the.com/lute
the medieval rock star's instrument, all curves and zero chill about staying in tune
means A pear-shaped stringed instrument with a rounded back and a fretted neck, plucked or strummed and central to European music from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.
from From Old French 'lut' or 'leut', which came from Arabic 'al-'ud' — literally 'the wood' — carried into Europe along with the instrument itself, likely through Moorish Spain. That Arabic 'al-' (the same definite article hiding in 'algebra' and 'alcohol') is why so many European languages keep a faint 'l' echo: Spanish 'laúd', Italian 'liuto'. The strummed cousin of the West met the wood of the East, and the name came along for the ride.
- tuning curse
- Lutenists spent half their lives tuning, half playing
- word origin
- From Arabic al-oud, meaning the wood
- string count
- Later baroque lutes had up to 24 strings
- fragile body
- Thin wood bowl back, easily cracked or warped
- painted prestige
- Renaissance artists obsessed over it in still lifes
theorboe — baroque lute variant with 14+ courses, played in 17th-18th century europe
oud — middle eastern lute predecessor, foundational to arabic and persian music
vihuela — spanish renaissance lute, played by royal courts in 16th century spain