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International Transport of Instruments
Carrying or shipping a musical instrument across international borders, where the instrument is subject to customs inspection, has become a significantly more risky proposition in recent years. It is no longer just a question of being assessed a duty or tariff, but rather, as a function of the ornamentation or simply the wood species of which it is constructed, the instrument can be mutilated or even confiscated. Documentation of the date and materials of construction may be critical in preventing this. If you think your instrument might be at risk, please consult a lawyer/solicitor for advice. A Certificate or “Instrument Passport” may be available from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to simplify the process of crossing some borders.
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- The Argentine Society for Lutes and Early Guitars (Asociación Argentina de Laúdes y Guitarras Antiguas)
- Lute Society of New Zealand
Historical Lutes and Related Instruments in North American Museums
- Cleveland Museum of Art – Tiorbino, anon., 17th century.
- An extensive photographic study of this instrument, done by Ed Greenhood.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Anonymous archlute or theorbo, acc.# 17.1764
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Anonymous guitar, mid 18th c, acc.# 17.1756
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Mandolino by Benedetto Gualzatta, Rome, 1724, acc.# 1992.1
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Lute by Andreas Berr, Vienna, 1699, acc.# 1986.7
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Guitar by Jacopo Mosca Cavelli, Perugia, 1725, acc.# 2003.76
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Guitar by Jean-Baptiste Champion, France, ca. 1790, acc.# 17.1753
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Guitar by Jacopo Checchucci, Livorno, 1628
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Arch-cittern by Remerus Liessem, 1757, acc.# 17.1749
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA – Guitar by Nicholas Alexandre Voboam, Paris, 1680, acc.# 1993.576
- National Music Museum, Vermillion SD – Treble lute, D. G., Venice, early 16th century
- National Music Museum, Vermillion SD – Cittern, Italian, ca. 1550
- National Music Museum, Vermillion SD – Guitar by Matteo Sellas, Venice, ca. 1640
- National Music Museum, Vermillion SD – Guitar by Domenico Sellas, Venice, ca. 1670
- National Music Museum, Vermillion SD – Guitar by Alexandre Voboam, Paris, 1670
- Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments – Lute by Sebastian Schelle, Nürnberg, 1726
- Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments – Thielke Baroque guitar
Lute Art in North American Museums
The list of links to artworks depicting the lute and related instruments has outgrown its original location here, and it has been moved to its own separate page.The Web Gallery of Art
Search this robust site for artworks from medieval to modern times.
Resource Materials for Scholarly Research on the Lute
Bibliographies- Sixteenth-Century Printed Tablatures for the Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela: An Annotated Bibliography, compiled by Dr. Gary R. Boye
- Les sources manuscrites de la musique pour luth sur les “ACCORDS NOUVEAUX” (vers 1624-vers 1710) by François-Pierre Goy, ed. Andreas Schlegel (in French). Thorough documentation on manuscript sources for lute in transitional tunings.
- Bibliography of musicological publications by John Griffiths, with emphasis on the vihuela. Many of the entries are linked to electronic copies.
Catalogs
- A Catalog of Manuscripts for the Baroque Lute, being compiled by Peter Steur, with input from Markus Lutz.
- Manuscript Catalog of The British Library, with a useful search engine.
- Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, a listing of facsimiles of manuscripts of medieval music, some of which are available on line – not necessarily lute music, but some of the pieces are appropriate for performance on medieval lute or gittern.
- The Motet Catalog, indexing more than 50,000 motets and mass proper incipits in printed and manuscript anthologies originating between 1475 and 1600. Many, though not yet all single-composer prints are included.
- The Lautenweltadressbuch, compiled by Klaus Martius, a database of historical lutes in museum and private collections.
- Sources manuscrites en tablature/Manuscript sources in tablature, ca. 1500 – ca. 1800, a project to create a comprehensive index, by title and composer, of all known lute pieces in historical manuscript sources.
- “Mus. Ms. 1511b: A Historical Review of a Lute Manuscript in the Herwarth Collection at the Bavarian Library, Munich” by Douglas William Beasley; a dissertation for the M.M. degree at the University of North Texas, Denton, 2007. (PDF file, 2.03 MB)
- “La tiorba ed il suo uso in Italia come strumento per il basso continuo,” by Diego Cantalupi; the dissertation for his degree in musicology in 1996 at the Università di Pavia, revised in 2006 for publication on the Internet (in Italian).
