Lute facts for your Witcher needs
A few people expressed interest in learning about Jaskier’s lute, so here’s what I’ve picked up from an afternoon of research (I am, definitively, not a lute expert or player. I am just someone who likes to research).
Lutes are plucked string instruments, similar to a modern acoustic guitar, and are recorded to have existed as early as 3000 BC in Arabic countries. They became popular in medieval Europe and continued to be common through the renaissance and baroque periods.
Lutes have more strings than guitars, with various types having between 8 and 35 strings (!). The strings are arranged in pairs, called courses, with the two strings struck as one. So on Jaskier’s lute, you can see 13 strings, but these would actually be played as seven strings: six pairs and one single.
The single string is the highest pitch and is called the chanterelle or “singing string” as the melody is most often played on this string. This is the one most likely to snap as it’s the thinnest, and the one which causes most problems if it breaks as a lot of music would be difficult or impossible to play without it.
The interesting thing about the pairs of strings is the way that they are tuned. Unlike guitar strings which are tuned in fourths or violin strings which are tuned in fifths, for example, lute courses were tuned to have different intervals between them. This changed a lot over the years, but lutes in the baroque period were tuned so that playing the lowest open strings sounded a chord of D minor.
This means, as I understand it, that it would be relatively easier for a single musician to simultaneously play both the melody on the higher strings and the accompanying chords on the lower strings, making the lute an ideal solo instrument.
This makes tuning a lute a complicated business, not helped by the fact that while modern guitars have gears allowing the tuning of each string, a lute is tuned by adjusting a peg held in place only by friction. Each peg has to be carefully tugged in and out like a corkscrew to tune it, and with 13 strings to adjust this would take a whole lot of time to perfect.
These strings would have been made from animal gut, by the way, which has a slightly different sound from modern steel or nylon strings. Here’s a video with more info about gut strings if you’re interested.
When it comes to playing the lute, Jaskier’s habit of plucking away at it and composing as he goes is apparently historically accurate, as improvisation was a big part of lute performance. Lute players would have played a lot of dances and accompaniments to songs, but if you wanted Jaskier to show off his skills he might play a type of piece called a fantasia, a complex, flowing solo piece which would include improvised passages as well.
I hope this little diversion into lutes was of interest! If anyone has more information about historical lutes please feel free to add it to this post as I would love to learn more.
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