Lute

A renaissance-era lute
strings
Classification	Necked bowl lutes String instruments
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	321.321-5 (Composite chordophone sounded by the bare fingers)
Developed	Classical antiquity (early lutes) Middle Ages (modern lutes)
Related instruments
Angélique (instrument) Archlute Balalaika Barbat (lute) Bağlama Biwa Bouzouki Charango Chitarra Italiana Cobza Dombra Domra Dutar Kobza Komuz Kopuz Mandocello Mandola Mandolin Mandolute Oud Pandura Pipa Tambur Tanbur Tembûr Theorbo Tiorbino Topshur

Lute can refer generally 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 both 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 probably 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 string instrument) is referred to as a luthier.

Etymology[link]

The words "lute" and "oud" derive from Arabic al‘ud (العود; literally "the wood").^[1] Recent research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests ‘ud may in turn be an Arabized version of the Persian name rud, which meant "string", "stringed instrument", or "lute".^[2] It has equally been suggested the "wood" in the name may have distinguished the instrument by its wooden soundboard from skin-faced predecessors.^[3] Gianfranco Lotti suggests the "wood" appellation originally carried derogatory connotations because of proscriptions of all instrumental music in early Islam.

Construction[link]

Soundboard[link]

Lutes are made almost entirely of wood. The soundboard is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood (typically spruce). In all lutes the soundboard has a single (sometimes triple) decorated sound hole under the strings called the rose. The sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of an intertwining vine or a decorative knot, carved directly out of the wood of the soundboard.

Back[link]

The back or the shell is assembled from thin strips of hardwood (maple, cherry, ebony, rosewood, gran, wood and/or other tonewoods) called ribs, joined (with glue) edge to edge to form a deep rounded body for the instrument. There are braces inside on the soundboard to give it strength; see the photo among the external links below.

Neck[link]

The neck is made of light wood, with a veneer of hardwood (usually ebony) to provide durability for the fretboard beneath the strings. Unlike most modern stringed instruments, the lute's fretboard is mounted flush with the top. The pegbox for lutes before the Baroque era was angled back from the neck at almost 90° (see image), presumably to help hold the low-tension strings firmly against the nut, which is not traditionally glued in place, but is held in place by string pressure only. The tuning pegs are simple pegs of hardwood, somewhat tapered, that are held in place by friction in holes drilled through the pegbox.

As with other instruments using friction pegs, the choice of wood used to make pegs is crucial. As the wood suffers dimensional changes through age and loss of humidity, it must as closely as possible retain a circular cross-section in order to function properly, as there are no gears or other mechanical aids for tuning the instrument. Often pegs were made from suitable fruitwoods such as European pearwood, or equally dimensionally stable analogues. Matheson, ca 1720, stated "if a lute-player has lived eighty years, he has surely spent sixty years tuning."

Belly[link]

The geometry of the lute belly is relatively complex, involving a system of barring in which braces are placed perpendicular to the strings at specific lengths along the overall length of the belly, the ends of which are angled quite precisely to abut the ribs on either side for structural reasons. Robert Lundberg, in his book "Historical Lute Construction", suggests ancient builders placed bars according to whole-number ratios of the scale length and belly length. He further suggests the inward bend of the soundboard (the "belly scoop") is a deliberate adaptation by ancient builders to afford the lutenist's right hand more space between the strings and soundboard.

The belly thickness is somewhat variable, but hovers between 1.5 and 2 millimeters in general. Some luthiers tune the belly as they build, removing mass and adapting bracing to ensure proper sonic results. The lute belly is almost never finished, but in some cases the luthier may size the top with a very thin coat of shellac or glair in order to help keep it clean. The belly is joined directly to the rib, without a lining glued to the sides, and a cap and counter cap are glued to the inside and outside of the bottom end of the bowl to provide rigidity and increased gluing surface.

After joining the top to the sides, a half-binding is usually installed around the edge of the belly. The half-binding is approximately half the thickness of the belly and is usually made of a contrasting color wood. The rebate for the half-binding must be extremely precise to avoid compromising structural integrity.

Bridge[link]

The bridge, sometimes made of a fruitwood, is attached to the soundboard typically at 1/5 to 1/7 the belly length. It does not have a separate saddle but has holes bored into it to which the strings attach directly. The bridge is made so that it tapers in height and length, with the small end holding the trebles and the higher and wider end carrying the basses. Bridges are often colored black with carbon black in a binder, often shellac and often have inscribed decoration. The scrolls or other decoration on the ends of lute bridges are integral to the bridge, and are not added afterwards as on some Renaissance guitars (cf Joachim Tielke's guitars).

Frets[link]

The frets are made of loops of gut tied around the neck. They fray with use, and must be replaced from time to time. A few additional partial frets of wood are usually glued to the body of the instrument, to allow stopping the highest-pitched courses up to a full octave higher than the open string, though these are regarded anachronistic by some (although John Dowland and Thomas Robinson describe the practice of gluing wooden frets onto the soundboard ^[4]). Given the choice between nylon and gut, many luthiers prefer to use gut, as it conforms more readily to the sharp angle at the edge of the fingerboard.

Strings[link]

Strings were historically made of animal gut, usually from the small intestine of sheep (sometimes in combination with metal) and are still made of gut or a synthetic substitute, with metal windings on the lower-pitched strings. Modern manufacturers make both gut and nylon strings, and both are in common use. Gut is more authentic for playing period pieces, though unfortunately it is also more susceptible to irregularity and pitch instability due to changes in humidity. Nylon offers greater tuning stability, but is seen as anachronistic by purists, as its timbre differs from the sound of earlier gut strings. Such concerns are moot when more recent compositions for the lute are performed.

Of note are the "catlines" used as basses on historical instruments. Catlines are several gut strings wound together and soaked in heavy metal solutions which increase the mass of the strings. Catlines can be quite large in diameter by comparison with wound nylon strings for the same pitch. They produce a bass which differs somewhat in timbre from nylon basses.

The lute's strings are arranged in courses, of two strings each, though the highest-pitched course usually consists of only a single string, called the chanterelle. In later Baroque lutes two upper courses are single. The courses are numbered sequentially, counting from the highest pitched, so that the chanterelle is the first course, the next pair of strings is the second course, etc. Thus an 8-course Renaissance lute will usually have 15 strings, and a 13-course Baroque lute will have 24.

The courses are tuned in unison for high and intermediate pitches, but for lower pitches one of the two strings is tuned an octave higher (the course at which this split starts changed over the history of the lute). The two strings of a course are virtually always stopped and plucked together, as if a single string, but in extremely rare cases a piece calls for the two strings of a course to be stopped and/or plucked separately. The tuning of a lute is a somewhat complicated issue, and is described in a separate section of its own below. The result of the lute's design is an instrument extremely light for its size.

