Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/187

LUPOT. prices: but any Lupot violin dated from 1805 to 1824 is worth from 1000 to 1200 francs. The violoncellos are rarer: a handsome one is worth 2000 francs. Nicolas Lupot ranked in his time as the first of his trade in Europe. Spohr, who long played on one of his violins, recommends him as a maker. His weakest point is his varnish. He employed several kinds: the usual one is a thick and not very transparent oil varnish, which is sometimes badly dried, and presents a rough and lumpy appearance. Lupot died in 1824. His business descended to his son-in-law, Charles Francis Gand: and the present well-known makers, Gand and Bernardel, 21 Rue Croix des Petits Champs, correctly describe themselves as the 'Ancienne Maison Lupot, 1798.' François Lupot, the bow-maker, and brother of Nicolas, invented the 'coulisse,' or metal groove attached to the 'nut,' and carefully fitted to the stick, on which it works. He died in 1837, leaving as his successor Dominique Peccate, who ranks as the best bow-maker after Tourte. [ E. J. P. ]

LURLINE. Grand legendary opera in 3 acts; words by E. Fitzball, music by W. Vincent Wallace. Produced at the Royal English Opera, Covent Garden, Feb. 23, 1860. [ G. ]

LUSINGANDO, or LUSINGHIERO, literally 'flattering' or 'coaxing,' whence its musical meaning comes to be 'in a soft tender manner,' resembling Amoroso in character, except that the latter is generally used at the beginning of movements, and the former as applying only to a short passage. Beethoven uses it in the Quartet, op. 131, in the slow movement (no. 4), where the entry of the second subject is marked 'Andante moderate e lusinghiero.' Lusingando is a very favourite direction of Weber's, occurring in the Piano Sonata op. 4, first movement, 'tranquillo e lusingando,' in L'invitation à la Valse, where the coquettish second subject reappears pianissimo in C major, and in several other places. Chopin uses it in the Rondo in F (in 3–4 time). [ J. A. F. M. ]

LUSTIGEN WEIBER VON WINDSOR, DIE. An opera in 3 acts; words from Shakspeare, by Mosenthal, music by Otto Nicolai. Produced at Berlin March 9, 1849; in London, at Her Majesty's (in Italian), as 'Falstaff,' May 3, 1864; and in Paris at the Théatre Lyrique as 'Les Joyeuses Commères de Windsor,' May 25, 66. The overture is the strongest part of the work. [ G. ]

LUTE (Fr. Luth; Ital. Liuto; Germ. Laute; Spanish Laud; Port. Alaude). A large and beautiful stringed instrument with a long neck and fretted fingerboard; at one time much in use, but now obsolete. In mediæval Latin the lute is called Testudo and the guitar Cithara, both inaccurate identifications of ancient Greek instruments of very different construction. [See .] The lute is of Oriental origin, and its Arabic name Al'ud—from which its European names are derived by the omission of the initial vowel of the definite article Al. The Portuguese Alaude alone retains it. The lute became known throughout the West in the time of the Crusades. We class the Russian Kobsa as a lute: while the Balalaika of the same country is of the guitar kind. As in the viol di gamba and violoncello, the formal difference between a lute and a guitar is to be found in the back, which in the lute is pear-shaped and in the guitar is flat. The lute is without ribs, which are essential to the framing of the guitar. [See .]

The invention of stringed instruments with fingerboards, or the neck serving as a fingerboard, precedes the earliest historical monuments. The long-necked Egyptian Nefer was certainly depicted in the 4th dynasty; and wall-painting of the time of Moses, preserved in the British Museum, shows that it then had frets. We observe a similar instrument in Assyrian monuments, and the Hebrew Nebel has been supposed to be one. Strangely enough the Greeks had it not. The Arabs derived the lute from Persia, and with the instrument a finesse in the division of the octave into smaller parts than our semitones, rendered possible by the use of frets, and still an Asiatic peculiarity; the best authorities assuring us that the modern Arabian ud and tambura are thus adjusted. It is usual to speak of these fractions as ⅓ of a tone. Kiesewetter however ('Musique des Arabes,' Leipzig, 1842, pp. 32, 33) gives the Persian-Arab scale as a division of 17 in the octave; 12 of the intervals being the Pythagorean limma (not quite our equal semitone), and 5 of the dimension of the comma, an interval, though small, quite recognisable by a trained ear. [See .] Mr. Engel ('Musical Instruments,' 1874, p. 60) states that the Arabs became acquainted with the Persian lute before their conquest of the country, and names an Arab musician who, sent to the Persian king to learn singing and performance on the lute, brought it to Mekka in the 6th century of our era. The strings of the Arab lute are of twisted silk, an Asiatic, especially Chinese, material for strings. The same, bound round the neck, has served for the frets. [See .] The modern Egyptian lute, named oud or e'oud, of which there is a specimen at South Kensington, and an excellent woodcut in Lane's 'Modern Egyptians,' chap, v., has seven pairs of gut strings, and is moreover played with a plectrum of eagle's or vulture's quill.

The Western lute was a Mediæval and a Renaissance instrument. It flourished during the creative period of Gothic architecture and later, its star beginning to pale as the violin quartet arose, and setting altogether when the pianoforte became in general use. There were publications for the lute as late as 1740–6 Sonatas by Falkenhagen, Nuremberg; and, 1760, Gellert's Odes by Beyer. The great J. S. Bach himself wrote three sets of pieces for the lute. Carl F. Becker has described them in 'Die Hausmusik in Deutschland,' Leipzig 1840. He gives (p. 54) their titles—'Partita al Liuto, composta del Sign. J. S. Bach' (in C minor), 'Pièces pour le Lut,