(Fr. archiluth; Ger. Erzlaute; It. arciliuto, arcileuto).
A generic term for lutes with fretted courses tuned like the Renaissance lute, and with extended, unfretted bass courses (diapasons). The archlute differs from the Theorbo mainly in that the body is smaller and the first and second courses are at lute pitch rather than an octave lower (this was possible because the string length was shorter). The term ‘arciliuto’ was in use in Italy before 1590; it is not known precisely what form of instrument the term then implied, but the prefix ‘arci-’ indicates some form of enhanced lute, the extension of the bass courses (for greater volume as much as for additional notes) being the most probable enhancement. The various early archlutes preserved the tuning, double stringing, octave bass courses, and musical role of the Renaissance lute; consequently they were often simply called ‘liuto’. Contemporary paintings show some lutes with a short neck extension bearing a second bent-back pegbox, and some with extended diapasons attached to the bass side of a single, straight pegbox. By the second decade of the 17th century some archlutes bore a short form of theorbo-like extension with its characteristic shepherd's-crook head carrying double-strung, octaved diapasons about one-and-a-half times the length of the fretted courses. This development coincides with the first appearance of the term ‘liuto attiorbato’ (theorboed lute) which is the normal modern term for archlutes of this kind, following Spencer's classification (1976). Both the term and this form of the instrument gradually disappeared in Italy around the mid-17th century.
1. Types. 2. Repertory.
Alessandro Piccinini, in his Intavolatura di liuto of 1623, claimed to be the inventor of the arciliuto, and objected to the term ‘liuto attiorbato’ because it falsely implied a derivation from the theorbo. A ten-course archlute of 1595, by Wendelio Venere of Padua (probably Wendelin Heberle; see Tieffenbrucker), and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, matches the experimental instrument described by Piccinini. It is radically different from the liuto attiorbato in that its diapasons were extended by lengthening the body rather than the neck, and fitting them to a second, independent bridge placed some distance back from the main bridge carrying the fingerboard strings. Finding this design unsatisfactory, Piccinini and his luthier made subsequent instruments with a neck extension; he did not describe its form, but it is likely to have incorporated either a second bent-back pegbox or a modified single pegbox, either of which can be fitted without compromising the design of the lute's body. The liuto attiorbato with its theorbo-style extension co-existed with alternative types of archlute during the 1620s and 30s, but gradually became dominant as the number of courses increased, because the alternative designs could not accommodate extra courses so readily.
Until the 1620s archlutes usually had up to 11 double courses, six or seven of which were fretted. Further diapasons were added between 1610 and 1615 but were not widely adopted until a generation later. By the 1630s liuti attiorbati with seven stopped courses plus six or seven diapasons were usual, although P.F. Valentini, writing in the 1640s (Il leuto anatomizzato, MS, I-Rvat), still mentioned the 11-course type. Surviving liuti attiorbati range in size from alto to large tenor. Typical stopped string lengths are 58–9 cm (alto), and 66–7 cm (average tenor), with diapasons of approximately 85 cm and 95 cm respectively. The lower neck is relatively long, joining the body at the tenth fret or higher, and the body is short, and also wide to accommodate the long bridge. The resulting round, squat body is characteristic, especially of the alto size, making it possible to identify specimens that have been rebuilt into other forms. Most surviving examples were made by Matteo Sellas in Venice between 1637 and 1649; these may owe their survival to their atypically elaborate decoration.
Archlutes were known outside Italy, but were never common. Mersenne (Harmonie universelle, 1636–7) illustrated an 11-course luth à double manche or arci liuto, erroneously labelling it tuorbe in the main text, and correcting himself in the errata. The terms ‘luth en tuorbe’ or ‘luth en théorbe’ are found in several 17th-century French inventories, some of which specify the instruments' Italian provenance. Evidence from luthiers' inventories shows that many Italian lutes were rebuilt in Paris in the French fashion (with a backward-curving upper head, chantarelle rider, and long, open-backed lower pegbox). These were long in use; a manuscript (Suonate di celebri auttori; I-Bc EE.155.I) compiled by Filippo Dalla Casa in 1757 illustrated one and included music for ‘arcileuto francese’. Mersenne suggested a single re-entrant course on very large archlutes, and such instruments were influential in the development of the French theorbo in France. In Germany, Praetorius (Theatrum instrumentorum, 1620) illustrated a ten-course Laute mit Abzugen: oder Testudo Theorbata with six stopped courses and four diapasons, all double; the strings pass over the bridge and are anchored at the base of the body, suggesting metal stringing. Although many surviving liuti attiorbati have been converted to this by shortening the neck and sometimes canting the soundboard, none appear to have been purpose-built.
