What Is a Renaissance Lute?

A Renaissance lute is a stringed instrument with a wide neck and a deep pear-shaped body. Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was popular. Stringed instruments dominated during this time, until the keyboard rose to prominence around 1700. The lute’s music is written in tablature, rather than notes, for fingering. Beginners can rent a lute to give it a try before investing in this pricey but beautiful instrument.

The deep curved body of the Renaissance lute is made of strips of wood glued together to form an oblong bowl shape. The front is flat, with highly decorative fretwork covering the rosette where the sound comes out. The neck of a lute is wide, and the pegbox is bent back at a right angle to the neck. The string length on the Renaissance instrument ranged from about 17 inches (44 cm) to 35 inches (90 cm). The lute is relatively light and easy to handle, despite its size.

Gut strings were used in the Renaissance, but modern strings can be made of nylon. They are arranged in two-string courses, with the highest-pitched string, called a chanterelle, being only one string. Typically, the courses are pitched several tones apart, up to an octave apart. The first course is the chanterelle, which is followed the second, third, and so on. The number of courses on a Renaissance lute is usually between six and ten.

The majority of lute music is written in tablature, which is a type of notation that is similar to guitar music and is written as fingering rather than notes. The notation for a Renaissance lute would have as many lines as there were courses. Numbers and French and English letters were commonly used Italians to indicate where each finger should be placed. Notations were sometimes made in the spaces between the lines as well. A flag above the tablature markings indicated the duration of notes.

The Renaissance lute was the subject of a great deal of music, and it dominated performances until the keyboard became popular in the eighteenth century. Italian Francesco Canova de Milano (1497-1543) composed lute music in the early 16th century that influenced compositions for the next century. Two well-known English lute composers were John Dowland (1563-1626) and William Byrd (1543-1623). Some purists argue that modern Renaissance lute strings should be gut rather than nylon in order to achieve a more authentic sound when performing the old pieces.

Anyone interested in learning to play the lute should seek out an experienced teacher first. Most students begin learning to play a six- to eight-course Renaissance lute, which offers a wide range of music and is not too difficult for a beginner. The majority of players order a lute from a luthier, or stringed instrument maker, which can be costly. It can be rented, like many other instruments, so the musician can get a feel for it.