Dictionary of Music - Birding America

lute 221originally have been made from the tusks of a mammoth(a prehistoric elephant). Unlike other ancientbrass instruments, such as the Roman lituus, the lurhad a cup-shaped mouthpiece similar to that of themodern trombone.lusingando (loo — ′′sēn gän′dô) Italian. A directionto perform in a persuasive, coaxing manner.lustig (loo s′tiKH) German. A direction to performin a merry, cheerful manner.lute A stringed instrument with a round bodyshaped like half a pear, a broad, flat neck, and a pegboxbent back at an angle from the top of the neck.At the height of its importance, during the sixteenthcentury, the lute had six courses, one single and fivedouble (that is, five pairs of strings tuned in unison),which were tuned either G′ C F A d g or a tonehigher.fig. 147 p/u from p. 227fig. 147a p/u from p. 227The lute was plucked with the bare fingers. Stoppingpositions were indicated by a number of frets(seven or more) of gut tied around the neck of theinstrument. Lute music was written in TABLATURE,with letters or numbers indicating the frets of thecourses to be played instead of showing the notes ona staff. After about 1600, when the lute began to beused less for solo music and song accompanimentand more for accompaniments in instrumentalmusic, additional bass courses, each sounding asingle low note, were sometimes added beside thefingerboard. The need for still stronger bass instrumentsled to the introduction, in the mid-seventeenthcentury, of larger lutes, such as the chitarrone andtheorbo. Both had longer melody strings, usuallysingle rather than in double courses, and extra bassstrings carried on a second pegbox. The lute itselfwas also modified, being given a second pegbox tocarry the extra bass strings but basically retainingmost of its other features. In the second half of theseventeenth century numerous new tunings wereused, the most popular being that of the school ofFrench lutenists led by Denis Gaultier (c.1600–1672).The lute was brought to Europe from Asia in thelate thirteenth century by the Arabs, whose name forit is al’ud. The early European lute was played witha plectrum and had four strings, which by the midfourteenthcentury were made into double courses.During the fifteenth century, a single course wasadded and lutenists began to pluck the strings withtheir fingers; by the end of the century a sixth doublecourse had been added as well. The sixteenth centurywas the lute’s golden age, in England, France,Germany, and Italy. (In Spain the VIHUELA, a kind ofguitar whose tuning and music were virtually thesame as the lute’s, was preferred.) Dozens of lutebooks were published, containing dances and ricercars,fantasies and variations, as well as intabulations(arrangements for lute) of vocal music. Lutesongs such as the AYRE were also popular, especiallyin England. Outstanding among the sixteenthcenturylutenists (the word being used for bothperformers on and composers for the lute) wereFrancesco da Milano, Adrian Le Roy, ArnoltSchlick, Hans Judenkünig, Hans Newsidler, andJohn Dowland.In the seventeenth century the lute began to bereplaced: for solo and vocal accompaniments, theguitar became increasingly popular; for instrumentalensemble music, even the chitarrone and theorbodid not serve as well as the combination ofharpsichord and cello. Only in France, with