Musical Instrument: Lute
In the age of supersonic speeds and nanotechnology, sometimes you really want to relax, turn away from all the worldly fuss and find yourself in some other world where there is no modern turmoil, for example, in the romantic era of the Renaissance. At the present time, you don’t need to reinvent the time machine, but rather just visit a concert of authentic music somewhere in the Izmailovo Kremlin or Sheremetyevo Palace. There you will not only hear beautiful melodies that you mentally endure in past times, but also get acquainted with interesting musical instruments, which our distant ancestors played music with several centuries ago. Interest in ancient music today is increasingly growing, contemporary performers master the tools of past eras, which include traverse flute, viol and da gamba, demanded viol, baroque double bass violon, harpsichord and undoubtedly lute - a tool of privileged classes and deserving special attention. Her Arabs in the Middle Ages, rightly called the queen of musical instruments.
Sound
Lute belongs to the family of stringed-plucked instruments, its sound is a bit like a guitar, however, its voice is much softer and more tender, and its timbre is velvety and tremulous, as it is more saturated with overtones. The sound source on the lute is paired and single strings, which the performer snaps with his right hand, and presses the left with the left, changing their length, thereby changing the pitch.
The musical text for the instrument was recorded using letters on the six-lineed line, and the duration of the sounds was indicated by the notes set above the letters. Range Instrument about 3 octaves. The tool has no defined standard setting.
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Interesting Facts
- For many nations, the image of the lute served as a symbol of harmony, youth and love. For the Chinese, it meant wisdom, as well as coherence in the family and society. For Buddhists, harmony in the world of gods, for Christians, lute in the hands of angels marked the beauty of heaven and the reconciliation of natural forces. In the art of the Renaissance, it symbolized Music, and an instrument with broken strings pointed to disagreement and discord.
- Lute was the emblem - a symbolic image of lovers.
- Lute in the Renaissance is often displayed on the paintings, even Orpheus and Apollo, the artists of that time did not draw with a lyre, but with a lute. A more harmonious composition than a girl or boy with this romantic instrument and can not be imagined.
- At one time, the lute, which was very popular, was considered a privileged instrument of the secular circle, nobility and persons of royal blood. In the East, it was called the sultan of instruments, and in European countries it was said that the organ was "King of all instruments", and lute was "instrument of all kings."
- The great English poet and playwright W. Shakespeare very often mentioned the lute in his works. He admired her sound, attributing to her the ability to bring listeners to an ecstatic state.
- The greatest Italian sculptor, painter, poet and thinker Michelangelo Buonarroti, admiring the performance of the famous lute player Francesco da Milano, said that he was divinely inspired by music and all his thoughts were turned to heaven at that time.
- The performer on the lute is called the lute player, and the craftsmen who make the tools are sculpted.
- The tools of the Bologna masters — the casting of L. Mahler and G. Frey, as well as representatives of the artisan family Tiffenbrucker from Venice and Padua, created in the 17th and 18th centuries, cost by that measure astronomical money.
- It was not so difficult to learn how to play the lute, but it was difficult to tune the instrument, which had many strings made of natural materials but poorly maintained due to temperature and humidity changes. A joke was very famous: a lute-playing musician, two-thirds of the time, is engaged in setting up an instrument, and one-third plays music on an un-tuned instrument.
Design
The very elegant design of the lute includes the body and neck, ending in a caustic block. A pear-shaped body includes a deck and a body that acts as a resonator.
- The body is made of curved, forming a hemispherical shape, segments made from hardwood: ebony, rosewood, cherry or maple.
- Deca - this is the front part of the body, closing the body. It is flat, has the shape of an oval and is usually made from resonator spruce. On the deck in the lower part is a stand, and in the middle there is a sound hole in the form of an elegant intricate pattern or a beautiful flower.
A relatively wide, but short neck of the lute is attached to the body flush with the deck. An ebony overlay is glued to it, and the catgut fret dividers are attached. In the upper part of the neck there is a threshold that affects the height of the string tension.
The spike lute block, on which the adjusting pins for string tension, also has its own distinctive feature. It lies in the fact that the block is located in relation to the neck neck at a sufficiently large, almost right angle.
The number of paired strings on different lutes varies greatly: 5 to 16, and sometimes 24.
Weight tool is very small and is approximately 400 grams., length tool - about 80 cm.
Varieties
In its time, lute, which is very popular, has evolved quite intensively. Musical masters constantly experimented with its shape, number of strings and tuning. As a result, a fairly significant number of tool varieties emerged For example, in addition to traditional instruments, including instruments with different numbers of paired strings - choirs, the Renaissance lute had species of various sizes that were similar to the human voice registers: small octave, minor treble, treble, alto, tenor, bass and octave bass. In addition, the lute family includes the baroque lute, al-ud, architeutny, torban, kobza, theorba, quittaron, zither, bandera, canutetile lute, orfarion, wanderfogel gel, mandala.
