ABSTRACT
The lute was the first instrument to undergo a transformation towards a truly idiomatic style of composition in the early years of the seventeenth century — a transformation that certainly most instruments underwent in the course of the Baroque era. The 'French lute' became synonymous with the altered tunings developed in France after 1600 and with the techniques developed to exploit the resonances of the new tunings. In the first half of the seventeenth century French ideas and fashions were largely responsible for the transformation of the lute and lute music. The melodic flow of much Renaissance lute music was governed by tunes which were essentially vocal and not particularly well suited to the lute. The rise of the lute to this exalted position in France in the first half of the century involved a fundamental re-thinking of all aspects of the lute and its music.