Another form of archlute, developed by adding a longer, single-strung extension to a tenor lute, had proportions similar to the Italian theorbo but was smaller overall. This development is impossible to date accurately; most, perhaps all, surviving specimens are conversions from earlier lute forms. They have six rather than seven double stopped courses; their diapasons are approximately twice the length of the stopped strings and are always single (their length precludes the use of octave strings and renders them unnecessary because of the longer strings' powerful sound). This type corresponds most closely to the modern archlute, many of which are copied from an example dated 1610 (the extension may be later) by Magno Tieffenbrucker (iii), now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. This has six double courses at 67 cm, and eight single bass courses at 145 cm, and is tenor-sized with a ten-fret neck. A final type of archlute was developed in Rome in the late 17th century, characterized by a larger body, relatively shorter lower neck and longer extension than the types described above. The few surviving examples, clearly in original form, are as large as the tuning permits, solidly built with relatively thick soundboards and often hardwood backs, to produce a powerful, penetrating sound. A fine, late specimen is that by David Tecchler (Rome, 1725), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig.2). Purpose-built and converted archlutes with long single diapasons were predominantly used for playing bass lines and continuo.
All archlutes shared the same relative tuning of the stopped courses as the Renaissance lute (unlike the theorbo which had a re-entrant tuning), and were used for solo music and, to a lesser extent, for bass lines and continuo. A tenor-sized 14-course instrument was tuned F'–G'–A'–B'–C–D–E–F–G–c–f–a–d'–g'. A 13-course instrument lacked the lowest note. Sometimes the bottom courses would be re-tuned to supply missing chromatic notes to suit individual pieces. Alto-sized instruments were tuned a tone higher overall (G'–A'–B'–C–D–E–F–G–A–d–g–b–e'–a').
In the first half of the 17th century, solo music for the archlute was printed in tablature by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, pietro paulo Melli, Claudio Saracini, Alessandro Piccinini and Bernardo Gianoncelli (Il liuto, 1650/R). Archlutes were intensely cultivated in Rome, fulfilling a wider range of musical roles there than elsewhere in Italy. Payment records from many Roman institutions, especially churches, frequently mention arcileuto, liuto, leuto, liuto attiorbato throughout the 17th century and for at least the first decade of the 18th. Archlutes accompanied voices in conjunction with an organ and violone, and were also used as solo instruments or in ensembles, to provide short instrumental interludes during church services. In Rome, references to the archlute outnumber those to the theorbo, although both were sometimes used simultaneously to support different choirs of a polychoral work. Not surprisingly much of the archlute's repertory is linked to Rome; the instrument was used for bass parts and continuo in cantatas, operas, oratorios and various instrumental genres, by Marazzoli, Virgilio Mazzocchi, Colista, Stradella, Corelli, A. Scarlatti, Handel and others. Its ability to play full chords in a high tessitura was exploited in continuo arias with a high bass line, e.g. A. Scarlatti's Tigrane (1715). Obbligato parts occur in Handel's aria ‘Cor fedele’ (Clori, Tirsi e Fileno; 1707) and in oratorios by the Roman archlutenist and composer Nicola Francesco Haym. A small repertory of concertante works with archlute parts includes two trios and a concerto by Vivaldi. An anonymous Italian manuscript of about 1720 in the Robert Spencer Collection contains a Sinfonia a solo di arciliuto and two Concertini per cammera con arciliuto obligato, violini e basso, in which the archlute part is written in staff notation, use treble clef for solo passages (written an octave higher than sounding pitch) and figured bass for tutti sections (fig.3). Giovanni Zamboni's collection of Sonate d'intavolatura di leuto (1718), written in tablature, is the last published solo music for the instrument.
Outside Rome, references to the archlute as a continuo instrument are uncommon until the 1680s, when the rise of the trio sonata boosted the instrument's popularity. Corelli's collections of Sonate da chiesa (opp.1 and 3) specified ‘arcileuto’ for the bass part (not the continuo); his many imitators copied this detail. Non-Roman reprints often substituted the theorbo, and foreign reprints sometimes blurred the distinction between bass and continuo instrumentation. Borgir argued that Corelli's instrumentation is evidence for the archlute being primarily a single-line instrument rather than a chordal one. This is true of many obbligato parts, but trio sonata bass parts are figured as comprehensively as the continuo. Contemporary descriptions and surviving archlute parts suggests that the bass line, like the top part, would have been embellished, either chordally or melodically. Although the archlute was frequently specified in trio sonatas and related genres of instrumental chamber music during the 1680s and 90s, it is rarely mentioned in print outside this repertory. Contrary to some authorities, it never supplanted the theorbo, which was more widespread geographically and chronologically, and had a broader repertory. Corelli's works were partly responsible for assisting the archlute's spread across Europe. References to it appear in France and the Low Countries in the wake of Corellian fashions, and it acquired a short-lived popularity in England around 1700.
R. Spencer: ‘Chitarrone, Theorbo and Archlute’, EMc, iv (1976), 407–22
E. Pacini: ‘Una tiorba romana del '700: appunti di restauro’, Il flauto dolce, x–xi (1984), 23–8
J. Dugot: ‘Some Aspects of the Construction of Archlutes and Theorboes in Venice (c1600–1650)’, Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986, 113–23
T. Borgir: The Performance of the Basso Continuo in Italian Baroque Music (Ann Arbor, 1987)
V. Coelho: The Manuscript Sources of Seventeenth-Century Italian Lute Music (New York, 1995)
L. Sayce: ‘Continuo Lutes in 17th- and 18th-century England’, EMc, xxiii (1995), 666–84
M. Pesci: ‘Nuove proposte di prassi esecutiva fondate su un inedito trattato di basso continuo per arciliuto’, Recercare, viii (1996), 5–57
LYNDA SAYCE