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Curated category

Lute family instruments

  • MandolinIn 1787, Luigi Bassi played the role of Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera, serenading a woman with a mandolin. This scene cemented the instrument's image as an…
  • SitarThe word sitar derives from the Persian term tar, meaning string. Persians named their lutes by combining this root with numbers indicating string counts.
  • LuteA cylinder seal from Uruk, dated to about 3100 BC and now held in the British Museum, depicts a woman playing what scholars identify as an early lute.