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== History and evolution of the lute == {{see also|Lyre|History of lute-family instruments}} ===First lutes=== {{multiple image |caption_align=center |header_align=center | align = right |total_width= 400 | image1 = Egyptian lute players 001.jpg | caption1 = [[Ancient Egyptian]] tomb painting depicting players with long-necked lutes, [[18th Dynasty]] (c. [[1350 BC]]). | image2 =Indo-GreekBanquet.JPG | caption2 = Hellenistic banquet scene from 1st century A.D., [[Hadda, Afghanistan|Hadda]], [[Gandhara]]. Lute player with short-necked lute, far right. }} {{multiple image |caption_align=center |header_align=center | align = right |total_width= 400 | image1 = Clevelandart 1980.15.jpg | caption1 = Lute in Pakistan, Gandhara, probably Butkara in Swat, Kushan Period (1st century-320) | image2 =Gandhara Lute, Pakistan, Swat Valley, Gandhara region, 4th-5th century.jpg | caption2 = Gandhara Lute, Pakistan, Swat Valley, Gandhara region, 4th-5th century }} [[Curt Sachs]] defined ''lute'' in the terminology section of ''The History of Musical Instruments''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1914 |title=The history of Musical Instruments |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/guruguha/MusicResearchLibrary/Books-English/BkE-CurtSachs-TheHistoryofMusicalInstruments-1940-0015.pdf |website=The Public's Library and Digital Archive}}</ref> as "composed of a body, and of a neck which serves both as a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body".<ref name=sachsshortlong>{{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1940 |title=The History of Musical Instruments |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach|url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach/page/464 464] |isbn=9780393020687 }}</ref> His definition focused on body and neck characteristics and not on the way the strings were sounded, so the fiddle counted as a "bowed lute".<ref name=sachsshortlong/> Sachs also distinguished between the "long-necked lute" and the short-necked variety.<ref name=sachsshortlong/> The short-necked variety contained most of our modern instruments, "lutes, [[guitar]]s, [[Hurdy-gurdy|hurdy-gurdies]] and the entire family of [[viol]]s and violins".<ref name=sachsshortlong/> The long lutes were the more ancient lutes; the "[[Arabic musical instruments|Arabic]] [[tanbur|tanbūr ]]... faithfully preserved the outer appearance of the ancient lutes of [[Babylonia]] and [[Music of Egypt|Egypt]]".<ref name="sachslong">{{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1940 |title=The History of Musical Instruments |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach|url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach/page/255 255–257] |isbn=9780393020687 }}</ref> He further categorized long lutes with a "pierced lute" and "long neck lute".<ref name="sachsshortlong" /> The ''pierced lute'' had a neck made from a stick that pierced the body (as in the [[ancient Egypt]]ian long-neck lutes, and the modern African gunbrī<ref>{{Cite web |title=ATLAS of Plucked Instruments |url=https://www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com/ |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com}}</ref>).<ref name="sachsegypt">{{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1940 |title=The History of Musical Instruments |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach|url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach/page/102 102–103] |isbn=9780393020687 }}</ref> The ''long lute'' had an attached neck, and included the [[sitar]], [[tanbur]] and [[Tar (string instrument)|tar]]: the [[dutar|dutār]] had two strings, [[setar|setār]] three strings, čārtār four strings, pančtār five strings.<ref name="sachsshortlong" /><ref name="sachslong" /> Sachs's book is from 1941, and the [[Archaeology|archaeological]] evidence available to him placed the early lutes at about 2000 BC.<ref name=sachsealiest>{{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1940 |title=The History of Musical Instruments |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach|url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach/page/82 82–83] |isbn=9780393020687 }}</ref> Discoveries since then have pushed the existence of the lute back to {{circa|3100 BC}}.<ref name=Dumbrillp321>{{harvnb|Dumbrill|1998|p=321}}</ref> [[Musicology|Musicologist]] [[Richard Dumbrill (musicologist)|Richard Dumbrill]] today uses the word lute more categorically to discuss instruments that existed millennia before the term "lute" was coined.<ref name=dumbrill1>{{harvnb|Dumbrill|2005|pp=305–310}}. "The long-necked lute would have stemmed from the bow-harp and eventually became the tunbur; and the fat-bodied smaller lute would have evolved into the modern Oud ... the lute pre-dated the lyre which can therefore be considered as a development of the lute, rather than the contrary, as had been thought until quite recently ... Thus the lute not only dates but also locates the transition from musical protoliteracy to musical literacy ..."