History and evolution of the lute[link]

Ancient Egyptian tomb painting depicting lute players, 18th Dynasty (c. 1350 BC)

The origins of the lute are obscure, and organologists disagree about the very definition of a lute. The highly influential organologist Curt Sachs distinguished between the "long-necked lute" (Langhalslaute) and the short-necked variety: both referred to chordophones with a neck as distinguished from harps and psalteries. Smith and others argue the long-necked variety should not be called lute at all because it existed for at least a millennium before the appearance of the short-necked instrument that eventually evolved into what is now known as the lute. It also was never called a lute before the 20th century.

Source of our knowledge about these instruments is since the ancient Greek Mantineia marble (4th century BC), now exhibited at National Archaeological Museum of Athens, depicting the mythical contest between Apollo and Marsyas, where ancient Greek Pandura is being played by a muse seated on a rock^[5] documenting that lutes have been first present in ancient Greece, since the Akkadian era.^[6]

Various types of necked chordophones were in use in ancient Greek, Egyptian (in the Middle Kingdom), Hittite, Roman, Bulgar, Turkic, Indian, Chinese, Armenian/Cilician cultures. The Lute developed its familiar forms as Barbat in Persia, Armenia, and Byzantium beginning in the early 7th century. These instruments often had bodies covered with animal skin, and it is unknown exactly when it became replaced with a wooden soundboard.

As early as the 6th century, the Bulgars brought the short-necked variety of the instrument called Komuz to the Balkans, and in the 9th century, Moors brought the Oud to Spain. The long-necked Pandura had previously been a quite common variety of the lute in the Mediterranean. The quitra did not become extinct, however, but continued its evolution. Besides the still surviving Kuitra of Algiers and Morocco, its descendants include the Chitarra Italiana, Chitarrone and Colascione.

Middle Ages[link]

In about the year 1500 many Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese lutenists adopted vihuela de mano, a viol-shaped instrument tuned like the lute, but both instruments continued in coexistence. This instrument also found its way to parts of Italy that were under Spanish domination (especially Sicily and the papal states under the Borgia pope Alexander VI who brought many Catalan musicians to Italy), where it was known as the viola da mano.

Another important point of transfer of the lute from Arabian to european culture might have been in Sicily, where it was brought either by Byzantine or later by Saracen musicians. There were singer-lutenists at the court in Palermo following the Norman conquest of the island, and the lute is depicted extensively in the ceiling paintings in the Palermo’s royal Cappella Palatina, dedicated by the Norman King Roger II in 1140. By the 14th century, lutes had disseminated throughout Italy. Probably due to the cultural influence of the Hohenstaufen kings and emperor, based in Palermo, the lute had also made significant inroads into the German-speaking lands by the 14th century.

Painter David Hoyer playing a lute, painted by Jan Kupetzky, ca. 1711

Medieval lutes were 4- or 5-course instruments, plucked using a quill as a plectrum. There were several sizes, and by the end of the Renaissance, seven different sizes (up to the great octave bass) are documented. Song accompaniment was probably the lute's primary function in the Middle Ages, but very little music securely attributable to the lute survives from the era before 1500. Medieval and early-Renaissance song accompaniments were probably mostly improvised, hence the lack of written records.

In the last few decades of the 15th century, in order to play Renaissance polyphony on a single instrument, lutenists gradually abandoned the quill in favor of plucking the instrument with the fingertips. The number of courses grew to six and beyond. The lute was the premier solo instrument of the 16th century, but continued to be used to accompany singers as well.

By the end of the Renaissance the number of courses had grown to ten, and during the Baroque era the number continued to grow until it reached 14 (and occasionally as many as 19). These instruments, with up to 26-35 strings, required innovations in the structure of the lute. At the end of the lute's evolution the archlute, theorbo and torban had long extensions attached to the main tuning head in order to provide a greater resonating length for the bass strings, and since human fingers are not long enough to stop strings across a neck wide enough to hold 14 courses, the bass strings were placed outside the fretboard, and were played "open", i.e. without fretting/stopping them with the left hand.

Over the course of the Baroque era the lute was increasingly relegated to the continuo accompaniment, and was eventually superseded in that role by keyboard instruments. The lute almost fell out of use after 1800. Some sorts of lute were still used for some time in Germany, Sweden, Ukraine.

• 

  Ancient Greek (Tanagra) terracotta statuette depicting a player of the pandura, 4th century BC)

• 

  Christian and Muslim playing lute, miniature from Cantigas de Santa Maria by king Alfonso X.

Lute in the modern world[link]

The lute enjoyed a revival with the awakening of interest in historical music around 1900 and throughout the century. That revival was further boosted by the early music movement in the twentieth century. Important pioneers in lute revival were Julian Bream, Hans Neemann, Walter Gerwig, Suzanne Bloch and Diana Poulton. Lute performances are now not uncommon; there are many professional lutenists, especially in Europe where the most employment is to be found, and new compositions for the instrument are being produced by composers.

During the early days of the early music movement, many lutes were constructed by available luthiers, whose specialty was often classical guitars. Such lutes were heavily built with construction similar to classical guitars, with fan bracing, heavy tops, fixed frets, and lined sides, all of which are anachronistic to historical lutes. As lutherie scholarship increased, makers began constructing instruments based on historical models, which have proven on the whole to be far lighter and more responsive instruments.

Lutes built at present are invariably replicas or near copies of those surviving historical instruments that are to be found in museums or private collections. They are exclusively custom-built or must be bought second hand in a very limited market. As a result, lutes are generally more expensive than mass-produced modern instruments such as the guitar, though not nearly as expensive as the violin. Unlike in the past there are many types of lutes encountered today: 5-course medieval lutes, renaissance lutes of 6 to 10 courses in many pitches for solo and ensemble performance of Renaissance works, the archlute of Baroque works, 11-course lutes in d-minor tuning for 17th century French, German and Czech music, 13/14-course d-minor tuned German Baroque Lutes for later High Baroque and Classical music, theorbo for basso continuo parts in Baroque ensembles, gallichons/mandoras, bandoras, orpharions and others.

Lutenistic practice has reached considerable heights in recent years, thanks to a growing number of world-class lutenists: Robert Barto, Eduardo Egüez, Edin Karamazov, Nigel North, Christopher Wilson, Luca Pianca, Pascal Monteilhet, Lex van Sante, Ariel Abramovich, Evangelina Mascardi, Luciano Contini, Hopkinson Smith, Yasunori Imamura, Paul O'Dette, Jozef van Wissem et alii. Singer-songwriter Sting has also played lute and archlute, in and out of his collaborations with Edin Karamazov, and Jan Akkerman released two albums of lute music in the 1970s while he was a guitarist in the Dutch rock band Focus. Lutenist/ Composer Jozef van Wissem composed lute music and vocals for the Sims Medieval video game.

Lutes of several regional types are also common in Greece: laouto, and outi.

Lute repertoire[link]

Orazio Gentileschi's young lutenist, painted ca 1626, plays a 10-course lute, typical of the time from around 1600 AD through the 1630s. Music stands appear very rarely in paintings of the period—the music is most commonly laid flat on a table, as seen here.

