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The '''lute''' is a plucked string instrument that entered [[Europe]] during the [[Middle Ages]] as a descendent of the [[Arab]] ''‘ūd'' (''oud''), introduced during the [[Moors|Moorish]] occupation of [[Spain]] from the early 8th century AD. It flourished, especially from the 15th century, reached a peak during the 16th and 17th centuries, and became almost obsolete during the late 18th. It has enjoyed a revival during the last half century with the explosion in interest in music played with “authentic instruments” and has regained most of the ground it lost to its sibling, the guitar, in modern performances of music of its heyday.  

The '''lute''' is a plucked string instrument that entered [[Europe]] during the [[Middle Ages]] as a descendent of the [[Arab]] ''‘ūd'' (''oud''), introduced during the [[Moors|Moorish]] occupation of [[Spain]] from the early 8th century AD. It flourished, especially from the 15th century, reached a peak during the 16th and 17th centuries, and became almost obsolete during the late 18th. It has enjoyed a revival during the last half century with the explosion in interest in music played with “authentic instruments” and has regained most of the ground it lost to its sibling, the guitar, in modern performances of music of its heyday.  

The lute has a half pear-shaped resonating body with a flat top containing a sound-hole. The neck has a fretted finger-board, has no bridge, and ends at a peg-box bent back up to 90 degrees. The strings are unison paired (one note is sounded by two strings tuned together) except, sometimes, the highest, or melody, string. The tuning and the number of strings have varied with the era, locale and possibly the trustworthiness of contemporary accounts. There have usually been 4 or 5 pairs, however large lutes (''arch-lute'' ''chitarrone'', ''theorbo'') which do the job of the modern double bass) have extra bass strings that do not pass over the finger-board, and have sometimes been provided with their own neck and peg-box.  

The lute has a half pear-shaped resonating body with a flat top containing a sound-hole. The neck has a fretted finger-board, has no bridge, and ends at a peg-box bent back up to 90 degrees. The strings are unison paired (one note is sounded by two strings tuned together) except, sometimes, the highest, or melody, string. The tuning and the number of strings have varied with the era, locale and possibly the trustworthiness of contemporary accounts. There have usually been 4 or 5 pairs, however large lutes (''arch-lute'' ''chitarrone'', ''theorbo'', which do the job of the modern double bass) have extra bass strings that do not pass over the finger-board, and have sometimes been provided with their own neck and peg-box.  

Musical notation for lutes differs from the normal staff notation - a “tablature” system of horizontal lines represents the actual strings on the instrument instead of the degrees of pitch.  

Musical notation for lutes differs from the normal staff notation - a “tablature” system of horizontal lines represents the actual strings on the instrument instead of the degrees of pitch.