The Lute Take a look at the picture on the next page. is projected through a sound hole. In the lute, this The instrument you see there belongs to a very old sound hole is not just an ordinary hole, but rather an and very broad instrument family. This instrument is ornately carved pattern in the wood. a lute, and various relatives of the lute can be found The player produces different pitches by in different cultures all over the world. The lute has changing the length of the string. Look closely at the relatives in Asian countries, Middle Eastern picture, and you’ll see narrow bands at countries, African countries, and in countries of regular intervals along the neck. These are North and South America. frets. When a player wants to produce a The lute is a very old instrument. The oldest certain pitch, he presses down on the string, using image we have of one was made in Mesopotamia, the fret as a guide. By pressing down on the string, (today Iraq) in 2500 B.C. That’s over 4,000 years the player shortens it. The shorter the string, the ago! The instrument shown in that carving has higher the note. the same basic shape as the one you see in our The lute can have many strings, usually strung photograph. Still, there are differences in pairs, called “courses.” In fact, the lute in our between them. And, that’s one of the most picture is an eight-course lute, which has 15 interesting things about lutes; they are not strings. (The highest string usually doesn’t have a only beautiful, their construction tells us partner.) Normally, the two strings of a course are about how they work, and how people tuned to the same pitch. But sometimes, they are play them. tuned in octaves. They are plucked together to The lute that we are most familiar with increase the volume of the instrument. was very popular in Europe between 1450 and 1800. The lute didn’t always have this many strings. It developed from a Middle Eastern instrument When the oud made its way to Europe, it had four called the “oud” (rhymes with “food”). The word oud courses and was played with a pick or quill called a means “the wood” in Arabic, referring to the plectrum. As the lute increased in popularity, luthiers material used to make the instrument. (Other lute wanted to create instruments that could do more. relatives were made partially out of animal skin.) They started adding courses to increase the range of The oud was probably brought to Europe by the their instruments and to make some fingerings easier. Moors, an Arabic culture from North Africa that Luthiers also varied the size of the instruments, occupied Spain in the Middle Ages. However, the giving players an even broader range. oud was, and still is, a very popular instrument in the Not only did the construction of the lute Middle East. So, it could have been brought to change, the playing style changed as well. Musicians Europe along many different routes. People at that abandoned the plectrum (the pick) and started time were traveling back and forth between the plucking the strings with their fingers. Because they regions, going on crusades or conducting trade. could play with many fingers instead of just one So, you think that our lute looks a little like plectrum, players found that they could produce a guitar? You’re right, it does. After all, the lute even more complex melodies. and the guitar are related. Lutes are hollow It’s no wonder that the lute became such a instruments with short necks and strings. But popular instrument for both amateurs and unlike the guitar, the body of the lute is professional players during the 16th and 17th rounded, like half a pear or an egg. If you look centuries. Lutes were sometimes played as solo closely at the picture, you’ll notice that the instruments or in ensembles or groups. They back of the lute is not formed by one solid could also accompany singers or provide music piece of wood, but rather by strips placed for dancers. A great deal of lute music was side-by-side. This process makes it possible for written during the 16th and first half of the 17th the luthier (a person who make lutes) to form the centuries, and composers even developed a unique back into a bowl. This shape is very strong and way to write lute music called a tablature. produces a unique sound. In time, other instruments surpassed the lute in The strings are held tight by pegs in the lute’s popularity, and composers stopped writing as much very distinctive pegbox. The pegbox is bent back to for this interesting instrument. But the lute still almost a 90º angle from the fingerboard. This bend remains an important part of music history. Various helps keep the tension on the strings and keeps the lute societies around the world still maintain the art lute in tune. of making and playing these beautiful instruments. As with many stringed instruments, such as the And, in different countries around the world, you guitar, autoharp, or banjo, the lute player produces will see many relatives of the lute, each reflecting sound by plucking the strings. The vibration of the the particular culture and musical environment in string is amplified by the hollow body, and the sound which it developed. © 2008 Plank Road Publishing, Inc. • All Rights Reserved .