</ref> Dumbrill documented more than 3,000 years of [[Iconology|iconographic]] evidence of the lutes in Mesopotamia, in his book ''The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East''. According to Dumbrill, the lute family included instruments in [[Mesopotamia]] before 3000 BC.<ref name=Dumbrillp321/> He points to a [[cylinder seal]] as evidence; dating from about 3100 BC or earlier and now in the possession of the [[British Museum]], the seal depicts on one side what is thought to be a woman playing a stick "lute".<ref name="Dumbrillp321"/><ref name=Britishmuseum>{{cite web |url= https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1447477&partId=1&people=24615&peoA=24615-3-17&page=1 |website=British Museum |title=Cylinder Seal}} Culture/period Uruk, Date c. 3100 BC, Museum number 41632.</ref> Like Sachs, Dumbrill saw length as distinguishing lutes, dividing the Mesopotamian lutes into a long variety and a short.<ref name=Dumbrillp310>{{harvnb|Dumbrill|1998|p=310}}</ref> His book does not cover the shorter instruments that became the European lute, beyond showing examples of shorter lutes in the ancient world. He focuses on the longer lutes of Mesopotamia, various types of necked chordophones that developed throughout the ancient world: [[India|Indian]] ([[Gandhara]] and others), [[ancient Greece|Greek]], [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] (in the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]]), [[History of Iran|Iranian]] ([[Elam]]ite and others), [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Jewish/Israelite]], [[Hittites|Hittite]], [[Ancient Rome|Roman]], [[Bulgars|Bulgar]], [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]], [[China|Chinese]], [[Armenian people|Armenian]]/[[Cilician]] cultures. He names among the long lutes, the [[pandura]] and the [[tanbur]]<ref>{{harvnb|Dumbrill|2005|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nlm1Kbc7P5UC&pg=PA320 319–320]}}. "The long-necked lute in the OED is orthographed as tambura; tambora, tamera, tumboora; tambur(a) and tanpoora. We have an Arabic Õunbur; Persian tanbur; Armenian pandir; Georgian panturi. and a Serbo-Croat tamburitza. The Greeks called it pandura; panduros; phanduros; panduris or pandurion. The Latin is pandura. It is attested as a Nubian instrument in the third century BC. The earliest literary allusion to lutes in Greece comes from Anaxilas in his play The Lyre-maker as 'trichordos' ... According to Pollux, the trichordon (sic) was Assyrian and they gave it the name pandoura...These instruments survive today in the form of the various Arabian ''tunbar'' ..."</ref> The line of short-necked lutes was further developed to the east of Mesopotamia, in [[Bactria]] and [[Gandhara]], into a short, almond-shaped lute.<ref name=Iranica/><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.15 |title= Bracket with two musicians 100s, Pakistan, Gandhara, probably Butkara in Swat, Kushan Period (1st century – 20) |publisher= The Cleveland Museum of Art |access-date=March 25, 2015}}</ref> Curt Sachs talked about the depictions of Gandharan lutes in art, where they are presented in a mix of "Northwest Indian art" under "strong Greek influences".<ref name=sachs2>{{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1940 |title= The History of Musical Instruments |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach|url-access=registration |location= New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach/page/159 159–161] |isbn=9780393020687 }}</ref> The short-necked lutes in these Gandhara [[Work of art|artworks]] were "the venerable ancestor of the [[Islamic music|Islamic]], the Sino-Japanese and the [[Early music|European]] lute families".<ref name=sachs2/> He described the Gandhara lutes as having a "pear-shaped body tapering towards the short neck, a frontal stringholder, lateral pegs, and either four or five strings".<ref name=sachs2/> ===Persian barbat=== {{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center |total_width = 400 | align = right | image1 = Lute-family instrumentalist at Capella Palatina 2.jpg | image2 =Lute-family instrumentalist at Capella Palatina.jpg |image3=Maler der Geschichte von Bayâd und Riyâd cropped.jpg |footer= (Left-two images) Oud-family instruments painted in the [[Cappella Palatina]] in Sicily, 12th century. [[Roger II of Sicily]] employed Muslim musicians in his court, and paintings show them playing a mixture of lute-like instruments, strung with 3, 4 and five courses of strings. (Right) 13th century A.D. image of an Oud, from the 12th century work [[Hadith Bayad wa Riyad|Bayâd und Riyâd]], a larger instrument than those in images at the Cappella Palatina }} Bactria and Gandhara became part of the [[Sasanian Empire]] (224–651). Under the Sasanians, a short almond-shaped lute from Bactria came to be called the [[barbat (lute)|barbat]] or barbud, which was developed into the later Islamic world's ''[[oud]]'' or ''ud''.