Although lutes were in widespread use in Europe at least since the 13th century, and documents mention numerous early performers and composers, the earliest surviving music for the instrument dates from the late 15th century. Lute music flourished during the 16th and 17th centuries: numerous composers published collections of their music, and modern scholars have uncovered a vast number of manuscripts from the era—however, much of the music is still lost. In the second half of the 17th century lutes, vihuelas and similar instruments started losing popularity, and almost no music had been written for the instrument after 1750. The interest in lute music was revived only in the second half of the 20th century.

Improvisation was apparently a highly important aspect of lute performance, and so much of the repertoire was probably never written down. Furthermore, it was only around 1500 that lute players started the transition from plectrum technique to that of the right hand: the latter allowed for complex polyphony, for which notation had to be developed. During the next hundred years three schools of tablature notation developed gradually: Italian (also employed in Spain), German and French. Only the latter survived into the late 17th century. The earliest known tablatures are designed for a six-stringed instrument, although evidence of earlier four- and five-stringed lutes exists.^[7] Tablature notation depends on the actual instrument for which the music is written, and to read it, it is necessary to know the tuning, the number of strings, etc. of the instrument.

Renaissance and Baroque forms of lute music are more or less similar to those of keyboard music of the periods. Intabulations of vocal works were very common, as well as various dances, some of which disappeared during the 17th century, such as the piva and the saltarello. The advent of polyphony brought about fantasias: complex, intricate pieces with much use of imitative counterpoint. The improvisatory element, present to some degree in most lute pieces, is particularly evident in the early ricercares (not imitative as their later namesakes, but completely free), as well as in numerous preludial forms: preludes, tastar de corde ("testing the strings"), etc. During the 17th century keyboard and lute music went hand in hand, and by 1700 lutenists were writing suites of dances quite akin to those of keyboard composers. The lute was also used throughout its history as an ensemble instrument, most frequently in songs for voice and lute; these were particularly popular in Italy (see frottola) and England.

The earliest surviving lute music is Italian, from a late 15th century manuscript. The early 16th century saw Petrucci's publications of lute music by Francesco Spinacino (fl. 1507) and Joan Ambrosio Dalza (fl. 1508); together with the so-called Capirola Lutebook, these represent the earliest stage of written lute music in Italy. The leader of the next generation of Italian lutenists, Francesco Canova da Milano (1497–1543), is now acknowledged as one of the most famous lute composers in history. The bigger part of his output consists of pieces called fantasias or ricercares, in which he makes extensive use of imitation and sequence, expanding the scope of lute polyphony. The second half of the century saw no composers equal in stature, but in the early 17th century Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger (c.1580–1651) and Alessandro Piccinini (1566–1638) revolutionized the instrument's technique and Kapsberger, possibly, influenced the keyboard music of Frescobaldi.

French written lute music began, as far as we know, with Pierre Attaingnant's (c.1494–c.1551) prints, which comprised preludes, dances and intabulations. Particularly important was the Italian composer Albert de Rippe (1500–1551), who worked in France and composed polyphonic fantasias of considerable complexity. His work was published posthumously by his pupil, Guillaume de Morlaye (born c.1510), who, however, did not pick up the complex polyphony of de Rippe. French lute music declined during the second part of the 16th century; however, various changes to the instrument (the increase of diapason strings, new tunings, etc.) prompted an important change in style that led, during the early Baroque, to the celebrated style brisé: broken, arpeggiated textures that influenced Johann Jakob Froberger's suites. The French Baroque school is exemplified by composers such as Ennemond Gaultier (1575–1651), Denis Gaultier (1597/1603–1672), François Dufaut (before 1604–before 1672) and many others. The last stage of French lute music is exemplified by Robert de Visée (c.1655–1732/3), whose suites exploit the instrument's possibilities to the fullest.

The history of German written lute music started with Arnolt Schlick (c.1460–after 1521), who published in 1513 a collection of pieces that included 14 voice and lute songs and three solo lute pieces, alongside organ works. He was not, however, the first important German lutenist, because contemporaries credited Conrad Paumann (c. 1410–1473) with the invention of German lute tablature. However, this claim has yet to be proven, and no lute works by Paumann survive. After Schlick, a string of composers developed German lute music: Hans Judenkünig (c.1445–50–1526), the Neusidler family (particularly Hans Neusidler (c.1508/9–1563)) and others. During the second half of the 16th century, German tablature and German repertoire were gradually replaced by Italian and French tablature and international repertoire, respectively, and the Thirty Years War (1618–48) effectively stopped publications for half a century. German lute music was revived much later by composers such as Esaias Reusner (fl. 1670), however, a distinctly German style came only after 1700 in the works of Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686–1750), one of the greatest lute composers, some of whose works were transcribed for keyboard by none other than Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), who composed a few pieces for the lute himself (although it is unclear whether they were really intended for the lute, rather than another plucked string instrument or the lautenwerk).

Of other European countries, particularly important are England and Spain. English written lute music only began around 1540, however, the country produced numerous lutenists, of which John Dowland (1563–1626) is perhaps the most famous. His influence spread very far: variations on his themes were written by keyboard composers in Germany decades after his death. Dowland's predecessors and colleagues, such as Anthony Holborne (c. 1545–1602) and Daniel Bacheler (1572–1619), were less known. Spanish composers wrote mostly for the vihuela; their main genres were polyphonic fantasias and differencias (variations). Luys Milan (c.1500–after 1560) and Luys de Narváez (fl. 1526–49) were particularly important for their contributions to the development of lute polyphony in Spain. Finally, perhaps the most influential European lute composer was the Hungarian Bálint Bakfark (c.1526–30–1576), whose contrapuntal fantasias were much more difficult and tighter than those of his Western European contemporaries.

Lute revival and composers[link]

The revival of lute-playing in the 20th century revitalized the interest of composers in the instruments of the lute family. One of the first such composers was Johann Nepomuk David in Germany. Composer Vladimir Vavilov was a pioneer of the lute revival in the USSR, also the author of numerous musical hoaxes. Sandor Kallos, Stefan Lundgren, Toyohiko Satoh applied modernist idiom to the lute, Elena Kats-Chernin, Jozef van Wissem and Alexandre Danilevsky minimalist and post-minimalist idiom, Robert Allworth serial composition, composing the first modern Concerto for the 11 course lute in his romantic 12-tone style, Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, Paulo Galvão, Robert MacKillop and Maxym Zvonaryov historicist idiom, and Ronn McFarlane New Age. This active movement by early music specialists has inspired composers in different fields; for example, in 1980, Akira Ifukube, a classical and film composer best known for the Godzilla's theme, wrote the Fantasia for Baroque Lute with the historical tablature notation, rather than the modern staff one.^[8]

Tuning conventions[link]

15-course Theorbo tuning chart.

1619 picture featuring Theorbos, a lute, citterns, a mandore, along with a "quinterne" (vihuela) and "Posche" (pochette).

Lutes were made in a large variety of sizes, with varying numbers of strings/courses, and with no permanent standard for tuning. However, the following seems to have been generally true of the Renaissance lute: A 6-course Renaissance tenor lute would be tuned to the same intervals as a tenor viol, with intervals of a perfect fourth between all the courses except the 3rd and 4th, which differed only by a major third. The tenor lute was usually tuned nominally "in g" (there was no pitch standard before the 20th century), named after the pitch of the highest course, yielding the pattern [(G'G) (Cc) (FF) (AA) (dd) (g)] from the lowest course to the highest. (Much renaissance lute music can be played on a guitar by tuning the guitar's third string down by a half tone.)

