Mario Rivera

November 27, 2018

Baroque Performance Practice
The lute has been a stable instrument throughout the Baroque Era (1685-1750), present

both as a solo and chamber instrument. During this time the technique and playing of the lute

evolved to incorporate new elements and qualities to it. One noticeable change from previous

eras, was the change in tuning of the lute and the rise of the baroque guitar. This followed by the

new inflections and ideas of the Baroque era let to new dramatics in the style of playing. The lute

and the guitar, like many pluck strings, have issues playing in all tonal centers. With such

limitations, many lute composers used certain keys and tonics that are unidiomatic to the

instrument, thus creating a much stronger inflection for the listener. Others created new methods

to allow these instruments to play music in unfavorable keys.

The lute has its origins with the north African instrument, the ud. Prior to the baroque era,

the lute has been used throughout Europe for several hundreds of years. The first set of lutes

were single coursed, varying few in numbers, and played with what is believed to be a plectrum.

During this time the lute mostly played single lines and chords but was not used as a polyphonic

instrument. Eventually, the playing of it became more polyphonic and people began to

implement the fingers of the right hand. As the contrapuntal qualities grew more courses were

added to the lute. Earlier lutes had issues with resonance and as a result, the number of lute

courses increases, reaching 14. This helped the instrument resonate and sustain to a higher

degree. The search for resonance eventually led to the creation of the D minor lute, whose tuning

helped it project and sustain. During the baroque era the lute took on a standard role as a

continuo instrument. It was throughout this time; several pieces were added to the repertoire.

Many of this repertoire was very unidiomatic or comfortable for the lute. To accommodate some
new roles, such as continuo, and to facilitate the playing of certain keys or bend to the needs of

the dramatics of the time, a new system by which they were tuned was implemented.

In a similar way the baroque guitar also came from foreign ideas, specifically the mors.

However, the appearance of the guitar is quite different than the lute. This was due to the

Spanish animosity after the Reconquista. By the mid Baroque Era, the baroque guitar became

more common in houses than the lute. The guitar also developed a role in chamber ensembles as

a continuo instrument, for its abilities to easily be able to play chords.

Throughout the Renaissance era, the lute was tuned in mostly fourth with a third between

the 3rd and 4th courses. The tuning was g, d, a, f, c, and G. This form of tuning was utilized

throughout the Renaissance and continued to be used through the Baroque era. In the baroque era

this tuning was mostly utilized in theorbos. This tuning was well versed for polyphony, as many

Renaissance works; such as Dowland’s Fantasies demonstrate. This tuning resembled the

modern-day guitars tuning more, allowing the ability of both playing multiple lines and playing

chords rather easily. However, another tuning became popular throughout the baroque era: The

D minor tuning for the lute. The tuning for this lute was, from highest to lowest, f, d, a, F, D, A.

After the standard six courses the ones were tuned all diatonically, due to the difficulty of

stopping each of them from resonating. These lutes were tuned to a D minor chord when one

struck all the six courses. The baroque guitar was tuned in a manner which facilitates the ability

play in the key of a minor or C major. The baroque guitar tuning was e, b, g, d, and A. This

tuning is almost the same as the modern-day guitar, apart from a missing low E string. One

aspect found in both the baroque guitar and certain members of the lute family was having string

not always be in a consistent order. When the 5th course of the baroque guitar was doubled, one

of the a’s was high than the 3rd string g course. There are even guitars which only use the highest
string a as the 5th course. To a modern guitarist, this would be rather jarring. Oscarini and

Valdambrini, two major lute composers from Italy in the era, are both important for their

description of two contrasting methods of tuning. 1

The D minor lute’s tuning holds many advantages and limitations. The tuning,

specifically the doubling of many pitches in octave, made the lute louder and have more

resonance. This was a significant development for the instrument both in a solo and chamber

setting. However, due to the nature of the tuning many keys do not work well on this form of

lute. This limits the instruments to mostly playing in the keys of d minor, D major, g minor, and

G major. Whenever the d minor lute plays in these keys it produces a deep and rich sound, which

both projects and naturally resonates more than other tonalities. These keys naturally make a

performance appear both more manageable and relate an atmosphere of less tension. The

contrary is true for less idiomatic keys. Forcing the performer to contort their hands to the higher

positions results in both a visual and auditory spectacle of drama. There are several examples in

many of Robert de Visee’s work for lute and theorbo.

Robert de Visee (1655 – 1733) was a musician of the court of king Louis XIV and Louis

XV and considered the forthcoming lute and guitar composer of France during his time. It is

assumed that he both knew and studied with Francesco Corbetta. Records first mention his as a

chamber musician in the service of Louis XIV, later becoming a singer in the royal chamber, and

later names Les Maître de Guitare du Roi (guitar master of the king) to king Louis XV. De Visee

contributed a large sum of repertoire for both theorbo and d minor lute. While some were placed

in better keys, many of his suites were conceived in unidiomatic keys. The tablature for De

Visee’s Suite in C minor, for either lute or theorbo, force the performer to begin in a higher

1
Victor Anand Coelho, Performance on Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela, (the university of Cambridge, Alberta, 1997),
position in the neck. Due to the construct of plucked strong instruments, there is a natural and

sometimes drastic color and intonation difference in higher positions of the neck. This darker

quality of color and intonation create a completely different atmosphere than the more resonant

and open quality of D minor on the lute. These qualities create a sense of dramaticism, both is

sound and by making the performer play more less than comfortable music.