- “Giovanni Antonio Terzi and the Lute Intabulations of late sixteenth-century Italy” by Suzanne E. Court; a dissertation analyzing the lute works of Giovanni Antonio Terzi, which are contained in his two tablature collections published in Venice in 1593 and 1599. The second volume of the dissertation includes 45 transcriptions of intabulations and fantasias by Terzi and his contemporaries.
- English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes 1530-1630 by Julia Craig-McFeeley; a study of the English Lute Manuscripts of the so-called ‘Golden Age’, including a detailed catalogue of the sources.
- “The five-course guitar and seventeenth-century harmony: Alfabeto and Italian song” by Alexander Dean; a dissertation for the Ph. D. degree at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, Rochester NY, 2009. (Six PDF files)
- “Lute Realizations for the English Cavalier Songs (1630-1670) – A Guide for Performers” by Gus Denhard; a D.M. dissertation at Indiana University, 2006.
- “Die Lautenbücher Philipp Hainhofers (1578 - 1647)” by Joachim Lüdtke; his dissertation, completed at Göttingen, 1999 (in German)
An extensive iconography of the lute, compiled by Mary Rasmussen, University of New Hampshire, divided geographically and chronologically:
- Dutch and Flemish, 15th to 16th century.
- Dutch and Flemish, 16th century.
- France, 16th to 17th century.
- Germany, Austria & Switzerland, 15th to 16th century.
- Germany, Austria & Switzerland, mid-16th century.
- Germany, Austria & Switzerland, 16th to 17th century.
- Italy, 15th to 16th century.
- Italy, mid-16th century.
- Italy, 16th to 17th century.
- Recorder Iconography, compiled by Nicholas S. Lander, including many references to lutes or lutenists portrayed in artworks also depicting the recorder.
- The FoMRHI Bulletin on line in PDF format. This journal contains many articles relating to historical lute construction and stringing. The complete tables of contents are posted on a separate page where they can be searched easily in your browser.
- General References
- “Handbuch der Notationskunde” by Johannes Wolf (Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel, 1919), freely available in many formats, including several for e-readers. Lute tablature is treated in Chapter 2, beginning on p. 35.
- Taking Care of Your Lute: simple straightforward instructions compiled by Jiří Čepalák
Audio
- Hopkinson Smith playing a Bransle de Poictou from the collection of dances published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris, 1530.
- Hopkinson Smith playing the Adagio of Sonata BWV 1001 in G minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Video
Clips on YouTube illustrating the use of the lute and vihuela in various styles of music.- Asteria performing fifteenth century music.
- Paul O’Dette performing sixteenth century lute music.
- Duo Chambure performing a vihuela duet, an intabulation of Cancion de sibiuit by Adrian Willaert, from the collection Silva da sirenas published in 1547 by Enríques de Valderrábano.
- Nigel North performing John Dowland (written ca. 1600).
- Robert Barto performing eighteenth century lute music by Silvius Leopold Weiss.
- Robert Barto – an Allegro movement from a Weiss Sonata.
- Ronn McFarlane performing two of his own contemporary compositions.
- Christopher Morongiello performing on lutes from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Other North American Sites Related to Historically Informed Performance
Geographical- Atlanta Early Music Alliance
- The Arizona Early Music Society
- Boston Clavichord Society
- Boston Early Music Festival
- Early MusiChicago
- Ars Antigua Presents (Concert presenter in the Chicago area)
- The Newberry Consort (Concert presenter in the Chicago area)
- Early Music Colorado
- Early Music in Columbus (Ohio)
- Houston Early Music
- Early Music Now (Milwaukee WI)
- Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music (Jackson MS)
- New England Early Music Calendar
- Guild for Early Music (New Jersey/Pennsylvania area)
- The New York Continuo Collective
- Portland Early Music (Maine)
- Polyphony.com (Calendar for the New York City area)
- Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh
- San Diego Early Music Society
- San Francisco Early Music Society
- Early Music Guild & Seattle Baroque Orchestra
- Southern California Early Music Society
- Toronto Early Music Centre
- Early Music Vancouver
- Early Music DC (Washington DC)
- American Recorder Society
- Early Music America
- Historic Brass Society
- The Renaissance Cittern
- Historical Harp Society
- Historical Keyboard Society of North America
- Organ Historical Society
- Serpent Website
- Society for Seventeenth-Century Music
- Viola da Gamba Society of America
- Violone – Jerry Fuller’s site