For lutes with more than six courses the extra courses would be added on the low end. Due to the large number of strings lutes have very wide necks, and it is difficult to stop strings beyond the sixth course, so additional courses were usually tuned to pitches useful as bass notes rather than continuing the regular pattern of fourths, and these lower courses are most often played without stopping. Thus an 8-course tenor Renaissance lute would be tuned to [(D'D) (F'F) (G'G) (Cc) (FF) (AA) (dd) (g)], and a 10-course to [(C'C) (D'D) (E♭'E♭) (F'F) (G'G) (Cc) (FF) (AA) (dd) (g)].

However, none of these patterns were de rigueur, and a modern lutenist will occasionally be seen to retune one or more courses between performance pieces. Manuscripts bear instructions for the player, e.g. 7^e choeur en fa = "seventh course in fa" (= F in the standard C scale).

The first part of the seventeenth century was a period of considerable diversity in the tuning of the lute, particularly in France. However, by around 1670 the scheme known today as the "Baroque"[1] or "d-minor" tuning became the norm, at least in France and in northern and central Europe. In this case the first six courses outline a d-minor triad, and an additional five to seven courses are tuned generally scalewise below them. Thus the 13-course lute played by [2] Weiss would have been tuned [(A"A') (B"B') (C'C) (D'D) (E'E) (F'F) (G'G) (A'A') (DD) (FF) (AA) (d) (f)], or with sharps or flats on the lower 7 courses appropriate to the key of the piece.

Modern lutenists tune to a variety of pitch standards, ranging from A = 392 to 470 Hz, depending on the type of instrument they are playing, the repertory, the pitch of other instruments in an ensemble and other performing expediencies. No attempt at a universal pitch standard existed during the period of the lute's historical popularity. The standards varied over time and from place to place.

Quotations[link]

The art of playing the lute formed a major part of instrumental music-making in the Renaissance before keyboard instruments assumed central significance. It was a refined, soft and at the same time colorful art, in sharp contrast to the agitated times in which it was practiced.

—Karl Schumann^[9]

This style knows nothing of the otherwise usual requirements and prohibitions of voice-leading; it can only be understood in relation to the fingering technique; it frequently applies the sound of open strings and in no way avoids the otherwise so despised parallel 5ths and octaves or unisons. The dissonances and other conflicting sounds which appear so often ... strike me as exciting and revealing.

—Carl Orff^[9]

See also[link]

Instruments[link]

European Lutes:

• String instruments
  • Angélique (instrument)
  • Archlute
  • Cittern
  • Laúd
  • Chitarra battente
  • Cobza
  • Gallichon
  • Kobza
  • Mandore
  • Mandora
  • Torban
  • Theorbo
  • Vihuela
  • Tablature
• Early music
  • Medieval music
  • Renaissance music
  • Baroque music
  • Classical Music
• Greek Music
  • Cretan Music

African Lutes:

• Gonje
• Xalam

Asian Lutes:

• Barbat
• Biwa
• Dombra
• Dotar
• Dramnyen
• Kutiyapi
• Laúd
• Oud
• Pipa
• Qinqin
• Setar
• Sitar
• Tanbur
• Tar
• Veena
• Yueqin
• Sapeh
• Stringed instrument tunings

Composers of lute music[link]

• Category:Composers for lute
• List of composers for lute

Lute players[link]

• Category:Lutenists

Lute makers[link]

• Michael Lowe
• Cezar Mateus
• Stephen Murphy
• Andrew Rutherford
• Antonio Stradivari
• Joachim Tielke
• Nico van der Waals

Notes[link]

1. ^ "Etymology Online". http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=lute. Retrieved July 12, 2010. 
2. ^ Douglas Alton Smith. A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance. p. 9. Lute Society of America (LSA), 2002. ISBN 0-9714071-0-X.
3. ^ During, Jean. "'Barbat'". Encyclopedia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/barbat. Retrieved 17 April 2011. 
4. ^ "Dowland’s Lutes by Martin Shepherd". http://www.johndowland.co.uk/DowlandsLutes.htm. 
5. ^ 4th century BC, the trichord, pandouris on a Greek marble in ancient Greece
6. ^ Pandura, the first appearance in Greece.
7. ^ Apel 1949, 54.
8. ^ Yokomizo, Ryoichi (1996). 伊福部昭ギター・リュート作品集 (Akira Ifukube - Works for Guitar and Lute) (CD Booklet). Japan: FONTEC. pp.4. 
9. ^ ^{a b} From the liner notes to the Wergo edition of Orff's Kleines Konzert, with English translations by John Patrick Thomas.

References[link]

• The Lute in Europe by Andreas Schlegel, published by The Lute Corner (2006). ISBN 978-3-9523232-0-5
• A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance by Douglas Alton Smith, published by the Lute Society of America (2002). ISBN 0-9714071-0-X ISBN 978-0-9714071-0-7
• The Lute in Britain: A History of the Instrument and its Music by Matthew Spring, published by Oxford University Press (2001).
• Historical Lute Construction by Robert Lundberg, published by the Guild of American Luthiers (2002).
• La musique de luth en France au XVIe siècle by Jean-Michel Vaccaro (1981).
• Articles in Journal of the Lute Society of America (1968–), The Lute (1958–), and other journals published by the various national lute societies.
• Eckhard Neubauer, "Der Bau der Laute und ihre Besaitung nach arabischen, persischen und türkischen Quellen des 9. bis 15. Jahrhunderts", Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, vol. 8 (1993): 279–378.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lute

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Lute.

Lute societies[link]

• The Lute Society (UK)
• The Lute Society of America
• The German Lute Society
• The French Lute Society
• The Lute Society of Japan
• The Belgian Lute Society
• The Lute and Early Guitar Society (Founded by Toyohiko Satoh)

Lute music online and other useful resources[link]

• reneszanszlant.lap.hu collection of many useful links: luthiers/lute makers, lute players, tablatures, etc. (in English and Hungarian)
• ABC Classic FM presents: Lute Project videos Watch Tommie Andersson play the theorbo, 7-course & 10-course lutes.
• Wayne Cripps' lute pages
• The Lute Lieder Site, library of songs and lieder with baroque lute accompaniment.
• The Ukrainian Lute Page Torban, a Ukrainian variety of lute/theorbo.
• Lute History by István Kónya
• Joachim Tielke The website for the great Hamburg lutemaker Joachim Tielke
• Musick's Handmade Facsimiles/Scans (Dowland, etc.) and pdfs - by Alain Veylit
• Sarge Gerbode's Lute Page 3000+ lute solo pieces by 140 composers in midi, PDF, TAB, and Fronimo formats
• Contemporary and Modern Lute Music Modern (post 1815) and Contemporary Lute Music. A list of modern lute music written after 1815

