubd separately (Turin, 1899/R)
J. Ecorcheville: Le luth et sa musique, BSIM, iv (1908), 13164
L. de La Laurencie: Les luthistes (Paris, 1928)
M. Rollin: Introduction to Oeuvres du Vieux Gautier, ed. A. Souris and M. Rollin, CM and Corpus des
luthistes franais, unnumbered vol. (Paris, 1966, 2/1980)

79