Discovering the Georgian lute

Abstract The typical ‘baroque’ lute of the 18th century had a long neck, 13 courses (24 gut strings) and tied gut frets. During the 1760s and 70s, however, there was an attempt to devise a new type of lute that was smaller in size, had fewer strings and was easier to play. It had a pear-shaped bowl-back body, six double courses of gut, a fixed bridge, a sickle-shaped pegbox with wooden tuning pegs and a flat fingerboard with fixed frets of bone or ivory. This article reveals this invention from Georgian England for the first time, including a lute whose existence has not been reported elsewhere. In addition, it investigates the stringing, tuning and the repertoire of this instrument.