Author: Frank

The International Lute Festival of the German Lute Society will take place from 23 – 25 May 2025 in Weimar. For the first time, however, the German Lute Society will be organising an international lute competition. It is open to players under the age of 30, and the legendary Nigel North will chair the jury.

Zefiro Torna spreads its wings far beyond the country’s borders during the autumn, with numerous fascinating productions.

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Tom Van Eygen wrote an extensive article about the branle, a dance of French origin. The term is etymologically derived from the verb “branler” which, according to the Larousse dictionnaire, means “to shake, wave, sway”. Other names are also bransle, brande, brant, brando, bralle or brawl. In the literature for Renaissance lute we find about five hundred ranles.

The theme of this 9th edition, “ornaments along the way”, echoes the release on 12th April of the Musiciens de Saint-Julien’s new CD, Doux silence. This open theme reminds us that the singer leads his phrase in the same way as the dancer (who sometimes sings his dance) makes a journey through space, and that the instrumentalist draws on the imitation and observation of both… This is an invitation to listen and to share the energy.

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Today we receive a selection of photos from Jordi Vives i Batlle de Notre Journée du Luth 2023 réussie.

Our annual lute day will be on Sunday, October 15. Traditionally, this takes place at the Music Academy of Woluwe-St-Lambert, Av. des deux Tilleuls/Tweelindenstraat 2a, 1200 Brussels.

As an ardent enthusiast of the lute, that impossible instrument, Peter Decleyn has had the privilege for several years now, almost every day, of spending some time between the sounds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A few months ago, by chance, an idea grew into a small project in his ceramics studio, which he conveniently called ‘testudo’: a number of free associations born of the lute, its shape and the often so mysterious titles of the repertoire.

The Dutch Lute Association is once again organizing an event around the lute during and in collaboration with the Utrecht Early Music Festival. These International Lute Days around the Style galante focus mainly on an aspect of the lute that has received little attention until now: the role of the lute in chamber music as it developed in the course of the eighteenth century.

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