What Is a Baroque Lute?

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Fati Lycouridis and, on behalf of Expert Village, I will talk to you a little bit about the baroque lute. There are many kinds of lutes, starting with the medieval instrument that had 45 strings, then the Renaissance lute that had anywhere from five to ten strings, and then the baroque lute. The baroque lute evolved in a sense from the Renaissance instrument that was played between the 1500 and 1600s in Europe. At the end of the Renaissance period, the Renaissance lute had ten strings, but as the music became more intricate in nature and form, then three more strings were added to the instrument and it became the baroque lute. And these strings accommodated these changes in music. Many baroque lutes were simply Renaissance instruments that were retrofitted to incorporate these new changes. The baroque period then covers the years between 1600 and 1750, and it is considered to be the height of lute music. After that, after 1750, baroque lute music declined in Europe until the 20th century where we really saw a revival of both lute music and a lot of research in it, and a lot of lute players and scholars started emerging."