Reconstruction of Historical Lutes and Plucked String Instruments
Historical plucked string instruments reconstructed from historical sources, treatises, iconography, and contemporary constructive experimentation.
Luthier and researcher dedicated to the historical reconstruction of plucked string instruments.
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Renaissance Lutes
Renaissance lutes do not correspond to a single standardized model. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, these instruments were built in different European centers, reflecting diverse musical practices, aesthetic choices, and constructive solutions.
Historical instruments preserved in museums—often incomplete or modified over time—as well as treatises, iconography, and period descriptions, reveal a wide variety of proportions, shapes, numbers of courses, and structural details.
In this context, models associated with makers and theorists such as Georg Gerle or Sixtus Rauwolf should be understood as specific historical references rather than fixed standards. The reconstruction of these instruments involves the critical interpretation of such sources and the formulation of constructive hypotheses, tested in practice and evaluated through their musical response.
Below are lutes reconstructed on the basis of references associated with Georg Gerle and Sixtus Rauwolf, exploring different constructive hypotheses informed by the available historical sources.
Configurations of Renaissance Lutes Based on Sixtus Rauwolf
RENAISSANCE LUTE
Based on Sixtus Rauwolf (Example 1)
Construction features and materials
647mm string length;
Resonance box in flamed maple and imbuia;
Neck laminated with maple and walnut;
Ebony fingerboard;
Spruce top with heart detail inlaid with bone and ebony;
Bridge in pear wood with an ebony blade;
Maple peg box;
Ebony and maple pegs;
Gut frets;
Nylgut (Aquila) strings.
Historical reconstruction of the Renaissance Lute based on Sixtus Rauwolf (1596). The instrument was built based on data from the doctoral thesis. BOUQUET, Jonathan Santa Maria. Reconstructing a lute by Sixtus Rauwolf. 2017. 319p. Thesis (PhD in Philosophy of Music) University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 2017.
Audiovisual documentation of the Renaissance lute
Performer: Roger Burmester
Photo gallery
Renaissance Lute Based on Sixtus Rauwolf (Example 2)
Constructive characteristics and materials
15 ribs in Imperial rosewood (Dalbergia cearensis);
Soundboard in spruce (Picea abies) with ebony purfling (Diospyros crassiflora Hiern);
Fingerboard in ebony;
Neck in pink cedar (Cedrela odorata) laminated with ebony;
Bridge in pearwood (Pyrus communis) with an ebony veneer;
Pegbox in maple laminated with Brazilian rosewood;
Gut frets (1.10 mm);
Strings by Aquila Strings (Nylgut);
Oil finish;
Pegs in Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia);
Tuning: G – A=440 Hz;
String length: 64.6 cm.
Configurations of Renaissance Lutes Based on Georg Gerle (c. 1550)
Renaissance Lute Based on Georg Gerle (c. 1550) (Example 1)
Construction features and materials
11 ribs in maple (Acer pseudoplatanus);
Soundboard in spruce (Picea abies) with ebony purfling (Diospyros ebenum);
Fingerboard in ebony and maple;
Neck in pink cedar (Cedrela odorata) laminated with maple;
Bridge in pearwood (Pyrus communis) with an ebony veneer;
Pegbox in maple;
Gut frets (1.10 mm);
Strings by Aquila Strings (Nylgut);
Oil finish;
Pegs in boxwood and ebony;
Tuning: G – A=440 Hz;
String length: 60 cm.
Renaissance Lute Based on Georg Gerle (c. 1550) (Example 2)
Construction features and materials
11 ribs in maple and imbuia (Acer pseudoplatanus and Cedrela odorata);
Soundboard in spruce (Picea abies) with ebony purfling (Diospyros ebenum);
Fingerboard in ebony and maple;
Neck in pink cedar (Cedrela odorata) laminated with maple and imbuia;
Bridge in pearwood (Pyrus communis) with an ebony veneer;
Pegbox in maple laminated with imbuia;
Gut frets (1.10 mm);
Strings by Aquila Strings (Nylgut);
Oil finish;
Pegs in Indian rosewood;
Tuning: G – A=440 Hz;
String length: 60 cm.
