Except for harps, Renaissance stringed instruments had frets and were played by being strummed, bowed, or plucked. We probably think of the lute as the quintessential Renaissance stringed instrument, and both listeners and theorists in the Renaissance would have agreed. Of Moorish origin, the lute has the shape of a pear sliced vertically, with the rounded back creating a lush resonance of sound. Strings were constructed as they had been during the Middle Ages, of either metal or sheep gut. The metal used was brass or steel. Not until the 17 th century were strings produced with a central core spun around by brass, which improved the tone on the lower notes. Although the lute could be played with either a plectrum (for plucking) or the fingers, by the mid-15th century strumming or plucking with the fingers was preferred. The lute was considered the ideal musical instrument, with the musician’s fingers in close control of the strings creating the purest possible sound, as witnessed by a 16th-century listener, who described a lutenist’s playing “with such ravishing skill that, little by little, making the strings languish under his fingers in a sublime way, he transported all those who were listening with so pleasurable a melancholy that. . . it was as if the listeners were ecstatically carried away by some divine frenzy” (Smith 2003, p. 135).
Because of the unsatisfactory lower tones produced on the lute, the slightly larger theorbo and the much larger chitarrone were created during the mid-16th century to accompany the lute. A portrait of Mary Herbert, countess of Pembroke (d. 1622), in Penshurst Place depicts her holding an upright chi-tarrone almost as tall as she is. The cittern, slightly smaller than the lute, was a medieval instrument usually played solo. Musicians during the Renaissance continued to play it by plucking in the medieval style. Other members of the lute family included the smaller mandora, popular for dance music, and the colascione.
The vihuela and guitar were quite similar, both having frets consisting of gut strings tied around the fingerboard. The guitar was used more for popular and folk music; the vihuela was a favorite instrument of aristocratic society in both Spain and southern Italy. By the close of the 16th century, the guitar had eclipsed the vihuela and was being played throughout Europe. The bowed instruments of the Renaissance included the viol and violin, the former with six strings and the latter four. Partly because the vihuela was very similar to the tenor viol in tuning and shape, the viol is thought to have its origins in Spain during the second half of the 15th century. The violin did not attain its fullest form until the second half of the 16th century. Whereas the violin was (and is) played under the chin or on the shoulder, musicians playing members of the viol family are seated, with the instrument held on the ground or between the legs. The violin was used almost exclusively by professional musicians during the Renaissance, especially for dance music and in the intervals between acts of dramatic performances.
Music
6.4 Double virginal with pictorial lid. By Hans Ruckers the Elder, 1581. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of B. H. Homan, 1929 [29.90])
The harpsichord, perfected during the 15th century, is played by keys that trigger the plucking of strings, unlike the modern piano, in which strings are hammered. Elizabeth I’s favorite instrument was a virginal, a member of the harpsichord family. Italy was a major center of harpsichord production during the early 16th century; the earliest extant example is dated 1521 (today in the Victoria and Albert Museum). By the end of the century, Antwerp, notably the shop of Hans Ruckers and his sons, had become known for its harpsichords. Harpsichord cases were elegant pieces of furniture, often lined with velvet, with exteriors of inlaid wood or painted ornamentation including mottoes about music in various languages. They most definitely were instruments for the courtly patron.
World History