Photos of historic lutes[link]

• Photos of historic lutes at the Museum Cité de la Musique in Paris

Instruments et oeuvres d'art – search-phrase: Mot-clé(s) : luth

Facteurs d'instruments – search-phrase: Instrument fabriqué : luth

Photothèque – search-phrase: Instrument de musique, ville ou pays : luth

• Lutes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Articles and resources[link]

• Pioneers of the Lute Revivial by Jo Van Herck (Belgian Lute Academy)

Original: Over de pioniers van de luitrevival; Luthinerie / Geluit no. 15 (september 2001) and no. 16 (december 2001)

• Photos and Paintings
• French Lutenists and French Lute Music in Sweden
• La Rhétorique des Dieux
• Continuo for lutenists and guitarists: a tutor and music theory supplement Thesis by Roland H.B. Stearns

	Tota Pulchra Es noicon By Hans Judenkünig (1450-1526), lute played by Jan van Outryve (Capilla Flamenca)
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Edin Karamazov is a renowned Bosnian musician-lutenist (born in 1965 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina). He studied lute with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

He worked with such ensembles as Hesperion, L'Arpeggiata, Hilliard Ensemble, Mala Punica, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and singers Andreas Scholl, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Arianna Savall, and Sting.^[1] Karamazov's solo archlute recording features Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal" and J.S.Bach's Partita in d-minor (orig. for violin).

Recent collaborations with Sting (in the field of 16th century music) resulted in the album and film Songs from the Labyrinth, devoted to the lute-songs of John Dowland.^[2][3]

Karamazov's 2008 solo CD project on DECCA "The Lute is a Song" includes guest appearances of Sting, Renée Fleming and Macedonian singer and songwriter Kaliopi.^[4]

See also[link]

• Songs from the Labyrinth
• Sting
• Lute

References[link]

External links[link]

• Edin Karamazov at Amazon.com
• Biography at Konzertdirektion Hörtnagel Berlin

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John Dowland^[1] (1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, singer, and lutenist. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep" (the basis for Benjamin Britten's Nocturnal), "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe" and "In darkness let me dwell", but his instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and has been a source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists during the twentieth century.

Career and compositions[link]

Very little is known of John "the Bard" Dowland's early life, but it is generally thought he was born in London. Irish historian W. H. Grattan Flood claimed that he was born in Dalkey, near Dublin, but no corroborating evidence has ever been found either for that statement or for Thomas Fuller's claim that he was born in Westminster.^[2] In 1580 Dowland went to Paris, where he was in service to Sir Henry Cobham, the ambassador to the French court, and his successor, Sir Edward Stafford.^[3] He became a Roman Catholic at this time.^[4] In 1584, Dowland moved back to England where he was married. In 1588 he was admitted Mus. Bac. from Christ Church, Oxford.^[5] In 1594 a vacancy for a lutenist came up at the English court, but Dowland's application was unsuccessful - he claimed his religion led to his not being offered a post at Elizabeth I's Protestant court. However, his conversion was not publicized, and being Catholic did not prevent some other important musicians (such as William Byrd) from having a court career in England.^[3]

From 1598 Dowland worked at the court of Christian IV of Denmark,^[6] though he continued to publish in London.^[7] King Christian was very interested in music^[8] and paid Dowland astronomical sums; his salary was 500 daler a year, making him one of the highest-paid servants of the Danish court.^[9] Though Dowland was highly regarded by King Christian, he was not the ideal servant, often overstaying his leave when he went to England on publishing business or for other reasons.^[8] Dowland was dismissed in 1606^[8] and returned to England;^[9] in early 1612 he secured a post as one of James I's lutenists.^[10] There are few compositions dating from the moment of his royal appointment until his death in London in 1626.^[11] While the date of his death is not known, "Dowland's last payment from the court was on 20 January 1626, and he was buried at St Ann's, Blackfriars, London, on 20 February 1626."^[12]

Two major influences on Dowland's music were the popular consort songs, and the dance music of the day.^[13] Most of Dowland's music is for his own instrument, the lute.^[14] It includes several books of solo lute works, lute songs (for one voice and lute), part-songs with lute accompaniment, and several pieces for viol consort with lute.^[15] The poet Richard Barnfield wrote that Dowland's "heavenly touch upon the lute doth ravish human sense."

One of his better known works is the lute song "Flow my tears", the first verse of which runs:

Flow my tears, fall from your springs,
Exil'd for ever let me mourn;
Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.

—John Dowland, ^[16]

He later wrote what is probably his best known instrumental work, Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans, a set of seven pavanes for five viols and lute, each based on the theme derived from the lute song "Flow my tears".^[17] It became one of the best known collections of consort music in his time. His pavane, "Lachrymae antiquae", was also popular in the seventeenth century, and was arranged and used as a theme for variations by many composers.

Dowland's music often displays the melancholia that was so fashionable in music at that time.^[18] He wrote a consort piece with the punning title "Semper Dowland, semper dolens" (always Dowland, always doleful), which may be said to sum up much of his work.^[19]

Dowland's song, "Come Heavy Sleepe, the Image of True Death", was the inspiration for Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal after John Dowland for guitar", written in 1964 for the guitarist Julian Bream. This work consists of eight variations, all based on musical themes drawn from the song or its lute accompaniment, finally resolving into a guitar setting of the song itself.^[20]

Richard Barnfield, Dowland's contemporary, refers to the lutenist in poem VIII of The Passionate Pilgrim (1598):

If music and sweet poetry agree,
As they must needs, the sister and the brother,
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
Because thou lovest the one, and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such
As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.
Thou lovest to hear the sweet melodious sound
That Phoebus' lute, the queen of music, makes;
And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd
When as himself to singing he betakes.
One god is god of both, as poets feign;
One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.

—Richard Barnfield, The Passionate Pilgrim^{[citation needed]}

Publications[link]

In 1597, Dowland published his First Book of Songs in London. It was one of the most influential and important musical publications of the history of the lute.^[3] This collection of lute-songs was set out in a way that allows performance by a soloist with lute accompaniment or various combinations of singers and instrumentalists.^[21]

Dowland published two books of songs after the First Book of Songs, in 1600 and 1603, as well as the Lachrymae in 1604.^[17] He also published a translation of the Micrologus of Andreas Ornithoparcus in 1609, originally printed in Leipzig 1517, a rather stiff and medieval treatise, but nonetheless occasionally entertaining.^[22]

Dowland's last, and in the opinion of most scholars, best work, A Pilgrimes Solace, was published in 1612,^[23] and seems to have been conceived more as a collection of contrapuntal music than as solo works.^[24]

Suspicions of treason[link]

Dowland performed a number of espionage assignments for Sir Robert Cecil in France and Denmark; his high rate of pay notwithstanding, Dowland seems to have been only a court musician.^[8] However, we have in his own words the fact that he was for a time embroiled in treasonous Catholic intrigue in Italy,^[25] whither he had travelled in the hopes of meeting and studying with Luca Marenzio, a famed madrigal composer.^[3] Whatever his religion, however, he was still intensely loyal to the Queen, though he seems to have had something of a grudge against her for her remark that he, Dowland, "was a man to serve any prince in the world, but [he] was an obstinate Papist."^[26] But in spite of this, and though the plotters offered him a large sum of money from the Pope, as well as safe passage for his wife and children to come to him from England,^[27] in the end he declined to have anything further to do with their plans and begged pardon from Sir Robert Cecil and from the Queen.^[28]

