Lute

Lute /luːt/ can refer generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table (in the Hornbostel–Sachs system), more specifically to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either fretted or unfretted) and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes.

The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from the Medieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance. It is also an accompanying instrument, especially in vocal works, often realizing a basso continuo or playing a written-out accompaniment. The player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist or lutist, and a maker of lutes (or any similar string instrument) is referred to as a luthier.

Etymology

The words "lute" and "oud" derive from Arabic al-ʿud (العود - literally means "the wood"). Recent research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests ʿud may in turn be an Arabized version of the Persian name rud, which meant "string", "stringed instrument", or "lute". It has equally been suggested the "wood" in the name may have distinguished the instrument by its wooden soundboard from skin-faced predecessors. Gianfranco Lotti suggests the "wood" appellation originally carried derogatory connotations because of proscriptions of all instrumental music in early Islam.

Lute (material)

Lute (from Latin Lutum, meaning mud, clay etc.) was a substance used to seal and affix apparatus employed in chemistry and alchemy, and to protect component vessels against heat damage by fire; it was also used to line furnaces. Lutation was thus the act of "cementing vessels with lute".

Uses

Lute was commonly used in distillation, which required airtight vessels and connectors to ensure that no vapours were lost; thus it was employed by chemists and alchemists, the latter being known to refer to it as "lutum sapientiae" or the "lute of Wisdom".

The earthen and glass vessels commonly employed in these processes were very vulnerable to cracking, both on heating and on cooling; one way of protecting them was by coating the vessels with lute and allowing it to set. One mixture for this purpose included "fat earth" (terra pinguis), Windsor loam, sand, iron filings or powdered glass, and cow's hair.

Another use for lute was to act as a safety valve, preventing the buildup of vapour pressure from shattering a vessel and possibly causing an explosion. For this purpose, a hole was bored in the flask and covered with luting material of a particular composition, which was kept soft so that excessive buildup of vapour would cause it to come away from the vessel, thus releasing the pressure safely. This process could also be performed manually by the operator removing and reaffixing the lute as required. Lute was also used to effect repairs to cracked glass vessels. In The Alchemist’s Experiment Takes Fire, 1687, one alembic is exploding; the luting used to seal a receiving bottle to another alembic can be seen behind the alchemist's upraised arm.

Lute (disambiguation)

A lute is a plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back.

Lute or El Lute may also refer to:

Music

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