Lutenist

What it means

A lutenist is a musician who plays the lute. In historical sources the term also designates a profession: at courts and in cities, lutenists belonged to the permanent staff, taught, composed, and accompanied singing. Since the family of lute instruments is large, the activity usually spans several instruments — Renaissance lute, Baroque lute, theorbo, and related bass instruments — which differ markedly in tuning, size, and manner of playing.

Musical use

The field of activity ranges from solo music through song accompaniment to figured bass. In the continuo playing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the lutenist works on equal footing with harpsichord and organ and brings a quality of its own: a soft, quickly decaying sound that supports the bass without covering the singers. Because the music has often survived in tablature and ornaments are not written out, deciding on execution and ornamentation also belongs to the work. Many surviving collections come from lutenists themselves and give information about the performance practice of their time.

Performance practice

Whoever pursues this profession needs patience for tuning: numerous courses of gut strings demand constant checking before and during music-making. Learn to read tablatures directly, and practise turning a figured bass part into fingerings before playing it in ensemble. Keep the nails short and cultivate the touch from the fingertip. With large instruments, plan the sitting posture carefully, so that the long neck lies securely. In ensemble, watch the balance: the instrument is quiet, and its effect arises through clarity, not through volume.

Bear in mind that working on the figured bass demands preparation of its own: the figuring gives the harmony, not the position, and the choice of chord voicing belongs to the shaping. Practise gripping the same progression in different positions, so that you can shift when needed. Watch the coordination with other continuo instruments, so that harpsichord and lute do not get in each other's way; often an alternation depending on the movement is more sensible than constant playing together. Plan time for tuning before and between the pieces.