Private life[link]

John Dowland was married and had children, as referenced in his letter to Sir Robert Cecil.^[29] However, he had long periods of separation from his family, as his wife stayed in England while he worked on the Continent.^[30]

His son Robert Dowland was also a musician, working for some time in the service of the first Earl of Devonshire,^[11] and taking over his father's position of lutenist at court when John died.^[31]

Dowland's melancholic lyrics and music have often been described as his attempts to develop an "artistic persona" though he was actually a cheerful person,^[32] but many of his own personal complaints, and the tone of bitterness in many of his comments, suggest that much of his music and his melancholy truly did come from his own personality and frustration.^[33]

Modern interpretations[link]

One of the first twentieth century musicians who successfully helped reclaim Dowland from the history books was the singer-songwriter Frederick Keel.^[34] Keel included fifteen different Dowland pieces in his two sets of Elizabethan love songs published in 1909 and 1913,^[35] which achieved popularity in their day. These free arrangements for piano and low or high voice were intended to fit the tastes and musical practices associated with art songs of the time.

In 1935, Australian-born composer Percy Grainger, who also had a deep interest in music made before Bach, arranged Dowland’s Now, O now I needs must part for piano. Some years later, in 1953, Grainger wrote a work titled Bell Piece (Ramble on John Dowland’s ‘Now, O now I needs must part’), which was a version scored for voice and wind band, based in his previously mentioned transcription.

In 1951 Alfred Deller famous counter-tenor (1912-1979), recorded songs by John Dowland/Thomas Campion/Philip Rosseter with the label HMV (His Master's Voice) HMV C.4178 and another HMV C.4236 of Dowland's "Flow my Tears". In 1977, Harmonia Mundi also published two records of Deller singing Dowland's Lute songs (HM 244&245-H244/246).^[36]

Dowland's music became part of the repertoire of the early music revival with lutenist Julian Bream and tenor Peter Pears, and later with Christopher Hogwood and David Munrow and the Early Music Consort in the late 1960s and later with the Academy of Ancient Music from the early 1970s.

Jan Akkerman, guitarist of the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, recorded "Tabernakel" in 1973 (though released in 1974), an album of John Dowland songs and some original material, performed on lute.

The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland with lute tablature and keyboard notation has been transcribed and edited by Diana Poulton and Basil Lam, Faber Music Limited, London 1974.

The complete works of Dowland have been recorded in a boxed set by the Consort of Musicke.

The 1999 ECM New Series recording In Darkness Let Me Dwell features new interpretations of Dowland songs performed by tenor John Potter, lutenist Stephen Stubbs, and baroque violinist Maya Homburger in collaboration with English jazz musicians John Surman and Barry Guy.

Nigel North recorded Dowland's complete works for solo lute on four CDs between 2004 and 2007.

Elvis Costello included a recording (with Fretwork and the Composers Ensemble) of Dowland's "Can she excuse my wrongs" as a bonus track on the 2006 re-release of his The Juliet Letters.

In October 2006, Sting, who says he has been fascinated by the music of John Dowland for 25 years,^[37] released an album featuring Dowland's songs titled Songs from the Labyrinth, on Deutsche Grammophon, in collaboration with Edin Karamazov on lute and archlute. They described their treatment of Dowland's work in a Great Performances appearance.^[38] To give some idea of the tone and intrigues of life in late Elizabethan England, Sting also recites throughout the album portions of a 1593 letter written by Dowland to Sir Robert Cecil.^[39] The letter describes Dowland's travels to various points of Western Europe, then breaks into a detailed account of his activities in Italy, along with a heartfelt denial of the charges of treason whispered against him by unknown persons. Dowland most likely was suspected of this for traveling to the courts of various Catholic monarchs and accepting payment from them greater than what a musician of the time would normally have received for performing.^[25]

Other interpretations of Dowland's songs have been recorded by Windham Hill artist, Lisa Lynne, (for her CD, Maiden's Prayer) and Lise Winne (for her Wing'd With Hopes, New Interpretations of Renaissance Songs CD). Several bands, such as Die Verbannten Kinder Evas, Aesma Daeva and Qntal, have recorded albums featuring lyrics by John Dowland. The countertenor Andreas Scholl sings in Crystal Tears English consort songs with Concerto Viole of Basel. A rendition of Dowland's "Come again" (sung by Sting) can also be found on Joshua Bell's 2009 album, At home with Friends.

In popular culture[link]

• The science fiction author Philip K. Dick was a fan of Dowland's and his lute music is a recurring theme in Dick's novels. Dick sometimes assumed the pen-name Jack Dowland.^[40] Dick also based the title of the novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said on one of Dowland's best-known compositions. In his novel The Divine Invasion, the character Linda Fox (a thinly disguised proxy for Linda Ronstadt) is a popular singer whose repertoire consists of remakes of John Dowland compositions.
• Rose Tremain's 1999 novel Music and Silence is set at the court of Christian IV of Denmark some years after Dowland's departure and contains several references to the composer's music and temperament: in the opening chapter, Christian remarks that "the man was all ambition and hatred, yet his ayres were as delicate as rain".
• Aesma Daeva's song "Darkness" uses "Flow my Tears" as lyrics.
• Both Dowland and Thomas Tallis are referenced in the Half Man Half Biscuit song, "I went to a wedding".
• Dowland is referenced in the Big Big Train song "Reaching for John Dowland" on their album English Boy Wonders.
• Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84 mentions one of the characters, the dowager, as a fan of Lachrimae, and listening to it frequently.
• Klaus Nomi's second album Simple Man juxtaposes excerpts of Dowland's music in his songs.^[41]

References[link]

• Peter Holman/Paul O'Dette: "John Dowland", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed July 10, 2007), (subscription access)

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• John Dowland by Diana Poulton, published by Faber & Faber (2nd edition, 1982). ISBN 0-520-04687-0.
• A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance by Douglas Alton Smith, published by the Lute Society of America (2002). ISBN 0-9714071-0-X
• The Lute in Britain: A History of the Instrument and its Music by Matthew Spring, published by Oxford University Press (2001).
• The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland edited by Diana Poulton, published by Faber Music (2nd edition, 1978). ISBN 0-571-10024-4.
• The English Ayre by Peter Warlock, published by Greenwood Press, Publishers (1970). (Originally published 1926, Oxford University Press, London). ISBN 8371-4237-7.
• New Oxford History of Music, Volume IV: The Age of Humanism 1540-1630 edited by Gerald Abraham, published by Oxford University Press (1968).

