When was the earliest cylinder seal depicting a lute created and where is it located?
A cylinder seal from Uruk dated to about 3100 BC depicts a woman playing an early lute. This artifact is now held in the British Museum.
Questions about Lute
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who added a fifth string to the oud and when did this occur?
Abu l-Hasan Ali Ibn Nafi arrived in Andalusia before 833 after being exiled from Baghdad. He taught music there and is credited with adding a fifth string to his oud.
What are the specific tuning intervals for a six-course Renaissance tenor lute?
A six-course Renaissance tenor lute was tuned nominally in G yielding intervals of a perfect fourth between all courses except the third and fourth which differed only by a major third.
Which composer published the earliest surviving lute music collections in Italy during the 16th century?
Petrucci published collections by Francesco Spinacino in 1507 and Joan Ambrosio Dalza in 1508 alongside the Capirola Lutebook. These represent the earliest stage of written lute music in Italy.
When did Arnold Dolmetsch start the movement for authenticity in lute performance?
Arnold Dolmetsch started the movement for authenticity by researching early music and instruments in the late 19th century. His discoveries were so fruitful that he decided to concentrate on performing early music on original instruments outside private drawing rooms.