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THEORBO

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 788 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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THEORBO lFr. th@orbe, Ger. Theorba, Ital. theorba, Barbitonel, the large See also:

double-necked See also:

bass See also:

LUTE (Arabic al'ud, " the wood "; Fr. luth; Ital. liuto; Span. laud; Ger. Laute; Dut. luit)

lute much used during the 16th and 17th centuries as See also:

general bass in the See also:

ORCHESTRA (Fr. Orchestre; Ger. Kapelle, Orchester; Ital. Orchestra)

orchestra. The See also:

BODY

body of the theorbo was constructed on the same principles as that of the lute but larger, and the same See also:

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

scheme of decoration was followed. The See also:

NECK (O. Eng. hnecca; the word appears in many Teutonic languages; cf. Dutch ride, Ger. Nacken; in O. E. the common word was heals; cf. Ger. Hals)

neck, instead of being See also:

bent back at an See also:

ANGLE (from the Lat. angulus, a corner, a diminutive, of which the primitive form, angus, does not occur in Latin; cognate are the Lat. angere, to compress into a bend or to strangle, and the Gr. ayKOS, a bend; both connected with the Aryan root ank-, to

angle to See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form the See also:

head, was straight, having sufficient pegs set in the sides of the head for from 12 to 16 strings tuned in pairs of unisons; on the fingerboards were marked 8 or more frets for semitones. Above this neck was another without frets, curving forwards and slightly to one See also:

side to enable the See also:

long bass strings, stretched not over but at the side of the neck, to See also:

ESCAPE (in mid. Eng. eschape or escape, from the O. Fr. eschapper, modern echapper, and escaper, low Lat. escapium, from ex, out of, and cappa, cape, cloak; cf. for the sense development the Gr. iichueoOat, literally to put off one's clothes, hence to sli

escape the pegs of the shorter strings. These See also:

FREE

free strings, known as See also:

DIAPASON (Gr. &a raccov, through all)

diapason strings (Ger. Begleitseiten) were plucked a vide like those of the See also:

LYRE (Gr. Xupa)

lyre, each giving but one See also:

note; the number of these strings varied from 8 to 11. The theorbo was made in two sizes, the See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary See also:

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

instrument measuring about 3 ft. 6 in., and the Paduan, also known as archlute, about 5 ft. The chitarrone, or See also:

ROMAN

Roman theorbo, was the largest of all, a contrabass lute in fact, and frequently stood over 6 ft. high. It differed slightly from the theorbo; the body was a little smaller than in the Paduan variety, the whole of the extra length being in the second neck. The strings over the fingerboard were of See also:

STEEL, FLORA ANNIE (1847– )

steel or See also:

brass, and the diapason strings of spun See also:

WIRE (A.S. wir, a wire; cf. Swed. vire, to twist, M.H.G. wiere, a gold ornament, Lat. viriae, armlets, ultimately from the root wi, to twist, bind)

wire.

For the See also:

HISTORY

history of the theorbo, see See also:

BARBITON, or BARBITOS (Gr. /3ap13irov or 06.p0iros; Lat. barbitus; Pers. barbat, barbud)

BARBIToN and LUTE.

End of Article: THEORBO

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