What does lutestring mean?
A lutestring is an early bowed string instrument and a forerunner of the violin. It belongs to the European development of instruments played with a bow, from which the violin family eventually emerged. Like a modern violin, it was held against the shoulder or beneath the chin and sounded by drawing a bow across its strings. The word is chiefly historical: it is encountered in accounts of seventeenth-century music, instrument collections, and the history of violin making. Although its name includes “lute,” a lutestring is not a lute. A lute has a rounded, pear-shaped body and is normally plucked, whereas the lutestring was bowed and developed along a different line within the history of European string instruments. For modern audiences, the term is especially useful when discussing the instruments and playing techniques that preceded the familiar violin.
nounA historical bowed string instrument of the violin family, played with a bow and held against the shoulder or beneath the chin. It was an important precursor of the modern violin.
- A historical bowed string instrument belonging to the family from which the modern violin developed.
"The musician drew a bow across the strings of the lutestring, filling the hall with a searching melody."
"A lutestring player performed a late seventeenth-century piece for a small audience."
"The museum has restored an old lutestring withgut strings and a carved wooden body."
The plural is used when referring to multiple instruments, individual examples, or the wider class of instruments.
"Several lutestrings were displayed alongside bows and period accessories."
Before the violin had a familiar silhouette, its ancestor was called the lutestring.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of lutestring
The word combines “lute” and “string” and was used for bowed instruments associated with the early development of the violin. The lute itself has a name ultimately connected with Latin lute, meaning “to play a lute,” and with the Arabic word al-ʿūd, the name of the instrument. Related English forms include lutenist and lutist, denoting performers on the lute.
How lutestring is actually used
The term is now chiefly historical and specialist. It refers to the instrument rather than merely one of the strings on a lute.
Easily confused with lutestring
A lutestring is bowed with a stick, whereas a lute is a fretted instrument whose strings are plucked with the fingers or a plectrum.