Recordings[link]

	Dowland - I saw my lady weep - (guitar and alto) (1.42 Mb)
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External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Dowland

• johndowland.co.uk - site containing videos, essays, and scores
• Some video performances of John Dowland's songs by Valeria Mignaco, soprano & Alfonso Marin, lute
• Free scores by John Dowland in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by John Dowland in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Works by John Dowland at Project Gutenberg
• Free scores by John Dowland at the International Music Score Library Project
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by John Dowland
• John Dowland's Come Again sung by male alto Russell Oberlin
• Four Pieces by John Dowland performed by lutenist Brian Wright

Nigel North (born 5 June 1954) is an English lutenist and guitarist.

Student days[link]

He studied guitar on a scholarship to the junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1964–70), taking up the lute in 1969, at the age of 15. He maintains he was more or less self-taught on the instrument. He went on to study at the Royal College of Music from 1971 to 1974: classical guitar with John Williams and Carlos Bonell, viola da gamba with Francis Baines; lute (one term) with Diana Poulton, qualifying in 1974 with an A.R.C.M. diploma in lute performance. He completed his studies on the postgraduate course in Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama 1975–1975 and with one month's study with baroque lutenist Michael Schäffer in 1976.

Teaching[link]

Overlapping his student years, in 1975 he was appointed Professor of Lute at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama, a position he held until 1996. From 1993 to 1999 he was Professor of Historical Plucked Instruments at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, Germany. From January 1999 he has been Professor of Lute at the Early Music Institute, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University and, from January 2005, has taught the lute at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Holland.

He has written the standard modern textbook on continuo playing on the lute and related instruments:

• North, Nigel (1987). Continuo playing on the Lute, Archlute and Theorbo: a Comprehensive Guide for Performers. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-31415-1.  (review)

The following textbook is in preparation:

• Lute and Early Guitar - a Performance Practice Handbook Original didactic sources from 1500 - c.1760, for lute and guitar. Sources in facsimile, with translations and full editorial comment; covering the working repertoire of a modern lutenist. It will be a book in which one may find the answers to performance practice questions taken directly from original sources.

Professional career[link]

His recording life began in the mid-1970s; while studying at music college, he played viol, cittern, rebec and violin as well as his more usual instruments, lute, theorbo, mandolin and baroque guitar on recordings with some of the English pioneers of early music of that time, such as David Munrow with The Early Music Consort and Alfred Deller with The Deller Consort.

From 1974 to 1990 Nigel North played in baroque operas, baroque orchestras and chamber groups and accompanied singers in concerts, participating in over 100 recordings. Notable groups and people with whom he has worked:

• The English Concert (Trevor Pinnock)
• The Academy of Ancient Music (Christopher Hogwood)
• The Brandenburg Consort (Roy Goodman)
• Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Rene Jacobs)
• Red Byrd
• Fretwork
• London Baroque
• Peter Pears (Aldeburgh Festival, 1976)
• James Bowman
• Michael Chance
• Nancy Argenta
• Emma Kirkby

With Andrew Manze (violin) and John Toll (harpsichord) he formed the ensemble Romanesca in 1988; they played together for the next 10 years.

His solo lute debut was a Bach programme at the Wigmore Hall in 1977; in 1985 he performed all of Bach's lute works for the first time in London. Numerous recitals and recordings followed and from 1984 to 2001 he toured worldwide.

He has made transcriptions for lute of Bach's solo violin works and solo cello suites, which he has performed at the Wigmore Hall and recorded on a 4 CD set, Bach on the Lute (1994–1998). He has published an edition of these transcriptions for lute tablature, classical guitar and staff notation.

Other notable recordings include the complete lute works of John Dowland (4 CDs on Naxos Records), and a series of CDs of music by 17th-century French lutenists.

Published editions of lute music[link]

• Oxford University Press Lute Series
• Lute Music by William Byrd (Volume 6), 1976
• Lute and Bandora Music by Alfonso Ferrabosco (Volume 8), 1979, Stainer and Bell
• Tablature for 2 Lutes Volumes 1 and 2 (English Renaissance Treble and Ground Duets), 1983, Faber Music/Indiana University Press
• Varietie of Lute Lessons, Robert Dowland's anthology of 1610 (in preparation).

Sources[link]

• Stephen Haynes: 'North, Nigel', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-05-06), <http://www.grovemusic.com>
• 'North, Nigel', Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Britain, Helicon Publishing, March 2005

External links[link]

• http://www.nigelnorth.com/ - personal website
• Linn Records: Nigel North
• Indiana University: Nigel North

John Williams
Williams at the Avery Fisher Hall in 2007
Background information
Birth name	John Towner Williams
Born	(1932-02-08) February 8, 1932 (age 80)
Origin	Flushing, Queens, New York, United States of America
Genres	Film score, Contemporary classical music, Jazz
Occupations	Composer, pianist, conductor
Years active	1952–present

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, War Horse, Home Alone and the first three Harry Potter films. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two (Duel and The Color Purple) of Spielberg's major feature films.

Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the NBC Nightly News, the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, and the television series Lost in Space. Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.

Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 47 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney.^[1] John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.^[2] Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

Early life and family[link]

John Williams was born on February 8, 1932 on Long Island, New York, the son of Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams.^[3] His father was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet.

In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.^[4] In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his assignments.

After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne.^[4] During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist in New York's many clubs and eventually studios, most notably for composer Henry Mancini. His fellow session musicians included Rolly Bundock on bass, Jack Sperling on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar—the same lineup featured on the Mr. Lucky television series. Williams was known as "Little Johnny Love" Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine.

Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. The Williamses had three children: Jennifer (born 1956), Mark (born 1958), and Joseph (born 1960). Williams' younger son (Joseph) is one of the various lead singers the band Toto. John Williams married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, on July 21, 1980.

John Williams is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national fraternity for college band members.

Film and television scoring[link]

Williams at the Boston Symphony Hall after conducting the Boston Pops, May 2006

While skilled in a variety of 20th century compositional idioms, Williams' most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism,^[5] inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century—especially the compositions of Richard Wagner and its concept of leitmotif—that inspired his film music predecessors.^[6]

After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn.^[7] Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. Williams recorded with Henry Mancini on the film scores of Peter Gunn (1959), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), and Charade (1963). (Williams actually played the well-recognized opening riff to Mancini's Peter Gunn theme.^[8][9]) Williams (often credited as "Johnny Williams") also composed the music for various TV programs in the 1960s: The pilot episode of Gilligan's Island,^[10] Bachelor Father (1959-1960), the Kraft Suspense Theatre, Lost in Space (1965–68), The Time Tunnel (1966–67), and Land of the Giants (the last three created by the prolific TV producer, Irwin Allen).

Working at Universal Studios, Williams shared music credit on a number of films, the most notable being The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954. Williams's first major film composition was for the B movie Daddy-O in 1958, and his first screen credit came two years later in Because They're Young. He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award for his film score for Valley of the Dolls (1967), and then was nominated again for his score for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his adapted score for the film Fiddler on the Roof (1971). In 1972 he composed the score for the Robert Altman psychological thriller Images (recorded in collaboration with noted percussionist Stomu Yamashta) which earned him another nomination in the category 'Best Music, Original Dramatic Score' at the 1973 Academy Awards. During the early 1970s, Williams' prominence grew thanks to his work for now–film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films, composing the scores for The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). In addition, he scored Universal's Earthquake (1974) for director Mark Robson, completing a "trinity" of scores for the highest grossing "disaster films" of the decade. He also wrote a very memorable score to The Cowboys (1972), a western starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell.