<ref name=Iranica/> When the [[Moors]] conquered [[Al-Andalus|Andalusia]] in 711, they brought their ud or [[quitra]] along, into a country that had already known a lute tradition under the Romans, the [[pandura]]. During the 8th and 9th centuries, many musicians and artists from across the Islamic world flocked to Iberia.<ref name=Menocal>{{Citation|title=The Literature of Al-Andalus|editor1-last=Menocal |editor1-first=María Rosa |editor2-first=Raymond P. |editor2-last=Scheindlin |editor3-first=Michael Anthony |editor3-last=Sells |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000}}</ref> Among them was [[Ziryab|Abu l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Nafi']] (789–857),<ref name="Gill">{{cite book|last=Gill|first=John|title=Andalucia: A Cultural History|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-01-95-37610-4|page=81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGY2fSXko5kC&pg=PA81}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Lapidus|first=Ira M.|title=A History of Islamic Societies|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn= 9780521779333|page=311|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3mVUEzm8xMC&pg=PA311}}</ref> a prominent musician, who had trained under [[Ishaq al-Mawsili]] (d. 850) in [[Baghdad]] and was exiled to Andalusia before 833. He taught and has been credited with adding a fifth string to his oud<ref name=Iranica/> and with establishing one of the first schools of [[music]] in [[Emirate of Córdoba|Córdoba]].<ref name="Davila?">{{cite journal|title=Fixing a Misbegotten Biography: Ziryab in the Mediterranean World|last=Davila |first=Carl|journal=Al-Masaq: Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean |volume=21 |number=2|year=2009 |pages=121–136 |doi=10.1080/09503110902875475|s2cid=161670287 }}</ref> By the 11th century, Muslim Iberia had become a center for the manufacture of instruments. These goods spread gradually to [[Provence]], influencing French [[troubadour]]s and [[trouvères]] and eventually reaching the rest of Europe. While Europe developed the lute, the ''oud'' remained a central part of Arab music, and broader [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] music, undergoing a range of transformations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oudmigrations.com/2016/03/08/journeys-of-ottoman-ouds/|title=The journeys of Ottoman ouds|date=2016-03-08|website=oudmigrations|access-date=2016-04-26}}</ref> Beside the introduction of the lute to Spain ([[Al-Andalus|Andalusia]]) by the Moors, another important point of transfer of the lute from Arabian to European culture was [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|Sicily]], where it was brought either by Byzantine or later by Muslim musicians.<ref name=Cambridge>{{Cite book|editor-last1=Lawson|editor-first1=Colin|editor-last2=Stowell|editor-first2=Robin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdmaBAAAQBAJ&dq=history%2520of%2520the%2520lute%2C%2520%2522roger%2520II%2522&pg=PT460|title=The Cambridge History of Musical Performance|date=2012-02-16|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-18442-4|language=en}}</ref> There were singer-lutenists at the court in [[Palermo]] after the Norman conquest of the island from the Muslims, and the lute is depicted extensively in the ceiling paintings in the Palermo's royal [[Cappella Palatina]], dedicated by the Norman King [[Roger II of Sicily]] in 1140.<ref name=Cambridge/> His [[Hohenstaufen]] grandson [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor]] (1194–1250) continued integrating Muslims into his court, including Moorish musicians.<ref name=courtlylove>{{Cite book|last=Boase|first=Roger|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRC8AAAAIAAJ&dq=roger%2520ii%2C%2520court%2520musicians&pg=PA70|title=The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love: A Critical Study of European Scholarship|date=1977|page=70|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-0656-2|language=en}}</ref> Frederick II made visits to the [[Lech (river)|Lech valley]] and Bavaria between 1218 and 1237 with a "Moorish Sicilian retinue".<ref name=VEdw>{{cite web |url= http://www.vanedwards.co.uk/history1.htm|title= An Illustrated History of the Lute Part One |last= Edwards|first= Vane |website= vanedwards.co.uk|access-date= 4 April 2019 |quote= Bletschacher (1978) 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. }}</ref> By the 14th century, lutes had spread throughout Italy and, probably because of the cultural influence of the Hohenstaufen kings and emperor, based in [[Palermo]], the lute had also made significant inroads into the German-speaking lands. By 1500, the valley and [[Füssen]] had several lute-making families, and in the next two centuries the area hosted "famous names of 16th and 17th century lutemaking".