Theorbo [chitarrone, theorbo lute]

(Fr. téorbe, théorbe, tuorbe; Ger. Theorb; It. tiorba, tuorba).

An instrument of the Western lute family with stopped courses considerably longer than those of a lute and with a separate nut and pegbox for a set of longer, unstopped bass strings (diapasons). The Italian names Chitarrone and tiorba were used synonymously for the same instrument, depending on personal or regional preferences. During the 17th century and part of the 18th the theorbo was popular as an accompanying instrument, and in the 17th century a certain amount of solo music in tablature was published for it.

The pegbox for the stopped strings of a theorbo is nearly aligned with the neck, not bent back sharply as on a lute. Beyond the upper end of this pegbox the neck extends to an additional pegbox for the additional bass strings. The extension is of the same piece of wood as the first pegbox, and the bass strings are kept from crossing the stopped courses by setting the extensions at a slight angle off centre.

The stopped courses of the theorbo are much longer than those of the ordinary tenor lute – too long for the highest strings to withstand the tension necessary to tune them as they would be tuned on the lute. Consequently the first course, and usually the second, was tuned down an octave. The third course was thus the highest in pitch and in solo music became the melody course. (Mace advocated in 1676, however, that if the second course could withstand the higher tuning only the first course should be tuned down.) The octave displacement of the upper course or courses is an important factor distinguishing the theorbo (Chitarrone) from the lute-sized Liuto attiorbato (see also Archlute), which retained the normal lute tuning for its fretted courses. The 17th- and early 18th-century English term ‘theorbo lute’ probably referred to a theorbo.

Praetorius (2/1619) distinguished a paduanische Theorba from a lang romanische Theorba: Chitarron (see fig.1), but Italian writers used ‘chitarrone’ and ‘theorbo’ synonymously (see Mason, 1989). Praetorius also illustrated a ‘theorboed lute’ (testudo theorbata) but described that instrument in his tuning charts as merely a ‘lute with a long neck’, i.e. a liuto attiorbato. Elsewhere he alluded to two varieties of theorbo, one strung with gut and the other with brass and steel. He gave the following tuning for a 14-course theorbo: F'–G'–A'–B'–C–D–E–F–G–c–f–a–d–g; he also included bass strings. Banchieri (1611) indicated a G tuning with only the first course at the lower octave, as did Mace and other English sources. However, all other sources, Italian and French, indicate that the tuning G'–A'–B'–C–D–E–F–G–A–d–g–b–e–a was by far the most common.

The theorbo (chitarrone) appears first in late 16th-century Italy and seems to have been invented by the Florentine humanists, who were responsible for creating the famous intermedi performed at the Medici wedding celebrations of 1589. The souvenir description of the event (Bastiano de' Rossi: Descrizione dell'apparato, e degl'intermedi, Florence, 1589) is the earliest documented reference to the instrument.

Tablatures of solo music for theorbo were idiomatically written to take into account the octave displacement of the first two courses. Thus the left hand occasionally has to finger the third course up to the 12th fret, leaving the first two courses to fill in the harmony. The greater length of the theorbo’s strings precluded some of the more difficult chord patterns commonly found in solo lute music. Belerofonte Castaldi (Capricci, 1622), however, published some duets for theorbo and ‘tiorbino al ottava’, presumably a small theorbo pitched an octave above; an instrument in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum fits this description. Sources of ensemble and solo music for the theorbo in staff notation include an early 17th-century manuscript (I-Rn 156/1–4) containing works by Stefano Landi, Giovanni Priuli and Filippo Nicoletti; Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia universalis (Rome, 1650) containing music by Lelio Colista; and Pièces de théorbe et de luth mises en partition dessus et basse (Paris, 1716) by the theorbo player Robert de Visée. By the end of the 17th century the theorbo was used also as a virtuoso single-line bass instrument for obbligato accompaniments in opera arias. Domenico Gabrielli’s Il Maurizio (1689) uses a ‘tiorba’ extensively in this capacity. Other works with ‘tiorba obligato’ include J.J. Fux’s La decima fatica d’Ercole (1710) and Orfeo ed Euridice (1715) The repertory of music using the theorbo as a Continuo instrument is large; it requires the theorbo player to read from a bass line and devise his own accompaniment (like a keyboard continuo player). In this role the instrument was used in large-scale ensembles as well as to accompany solo songs. A number of continuo tutors for the instrument were published, including Nicolas Fleury’s Méthode pour apprendre facilement à toucher le théorbe sur la basse-continuë (Paris, 1660/R); A.M. Bartolotti’s Table pour apprendre facilement à toucher le théorbe sur la basse-continuë (Paris, 1669); H. Grenerin’s Livre de théorbe (Paris, c1670); E.D. Delair’s Traité d’accompagnement pour le théorbe et le clavessin (Paris, 1690/R, 2/1723); and François Campion’s two works Traité d’accompagnement et de composition selon la règle des octaves de musique (Paris, 1716/R) and Addition au traité … (Paris, 1730/R).

