Lute

Lute (Arab. El Oud), an obsolete stringed instrument, which three hundred years ago was as popular as is the piano to-day. It was introduced into Europe by the Arabians, from whose language it derives its name. The Arabian lute was made of twenty-one pieces of maple-wood, with a flat face, a round back, and three rosettes in the face. The strings were eight in number, and were tuned in pairs. The date of its introduction and dissemination through Europe is shortly after the conquest of Spain by the Arabians. The European lute possessed originally eight strings. This number was not increased for many centuries. Three new strings were then added, bringing up the number to eleven: of these two were tuned alike, and the odd one, which was also the highest, was called chanterelle. The need of accommodating the lute to the chromatic scale procured the addition of thirteen new strings, until in the 17th century the total of twenty-four was reached, beyond which number the augmentation did not continue. At that date the lute commonly in use in Europe consisted of a table of fir or pine; a body or belly, composed of convex ribs of pine; a neck, or fingerboard, of hard wood, on which were frets, consisting of catgut strings fastened tightly round the neck; a head, on which were placed the pegs or screws that tightened or relaxed the strings in tuning; and a bridge, to which the strings were attached at one end, the other end being fastened to a piece of ivory, between the head and neck. Of the twenty-four strings twelve ran over the fingerboard and twelve by the side of it. The performer used his left hand to press the frets, and struck the strings with his right. There were many varieties of the lute; the treble lute was the smallest, the bass lute the largest. The theorbo was a double-necked lute, of which the archlute and the chitarrone were two subordinate varieties. A peculiar description of notation, called tablature, was employed in music written for the lute. The strings were represented by parallel lines, on which were placed letters of the alphabet, referring to the frets: thus, A, marked that the string was to be struck open; B, that the first fret was to be pressed; C, the second, and so on. Over the lines were placed crotchets, quavers, &c., which denoted the lengths of the various notes. The Arabian lute is still extant in the East, of a form nearly identical with that described. The European lute survives only in the guitar and similar instruments. The lute is represented on the sculptures of the Egyptian tombs, so that the antiquity of the instrument is immense. For the European lute, see Becker's Haushausmusik in Deutschland (1840); for the Arabian lute, Rowbotham's History of Music, vol. iii. (1887).