Application
Art historians consider the lute not only one of the most interesting, but also a fundamentally important tool in the history of European music of the 16th and 17th centuries. She received recognition from representatives of various sectors of society, from commoners to royals, and was used as an accompanying, solo and ensemble instrument. The rapidly growing popularity of the lute constantly demanded replenishment and updating of the repertoire. Very often the writers of the works were at the same time performers, so a whole galaxy of wonderful lute-songwriters appeared in European countries. In Italy - F. Spinachino, F. Milano, V. Galileo, A. Rippe, G. Morley, V. Capirola, A. Piccinini. In Spain - L. Milan, M. Fuenlyana. In Germany, H. Neusiedler, M. Neusiedler, I. Kapsberger, S. Weiss, V. Lauffensteiner. In England - D. Dowland, D. Johnson, F. Cutting, F. Rosseter, T. Campion. In Poland - V. Dlugorai, J. Reis, D. Kato, K. Clabon. In France, E. Gauthier, D. Gauthier, F. Dufau, R. Vize. It should also be noted that even such great masters as I.S. Bach, A. Vivaldi, G. Handel, J. Haydn paid attention to the lute, enriching its repertoire with their works.
At the present time, interest in early music, and with it the lute, is not waning. Its sound can be heard more and more on the stages of concert halls. Among the modern composers who today compose for the instrument, many interesting works should be noted: I. David, V. Vavilov, S. Callos, S. Lundgren, T. Sato, R. MacFarlen, P. Galvao, R. McKillop, J. Wissems , A. Danilevsky, R. Turovsky-Savchuk, M. Zvonareva.
Famous Performers
Unusually fashionable in the era of the Renaissance and Baroque, but driven out by other instruments and unfairly forgotten, the lute is again of great interest today, and not only among authentic musicians. Her sound is now more and more often heard at various concert venues, not only solo, but also in an ensemble with other beautiful old musical instruments. In the 21st century, the most famous virtuoso performers who do a lot to popularize the instrument are V. Kaminik (Russia), P. O'Dett (USA), O. Timofeev (Russia), A. Krylov (Russia, Canada), A Suetin (Russia), B. Yang (China), J. Imamura (Japan), R. Lislevand (Norway), E. Karamazov (Croatia), J. Held (Germany), L. Kirchhof (Germany), E. Eguez (Argentina), H. Smith (USA), J. Lindberg (Sweden), R. Barto (USA), M. Lowe (England), N. North (England), J. van Lennep (Netherlands) and many others .
Story
The entire history of the lute, which in eastern countries was considered one of the most advanced instruments, cannot be traced. Such tools already four thousand years ago were widespread in many countries of the world. They played music in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, Persia, Assyria, Ancient Greece and Rome. Nevertheless, scholars of art suggest that the lute was the immediate predecessor - this is the oud - a tool that in the Middle East is still treated with special reverence, arguing that it is the result of the creation of the grandson of the Prophet. Oud had a pear-shaped body, which was made of walnut or pear wood, a pine deck, a short neck and a curved back head. The sound was extracted using a plectrum.
The conquest of Europe began in the 8th century with a lute from Spain and Catalonia, after the Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The tool not only quickly joined the cultures of these countries, but also, as a result of the crusades, began to spread rapidly across other European countries: Italy. France, Germany, displacing other instruments that were common at that time, such as the cister and pandura. The lute, which is gaining popularity, has been constantly subjected to various improvements. Masters made changes to the design of the instrument, modified the body and neck, added strings. If initially it had from 4 - 5 paired strings - choirs, then the number gradually increased. By the 14th century, the lute in Europe was not only fully formed, but also became one of the most sought-after instruments not only in the court, but also in home music. It was used not only as an accompanying, but also as a solo instrument. For the lute they composed a lot of diverse music, made arrangements not only for popular songs and dances, but also for spiritual music. In the 15th century, the popularity of the tool increased even more, painters often depict it on their art canvases. Composers continue to intensively enrich the repertoire. The performers abandon the plectrum, preferring the finger extraction method, which greatly expanded the technical possibilities, allowing the performance of both harmonic accompaniment and polyphonic music. Lute continued to be improved, and instruments with six paired strings became the most popular.
In the 16th century, the popularity of the lute reached its apogee. She dominated both professional musicians and amateurs. The instrument sounded in the palaces of kings and the highest nobility, as well as in the homes of ordinary citizens. Solo and ensemble works were performed on it, accompanied by vocalists and choirs and, in addition, introduced into the orchestras. Schools for the production of lute instruments were created in different countries, the most famous of which was located in Bologna, Italy. The instruments were constantly modified, the number of paired strings increased: first ten, then fourteen, and subsequently their number reached 36, which accordingly required changes in the design of the instrument. There were many kinds of lute, among them were seven that corresponded to the tessitura of the human voice, from discount to bass.
By the end of the 17th century, the popularity of the lute began to fall noticeably, as instruments such as guitar, harpsichord, and somewhat later piano, gradually replaced it. In the 18th century, it was no longer actually consumed, with the exception of a few varieties that existed in Sweden, Ukraine, and Germany. It was only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, because of the renewed interest in the ancient instruments of English enthusiasts led by instrumental master, professional musician and musicologist Arnold Dolmich, attention to the lute again greatly increased.
Lute is an old elegant musical instrument with a beautiful gentle voice, which was once forced out of use and unfairly forgotten. The time passed, the musicians remembered him, became interested and again brought to the concert stage to conquer the listeners with a sophisticated sound. Today, the lute is often a participant in concerts of authentic music, performing both solo and ensemble instruments.
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