ABSTRACT
The most direct evidence is from the Spinacino duets, which show unambiguously that lutes were played together, and that florid divisions a tenor line were at least one of the kinds of music the played. The fact that fifteenth-century lutenists had been essentially plectrum players shows that it was essentially a monophonic rather than polyphonic instrument, in other words one that played single lines of the type found with such large ranges. Ensemble are the pieces where one of the parts has a range that extends beyond what might be normally expected of the human voice, such that some sort of instrument seems to be unequivocally demanded for reasons of pure practicality. Lute tablature evolved at the very end of the fifteenth century, as a way of notating simultaneously sounded notes on a single staff, for the benefit of lutenists that played polyphonically, using the fingers of their right hands.
