# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Theorbo

​THEORBO (Fr. Théorbe, Tuorbe; Ital. Tiorba or Tuorba, also Archiliuto). The large double-necked lute with two sets of tuning pegs, the lower set holding the strings which lie over the fretted finger-board, while the upper set are attached to the bass strings, or so-called diapasons, which are used as open notes. The illustration has been engraved from a specimen at South Kensington Museum. According to Baron's 'Untersuchung des Instruments d. Lauten' (Nürnberg 1727, p. 131), the Paduan theorbo was the true one. The English Archlute of that time, so frequently named as an alternative to the harpsichord or organ for the Basso Continuo or 'Through Base' accompaniment, was such a theorbo, and we must, on Baron's authority, allow it a deeper register than has been stated in the article Archlute [vol. i. p. 81]. He gives
—eight notes on the fingerboard and nine off. This is the old lute-tuning of Thomas Mace ('Musick's Monument,' London 1676), who says (p. 207) that the theorbo is no other than the old English lute. But early in the 17th century many large lutes had been altered to theorbos by substituting double necks for the original single ones. These altered lutes, called, according to Mersenne, 'luth téorbé' or 'liuto attiorbato,' retained the double strings in the bass. The theorbo engraved in Mersenne's 'Harmonie Universelle' (Paris, 1636) is really a theorboed lute. He gives it the following accordance:—
The Chanterelle single. For the 'Tuorbe' as practised at Rome the same authority gives (p. 88)—
In the musical correspondence of Huygens, edited by Jonckbloet and Land, and published (1882) at Leyden, is to be found a letter of Huygens wherein he wishes to acquire a large lute, to elevate it to the quality of a theorbo, for which he considered it from its size more fit. The same interesting work enables the writer to make some corrections to Lute. [See vol. ii. p. 177 b.] It was Charles I who bought a Laux Maler lute for £100 sterling, and gave it to his lutenist, whose name should be spelt Gaultier. The lute had belonged to Jehan Ballard, another famous lutenist who never would part with it. The King bought it of his heritors. Two other corrections in the same article may be here appropriately introduced. As M. Chouquet has pointed out, the wood of old lutes could not be used for repairing fiddles. What happened was, the lutes were transformed into Vielles or Hurdy-gurdies. Professor Land suggests that Luther is a local name. Lutemaker in German would be Lauter. The drawing of the Maler lute, vol. ii. p. 176, shows a guitar head and single stringing, which became adopted before the lute went entirely out. Following Gaultier in the Huygens correspondence, Maler's period was about 1500–20, later than the date given by Carl Engel.
Prætorius ('Organographia,' Wolfenbüttel 1619, p. 50), with whom Mersenne agrees, states that the difference between lute and theorbo is that the lute has double and the theorbo single basses. The Paduan theorbo is about 4ft. 7 ins. high. Prætorius, in the work referred to ​(p. 52) seems to prefer the Roman theorbo or Chitarrone, which, although according to his measurement about 6 ft. 1 in. in height, is not so broad in the body or so awkward to hold and grasp as the Paduan. Baron praises especially the Roman theorbos of Buchenberg or Buckenberg, a German lute-maker, who was living at Rome about a.d. 1606. His instruments had 'ovalround' bodies of symmetrical form and a delicate and penetrating metallic timbre; a criterion of good tone in a stringed instrument.
Mace regards the lute as a solo instrument, and the theorbo as a concert or accompanying instrument: the name theorbo, however it originated, certainly became fixed to the double-necked lute; which first appeared with the introduction of opera and oratorio, when real part-playing was exchanged for the chords of the figured bass. Mersenne ('Harmonicorum,' lib. xii. Paris, 1636) calls it 'Cithara bijuga.' One account credits the invention of the double neck to a Signor Tiorba about 1600. Athanasius Kircher ('Musurgia,' Rome 1650, cap. ii. p. 476) attributes the introduction of the theorbo to a Neapolitan market follower, who gave it the name in a joke. His idea, says the same authority, was brought to perfection by a noble German, Hieronymus Capsberger. M. Victor Mahillon, in his catalogue of the Brussels Museum (1880, p. 249), names as the inventor, a Roman called Bardella (properly Antonio Naldi) who was in the service of the Medicis, and was much praised by Caccini in the preface to 'Nuove Musiche' (a.d. 1601). These attributions all centre in the same epoch, that of the rise of accompaniment. The theorbo was last written for by Handel, as late as 1732, in the oratorio of 'Esther,' in combination with a harp, to accompany the song 'Breathe soft, ye winds,' a fact which would seem to support Mace's view of its being an orchestral instrument. The Archiliuto also appears in 'Deborah,' 1733, in 'Gentle Airs.' It remained in occasional use until the end of the 18th century. Breitkopf's Thematic Catalogue for 1769 contains eight pages of 'Partite per il Liuto solo.'
[ A. J. H. ]