There are patterns in De Visee’s works, in which he chooses certain keys for character.

Different keys had different affects and characters, it was common for composers to utilizes

certain keys or tonal centers to portray one type of emotion. The more uncomfortable key of C

minor added to the dark and brooding character of the key. The tension created by the physical

position of the left hand and color of notes contribute to the sad character of a piece in a minor

key. There are other instances in his suites where De Visee will modulate to certain keys for the

dramatic affect, due to its distance from the original tonal center and the new dark and the

uncomfortable quality of said tonality in the lute. For more cheerful music in major keys, De

Visee incorporates a much more idiomatic key, such as G major. De Visee also utilized certain

positions to aid in resonance and dynamics. There are phrases in which he will move from a

higher position to a more open one and the phrase increase volume. The same is also true for

tension and color. De Visee will also move phrases higher as the tension of the line increase.

This creates a change in color and appearance, forcing the performer to move on to more

unfavorable positions.

Another composer who utilized tuning to further the emotion of his music was François

Campion. He is regarded as one of the most forthcoming French lute and baroque guitar

composers after De Visee. However, unlike De Visee, he utilized a different technique to

accommodate the limitations of the baroque guitar. Campion uses a variety for tunings or
different scordatura to allow the guitar to play in a larger number of keys. The original tuning of

baroque guitar is E, B, G, D, and A. Much like the modern-day guitar, these tunings favor the

playing chords but is not ideal when playing into different keys. To combat the limitation of the

guitar, campion decided to use different tunings to facilitate the use of different keys. To play in

the key of F major Campion would choose to tune the guitar to F, C, G, D, and Bb. This tuning

fit the instrument and allowed for the use of open strings, which are heavily relied on for

shifting. Many of Campions works are in the key of F however, he did utilize the tuning of F#,

C, G, C, and B for the key of G major and a couple of others. Each tuning is constructed to fit

their respected keys but to create resonance with the guitar. This allowed the guitar to be louder

and still play in keys not so favorable.

Unlike De Visee’s use of unidiomatic keys, Campion did not use them to create drama.

Much the opposite, he used methods to facilitate the use of certain keys to lower the strain on the

player. While there is a loss of drama, the use of scordatura allowed for more musical freedom.

As such there are faster shifts and articulation of notes in Campions works than De Visee.

Campion’s solution also aided the projection of the baroque guitar, whose dynamic range was

small and limited. By tuning the guitar to facilitate the playing the tonic and dominant chords of

keys in open position, Campion created a darker and more rich tone to his music. His scordatura

system also increased the instruments resonance. Campion’s approach to unidiomatic keys

resulted in comfortable music, something that many composers who wrote for the lute struggled.

Quite the contrary, Johann Sebastian Bach’s First Lute Suite BWV 996, is considered

both rigorous and uncomfortable to play on the lute. This is due to Bach’s unfamiliarity with the

lute and because of the method he used to conceive it. He wrote this suite, and probably the

others, on the lautenwerk or lute harpsichord. Much like his method, his notation also differed by
being written in grand staff instead of tablature. Unlike the lute, keyboard instruments have an

easier time playing notes and counterpoint that the lute does. By having composed it on the lute

harpsichord, Bach naturally created a very rigorous piece. Bach also chose the key of E minor,

which is quite unidiomatic for the archlute, whose tuning favored the keys of D and G. While

this adds several difficulties when executing the piece, it also heightens it. The suite begins with

a prelude, which consists of a passagio and fugato section. The passagio begins in with b in one

of the higher positions of the lute. This position allows for vibrato and a darker tone. As the

opening phrase develops the piece moves to a more open position to create a natural crescendo.

While Bach may have unintentionally chosen this key, there are many instances in the piece

where the music and left-hand positions align. For the lighter more upbeat Bouree, much of the

piece is played in the lower positions, as well as the lower register. The gigue has many passages

which, to an extent, showcase these instances. The gigue, being very virtuosic, shifts and jumps

to the higher position on the more climactic moment of the piece.

Because of tablature, one is informed of the place on the neck the composer wanted this

pitch to be executed. This is important both because of the tension, but also because of the

different intonation lutes had. Most lutes of this time had moveable frets. This meant that one

could change the intonation. This created certain areas of the lute where the chords will sound

different than their open chords counterpart. By reading tablature players see the intention the

composers had when writing the piece. In a lot of the tablature of this era we see that many lute

composers preferred to stay in a more open position until their certain climactic moments in

either the phrase or counterpoint. For many fugues the streto is commonly placed in a more open

area for volume.

 The many innovations for the lute and baroque guitar during the Baroque era led to new

developments and innovations. To help the dramatics of the era composers utilized less idiomatic

keys to create both a visual and musical experience. By playing in the more uncomfortable areas

of the neck, the inflection became harsher and richer. Composers, such as Robert de Visee,

utilized difficult keys to better convey his more tragic and emotional music. In a different

manner, Campion utilized different scordatura to allow the baroque to play in uncomfortable

keys. Both of them, along with her composers utilized the element