In 1974, Williams was approached by director Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, The Sugarland Express. The young director had been impressed with Williams's score for the movie The Reivers (1969), and Spielberg was convinced that Williams could compose the musical sound that he desired for any of his films. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, Jaws. Widely considered to be a classic suspense film, its film score's ominous two-note motif has become synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score for Jaws earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first one for an original composition.

Shortly thereafter, Williams and Spielberg began a long collaboration for their next feature film together, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K, 1977). In an unusual step for a Hollywood film, Spielberg and Williams developed their script and musical concepts simultaneously, as in the film these entwine very closely together. During their two-year-long collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure that functions both in the background music and as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in CE3K that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen and refined by Zoltan Kodaly.

During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious space epic, Star Wars (1977). Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in motion picture history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotif. Both the film and its soundtrack were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all-time—and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1980, Williams returned to score The Empire Strikes Back, where he introduced "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. The original Star Wars trilogy concluded with the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, for which Williams's score provided most notably the "Emperor's Theme," "Parade of the Ewoks," and "Luke and Leia." Both scores earned Williams Academy Award nominations.

John Williams conducting the music score to Raiders of the Lost Ark in the Avery Fisher Hall.

Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film Superman. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My Mind," would appear in the four sequel films. For the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, created and directed by Lucas and Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones. He also composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion, and the Nazi villains of the story. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the sequel films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The music conveys the film's benign, childlike sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based, harp-featured theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.

The 1985 film The Color Purple is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, Quincy Jones, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score Twilight Zone: The Movie, but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film, John Landis, selected Jerry Goldsmith as composer. The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film Empire of the Sun, and has continued to the present, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's Jurassic Park), to somber tragedies (1993's Schindler's List, 2005's Munich), to Eastern-tinged melodramas (2005's Memoirs of a Geisha, directed by Rob Marshall). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend."^[11]

In 1999 George Lucas launched the first of a series of prequels to the original Star Wars trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with The Phantom Menace. Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). Most notable of these was "Duel of the Fates," an aggressive choral movement utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme," which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March" of the prior trilogy. For Episode II, Williams composed "Across the Stars," a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous movies, including "The Emperor's Theme," "The Imperial March," "Across the Stars," "Duel of the Fates," "The Force Theme," "Rebel Fanfare," "Luke's Theme," and "Princess Leia's Theme," as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, entitled "Battle of the Heroes." Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six Star Wars films add up to more than 14 hours of orchestral music.

In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptations of the widely successful book series, Harry Potter. He went on to score the first three installments of the film franchise. As with his Superman theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the adaptations of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, dubbed Hedwig's Theme, has been used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2), scored by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat respectively. Like the main themes from Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, and Indiana Jones, fans have come to identify the Harry Potter films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to the film franchise to score the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, but director David Yates stated that "their schedules simply did not align" as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.

In 2006 Superman Returns was completed under the direction of Bryan Singer, best known for directing the first two movies in the X-Men series. Although Singer did not request Williams to compose a score for the intentionally Donner-esque film, he employed the skills of X2 composer John Ottman to incorporate Williams's original Superman theme, as well as those for Lois Lane, Krypton and Smallville. Don Davis performed a similar role for Jurassic Park III, recommended to the producers by Williams himself. (Film scores by Ottman and to a lesser extent Davis are often compared to those of Williams, as both use similar styles of composition.)

In 2008 Williams returned to the Indiana Jones series to score the fourth film—The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. During 2008, he also composed music for two documentaries, Warner at War,^[12] and A Timeless Call,^[13] the latter of which was directed by Steven Spielberg.

After a three year absence from film scoring, Williams composed the scores for Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and War Horse in 2011. Both scores received overwhelmingly positive reviews,^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} with both scores earning Oscar nominations,^[20] and the latter being nominated for a Golden Globe.^[21] The Oscar nominations are Williams' 46th and 47th, making him the most nominated musician in Academy Awards history (having previously been tied with Alfred Newman's 45 nominations), and the second most nominated overall, following Walt Disney. Williams won an Annie Award for his score for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in 2012.

Williams is next scheduled to score Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln.

Conducting and performing[link]

Williams signing an autograph after a concert

From 1980 to 1993, Williams succeeded Arthur Fiedler as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke with him by telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for The Empire Strikes Back, in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites.

Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984.^[22] Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in and respect from the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years.^[23] In 1995 he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO....

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony; a Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991;^[24] a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings.

Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC in 1980, and was featured in a story for ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 in 1983.^[25]

Stanley Donen (left) and John Williams at Avery Fisher Hall

In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Meet the Press. Williams also composed the "Liberty Fanfare" for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin' Good!" for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games. His most recent concert work, "Seven for Luck", for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. "Seven for Luck" was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon.

Williams conducting at Hollywood Bowl.

Williams makes annual appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and took part as conductor and composer in the orchestra's opening gala concerts for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.

In 2004, Williams both served as the Grand Marshall for the Rose Parade, and directed the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Rose Bowl.

In April 2005, Williams and the Boston Pops performed "The Force Theme" from Star Wars at opening day in Fenway Park as the Boston Red Sox, having won their first World Series championship since 1918, received their championship rings. For Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, Williams conducted a brass-and-drum ensemble through a new dissonant arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner."^[25]

In April 2004, February 2006, and September 2007, he conducted the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams's medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Academy Awards.^[26] Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006: fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.^[27] Continuing demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of film director Stanley Donen, and had the distinction of serving as the opening event of the New York Philharmonic season.^[28] After a four-season absence, Williams conducted the Philharmonic once again in October 2011.^[29]

Awards[link]

John Williams has won five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. He has also been nominated for 22 Golden Globes, winning four, and 59 Grammys, winning 20. With 47 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person,^[30][31] and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards behind only Walt Disney's 59. Forty-two of Williams' Oscar nominations are for Best Original Score and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score and one for Best Adapted Score (Fiddler on the Roof).

Williams has received three Emmy Awards and five nominations, seven BAFTAs, twenty Grammy Awards, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year.

Notably, Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his scores for Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Angela's Ashes (1999), Munich (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as symphonies and chamber music.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee accorded Mr. Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order.^[32]

In 2009, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House in Washington for his achievements in symphonic music for motion pictures, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades."^[33]

John Williams was made an honorary brother of Kappa Kappa Psi at Boston University in the late 80's. ^[34]

AFI[link]

Williams's richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was selected in 2005 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. His scores for Jaws and E.T. also appeared on the list, at No. 6 and No. 14, respectively.^[35] He is the only composer to have three scores on the list. Williams' scores for the following films were nominated for the list:

• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• The Cowboys (1972)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• Superman (1978)
• The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

List of awards[link]