Although types of lute can be found in many societies, both ancient and modern, the structure and indeed name of the Renaissance lute derived from an Arabic instrument, al-ud (‘the ud’). Like the Western Renaissance lute, the ud consisted of a large curved soundbox, a short neck ending in a peg box and a series of ...
The Renaissance lute had a flat front and a rounded back made out of a series of curved strips of wood (usually yew or sycamore) fitted together. At the centre of the front was the soundhole, called the ‘rose’, which was round and intricately decorated. The instrument’s neck was glued and nailed to the top block of the body, ...
as ‘any chordophone having a neck that serves as string bearer, with the plane of the strings running parallel to that of the soundboard’. In other words, the lute is a soundbox with a neck sticking out. The strings of some are plucked, some are bowed. The Western Lute The lute family consists of a large group of ...
strain on the neck of tensioning an extra set of strings was offset by setting it back at an angle where the lower peg box sat. This version of the lute developed in the 1590s and was used both as a solo instrument and in a continuo role throughout the seventeenth century. Styles & Forms | Renaissance | Classical Instruments | ...
century, the viol family was developed like this, consisting of treble, tenor and bass viol, as were the violin family, the recorder family, the lute family and the crumhorn family. Cornetts, shawms, trombones and flutes also came in different sizes. Besides consort instruments, there were a few others that could be used as ...
The cittern was a plucked stringed instrument of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was strung with wire and played not with the right fingers but by using a quill plectrum, rather like the cittole and gittern of the medieval era. The body was flat both back and front, with a pear-shaped face. The fingerboard lay on the front ...
instrument’s importance in bluegrass music. More recently it made a return to mainstream country in The Dixie Chicks’ lineup, as played by Emily Robinson. Mandolin An off-shoot of the lute, the mandolin assumed its present-day eight-string form in early eighteenth-century Italy. The Gibson Guitar Company’s early 1920s introduction of the F-series mandolin, with its enhanced tone and volume ...
strings, which are normally tuned to a perfect fifth apart – one feature that is significantly different from western fiddles. The zhuihu or zhuiqin is descended from the Chinese lute sanxian, with the strings stopped by being pressed down on a flat fingerboard on its neck. Japan’s four-stringed kokyu is likewise a bowed version of that country’s lute, ...
seem to have switched over to an instrument with six courses (six or 12 strings), which remains the standard guitar configuration. The instrument at this time became less like the lute and makers invariably built guitars with flat, rather than curved, backs. Tuning varied, but seems to have been in a pattern of thirds between the middle courses ...
into the body, functioning as sound holes. The vihuela was a fretted instrument, using 10 lengths of gut tied around the neck to stop the string. Like the lute, the six courses followed the tuning pattern of fourth–fourth–major third–fourth–fourth. It is not clear why the vihuela gained such popularity in Renaissance Spain at a time when the rest ...
century, however, it had fallen out of favour in spite of its capacity to play not only harp but also piano repertoire. Introduction | Stringed Instruments Instruments | Lute | Stringed ...
In one form or another, the harpsichord ruled the domestic keyboard roost throughout Europe – and later in America – from the late-sixteenth to the early-nineteenth centuries. Apart from the organ, it was the grandest and most versatile of all keyboard instruments until the advent of the mature fortepiano in the mid- to late-eighteenth century. Rise and Fall of ...
zither is part of a group of instruments which are linked by the fact that sets of strings run parallel to their main body, and that – unlike the lute, lyre or harp – they can still be played even without a resonating device. In the concept’s least advanced state, native instruments exist which are little more than ...
the epicentre of its current renaissance. Its key mechanism is broadly similar to that of a nyckelharpa, but it is bowed by a rosined wheel, rotating within the lute or guitar-shaped soundbox, driven by a handle inserted where a guitar’s endpin would be. Designs vary widely, but all have melody and drone strings, and sometimes sympathetic ...
teardrop shaped, plucked stringed instrument. Its most famous form is the Neopolitan mandolin, beloved of all romantics for its use on Venetian gondolas. It is descended from the lute and, since its rejuvenation in the nineteenth century, has remained a popular and versatile instrument. Mandola The mandolin developed from the Italian mandola. The mandola and its French ...
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