Can a lute change its stripes?

With a little help from its builder, yes. A
"stripey" lute back style gained popularity in 

A yew tree

the early 1600s. This style used a greater number of ribs in construction (anywhere from fifteen to fifty, quite an increase from the typical 9-13 of the century before), and favored yew wood where maple had been the norm. The use of yew was what allowed the striping effect. In the yew tree, there is a striking shift in color where the darker heartwood meets the lighter sapwood. Lute builders selected ribs from this area to achieve that alternation of color tone around the back of the lute.

A lute attributed to Wendelin Tieffenbrucker,
one of the renowned builders of this style. 

.

Yew striping effect

The Lute-Making Capital of the World!

... Or at least during the the second half of the sixteenth century in Europe, was a Bavarian town called Füssen. Located about 3 mile north of the Austrian border, and now revered for its violin-

Aerial view of Füssen

making history, the town was a hotbed of lute construction. It became necessary to impose regulations on their lute industry. They created a guild for lute makers to regulate activities and production standards and prices. The guild then limited the number of workshops in Füssen to twenty. This had extensive repercussions on the lute-making industry. Many luthiers moved out of the town to the rest of the Bavarian region, later to Venice, and last to Bologna and Padua. The last two would become the most important centers of of lute making in the seventeenth and eighteenth century.



Santa Maria Bouquet, Jonathan. "The Lute." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.

"Füssen." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Aug. 2014. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Füssen>.

Soon to gather momentum...

Mary Magdalene playing the lute

I'm happy to report that I will be able to give more time to this project now and in the coming months. Some large and demanding projects (college applications, the fall play, etc.) are now behind me and I have time now to work here. I plan to spend much of this time reading and learning about the lute in various historical situations. This will be vital to my final presentation. The presentation will be a look at the cultural and musical influence of the lute in various societies. It will present historical artistic, geographic, and political elements with the music that underscored them. My goal in the coming months is to learn about these cultures and their music, meanwhile practicing my lute to get a feel for how their music sounded.

Mousike

My lute teacher has lent me a book called "A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance," by Douglas Alton Smith, which is an invaluable source for me.
As I began flipping through, I came across a little section at the beginning which illustrates how the lute was valued in education in antiquity. Smith quotes Plato:

"...Isn't training in mousike of overriding importance, because rhythm and Harmonia penetrate most deeply into the recesses of the soul and take a powerful hold on it, bringing gracefulness and making a man graceful if he is correctly trained, but the opposite if he is not?" [Plato's Republic, Book III]

 As Smith explains, in the Hellenic philosophy of moral education, "mousike" was a coinage from muse-ic, which meant "pertaining to the muses." Music meant not just music, but also poetry, song, dance -- all the attributes of the muses.


This definition -- or now re-definition -- of "music" lays a threshold for a study of the lute that branches in countless cultural directions. The expanded definition connects the lute to disparate aspects of society, and I don't think it is wrong in doing so. The lute's cultural inter-connectivity is what makes it so interesting and remarkable.

Weird Lute Wednesday

"Can't Touch This"

Jan van Bijlert -- Young Man Playing Lute, 1625

Jan van Bijlert – Young Man Playing the

Weird Lute Wednesday

. . . When you get to see the not-so respectable side of the lute.

Here's is a pretty creepy looking lutenist for your enjoyment!

Frans Halls, "The Lute Player"
1625-26
oil on canvas 28x25in
The Louvre

Bergamescas and Personal Buffoonery

Grounds in Context

Taught by Chris Morrongiello, it's a look at the basic themes and chord progressions from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. These "grounds" were used in much the same way that a 12-bar blues is played and improvised upon today. 
  
 The Bergamesca is one such melodic pattern that originates from the Bergamo region of Northern Italy, based on a progression of 1-4-5-1. Bergamo was known for the tradition of Comedia del Arte, baffoons, and fools, so the bright and jovial Bergamesca is associated with liveliness and jest.

On the final day, there was a participants' concert, who lute campers might try their musical skill before an audience. In a fit of late-night poor judgement, ather young lute player I'd befriended and I decided we should sign up to play something. Now she, although modest about her skill, had nine years of playing under her belt; I had about four months. We got the stage jitters together and felt a sheepish comradery as we rehearsed our piece. She played the melody and I strummed along, and appropriately, we played a Bergamesca. It seemed fitting for both its simplicity and for highlighting the younthful buffoonery with which we carried out the performance.

Lute Camp

On Arrival

I had never imagined such a thing as "Lute Camp" might exist. It is the biennial Cleveland Lute Festival, held at Case Western Reserve in Ohio. The week brings together an incredible selection of the world's most prestigious lute players, makers, and historians. 

Before the seminar dives into such courses as "Understanding Francesco" and "Lute Music of the German High Baroque Rhetoric," we were met with a concert of Italian lute music form the 16th century. Nigel North is an outstanding lutenist from England, and he titled the concert "A Decoration of Silence." The name couldn't have been more apt, for I have sat through more than my fair share of classical concerts and never before has an audience been more rapt and quiet. As one of the audience phrased it, everyone was waiting to hear the first note be spun.