TABLATURE SOURCES

The following is a list of sources, mostly solo, which use the name ‘theorbo’ (‘tiorba’) on the title-page or within.

printed

manuscript

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MersenneHU

PraetoriusSM, ii

T. Mace: Musick’s Monument (London, 1676/R)

N. Fortune: ‘Giustiniani on Instruments’, GSJ, v (1952), 48–56

N. Fortune: ‘Continuo Instruments in Italian Monodies’, GSJ, vi (1953), 10–13

M. Morrow and M. Graubart: ‘Lutes and Theorboes: their Use as Continuo Instruments, described by Praetorius in his Syntagma musicum, 1619’, LSJ, ii (1960), 26–32

M. Prynne: ‘James Talbot’s Manuscript, IV: Plucked Strings – the Lute Family’, GSJ, xiv (1961), 52–68

E. Pohlmann: Laute, Theorbe, Chitarrone: die Instrumente, ihre Musik und Literatur von 1500 bis zur Gegenwart (Bremen, 1968, enlarged 5/1982) [lists publications where theorbo is mentioned as continuo inst]

M. Caffagni: ‘Il chitarrone come strumento per il basso continuo ed esempi del MS M.127 della Biblioteca Estense di Modena’, Musica strumentale e vocale strumentale dal Rinascimento al Barocco: Bologna 1970, 117–51

C. Sartori: ‘Stefano Landi uno e due: ma di chi sono le canzoni strumentali?’, NRMI, ix (1975), 3–9

R. Spencer: ‘Chitarrone, Theorbo and Archlute’, EMc, iv (1976), 407–23

M. Caffagni: ‘The Modena Tiorba Manuscript’, JLSA, xii (1979), 25–42

D.A. Smith: ‘On the Origin of the Chitarrone’, JAMS, xxxii (1979), 440–581

F. Hellwig: ‘The Morphology of Lutes with Extended Bass Strings’, EMc, ix (1981), 447–54

K. Mason: ‘François Campion’s Secret of Accompaniment for the Theorbo, Guitar, and Lute’, JLSA, xiv (1981), 69–94

R. Spencer: ‘English Nomenclature of Extended Lutes’, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.23 (1981), 57–9

D.A. Smith: ‘The Ebenthal Lute and Viol Tablatures’, EMc, x (1982), 462–7

J.M. Allsen: ‘A Chitarrone and Lute Manuscript for Stefano Pignatelli’, JLSA, xvii (1984),1–25

N. North: Continuo Playing on the Lute, Archlute and Theorbo (London, 1987)

K.B. Mason: The Chitarrone and its Repertoire in Early Seventeenth-Century Italy (Aberystwyth, 1989)

G.J. Callon: ‘Songs with Theorbo by Charles Colman and his Contemporaries in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Broxbourne 84.9 and London, Lambeth Palace Library MS 1041’, JLSA, xxiv (1991), 15–51

F.-P. Goy, C. Meyer and M. Rollin: Sources Manuscrites en Tablature: Luth et Theorbe (c1500–c1800), i (Baden-Baden, 1991)

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

IAN HARWOOD, ROBERT SPENCER, JAMES TYLER