<ref name=VEdw2>{{cite web |url= http://www.vanedwards.co.uk/history2.htm|title= An Illustrated History of the Lute Part Two |last= Edwards|first= Vane |website= vanedwards.co.uk|access-date= 4 April 2019 |quote= By 1500 the first written records confirm the existence of several families making lutes as a trade in and around Füssen in the Lech valley. Most of the famous names of 16th and 17th century lutemaking seem to have come originally from around this small area of Southern Germany. By 1562 the Füssen makers were sufficiently well established to set up as a guild with elaborate regulations which have survived (see Bletschacher, 1978, and Layer, 1978). }}</ref> Although the major entry of the short lute was in [[Western Europe]], leading to a variety of lute styles, the short lute entered Europe in the East as well; as early as the sixth century, the Bulgars brought the short-necked variety of the instrument called [[komuz]] to the Balkans. === From Middle Ages to Baroque === Medieval lutes were four- and five-[[Course (music)|course]] instruments, plucked with a quill as a [[plectrum]]. There were several sizes and, by the end of the [[Renaissance]], seven sizes (up to the great octave bass) are documented. Song accompaniment was probably the lute's primary function in the Middle Ages, but very little music securely attributable to the lute survives from before 1500. Medieval and early-Renaissance song accompaniments were probably mostly improvised, hence the lack of written records. In the last few decades of the fifteenth century, to play [[polyphony|Renaissance polyphony]] on a single instrument, lutenists gradually abandoned the quill in favor of plucking the instrument with the fingers. The number of courses grew to six and beyond. The lute was the premier solo instrument of the sixteenth century, but continued to accompany singers as well. About 1500, many [[Iberia]]n lutenists adopted [[vihuela de mano]], a [[viol]]-shaped instrument tuned like the lute; both instruments continued in coexistence. This instrument also found its way to parts of Italy that were under Spanish domination (especially Sicily and the papal states under the [[Pope Alexander VI|Borgia pope Alexander VI]] who brought many Catalan musicians to Italy), where it was known as the [[Vihuela|viola da mano]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Minamino |first=Hiroyuki |date=2004 |title=The Spanish plucked viola in Renaissance Italy, 1480-1530 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/178631 |journal=Early Music |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=177–192 |issn=1741-7260}}</ref> By the end of the Renaissance, the number of courses had grown to ten, and during the Baroque era the number continued to grow until it reached 14 (and occasionally as many as 19). These instruments, with up to 35 strings, required innovations in the structure of the lute. At the end of the lute's evolution the [[archlute]], [[theorbo]] and [[torban]] had long extensions attached to the main tuning head to provide a greater resonating length for the bass strings, and since human fingers are not long enough to stop strings across a neck wide enough to hold 14 courses, the bass strings were placed outside the fretboard, and were played ''open'', i.e., without pressing them against the fingerboard with the left hand. "The lute is a very fragile instrument and so, although there are many surviving old lutes, very few with their original soundboards are in playable condition,"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jakob Lindberg Homepage|url=http://www.musicamano.com/lute/luteinfo.html|access-date=2023-05-27|website=musicamano.com}}</ref> which makes the [[Rauwolf Lute]] so notable. Over the course of the Baroque era, the lute was increasingly relegated to the [[basso continuo|continuo]] accompaniment, and was eventually superseded in that role by keyboard instruments. The lute almost fell out of use after 1800. Some sorts of lute were still used for some time in Germany, Sweden, and Ukraine. {{multiple image |total_width = 840 |align = center |image1 = Masaccio, madonna col bambino, dal polittico di pisa, 1426, 06 angelo musicante.jpg |caption1 = Detail of painting ''[[:commons:Category:Madonna with Child and Angels by Masaccio|Madonna with Child and Four Angels]]'', by [[Masaccio]], 1426. Showing a medieval lute. |image2 = 1596 Caravaggio, The Lute Player New York.jpg |caption2 = [[Caravaggio]]: ''[[The Lute Player (Caravaggio)|The Lute Player]]'', c. 1596 |image3 = Peter Paul Rubens - Suonatore di Liuto (1609-1610).jpg |caption3 = [[Peter Paul Rubens]]: ''[[Lute Player]]'' (1609–1610) |image4 = Nicholas Lanier 1613.jpg |caption4 = [[Nicholas Lanier]], 1613 |image5 = Frans Hals - Luitspelende nar.jpg |caption5 = [[Frans Hals]]: ''[[The Lute Player (Hals)|The Lute Player]]'', 1623 |image6 = Bernardo Strozzi - Lute Player - WGA21926.jpg |caption6 = [[Bernardo Strozzi]]: ''Lute Player'', after 1640 |image7 = Kupetzky Lute 1711.jpg |caption7 = Artist David Hoyer painted by [[Jan Kupetzky]], c. 1711 |footer= }}
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