theorbo

The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box (a hollow box) with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending out from the soundbox.

The theorbo has a long neck – some as long as six feet. It has two sets of strings – a longer set tuned with pegs at the top of the fret board (for the deeper range), and a shorter set tuned by pegs on the sides of the fret board (for the higher range).

Towards the end of the 16th century, a group of musicians in Italy began experimenting with a new way of tuning their lutes, lowering the top two strings by an octave and using much longer strings to create an instrument with a particular tone quality and a bright resonance, known as the theorbo.

theorbo, large bass lute, or archlute, used from the 16th to the 18th century for song accompaniments and for basso continuo parts. It had six to eight single strings running along the fingerboard and, alongside them, eight off-the-fingerboard bass strings, or diapasons.

Historically, theorbos came in several sizes, almost all of them larger than the average modern instrument. The largest are instruments by Buchenberg and Graill, which have stopped string lengths of 98-99 cm.

14-19 string A Lute (theorbo) - You can usually spot the difference between a theorbo and an archlute because a theorbo has half as many pegs and is single strung. Theorbos are essentially a single strung archlute tuned a tone higher.

The theorbo can have anywhere from 11 to 19 strings. None of these strings are sympathetic strings. The most common theorbos have 14 strings; seven fretted, and seven bass strings. The lower strings are tuned diatonically, like a harp.

A theorbo, also sometimes called a chitarrone, is a lute with a long neck extension. A theorbo has two pegboxes, one at the top of the fingerboard and the other at the end of the extension.

The bağlama or saz is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Bosnian music (Sevdalinka), Kurdish music, Armenian music.

14-19 string A Lute (theorbo) - You can usually spot the difference between a theorbo and an archlute because a theorbo has half as many pegs and is single strung. Theorbos are essentially a single strung archlute tuned a tone higher.

The theorbo is part of the lute family. Many of the first theorbo players also played the Renaissance lute, Baroque lute, archlute and the Baroque guitar. There are at least 14 pieces in which Handel specifies either theorbo, archlute or Baroque guitar for accompaniment.

A lute is a stringed musical instrument that surged to popularity in Renaissance Europe. It resembles a guitar but has a rounded back, a pear shape, courses (pairs) of strings and a long neck with a bent-back pegbox.