The lute family (renaissance lute, baroque lute, archlute, descant lute, theorbo, chitarrone)
– The guitar family (kitharino, baroque guitar)
Lute – The Lute is a plucked instrument and has been around for many centuries, originating from the Middle East. It was also known and valued in India, China and Japan. In European iconography, the lute appears for the first time in the ninth century as a two or three-stringed instrument and, unlike the Arabic lute, it is equipped with frets. The lute shape we know today appeared in the fifteenth century.
The lower- sounding version of the lute knowns as theorbo evolved in the sixteenth century as a result of the demand for bass sounds. Over time, these instruments began to be displaced by the harpsichord and guitar. The eighteenth century is the beginning of the decline of the lute’s popularity in Europe, though it remains very popular in the Arab countries to this day.