A large lute with six strings above a fretted fingerboard, and seven or eight additional bass strings which are not stopped and have a separate pegbox. It was widely used in the 17th-c as a continuo instrument.
A theorbo (from Italian tiorba, also tuorbe in French, Theorbe in German) is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second peg-boxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the arciliuto, the French théorbe des pieces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angelique or angelica.
Theorboes were developed during the late sixteenth century, inspired by the demand of extended bass range for use in opera developed by the Florentine Camerata and new musical works based on basso continuo (such as Giulio Caccini's Le Nuove Musiche).
Similar adaptations to smaller lutes (c.55+ cm string length) produced the liuto attiorbato and the archlute, also similar-looking but differently tuned instruments.
The tuning of large theorboes is generally characterized by the octave displacement, or re-entrant tuning, of the uppermost or of the 2 uppermost strings, thus limiting the upper range of the instrument. Typically, theorboes have 14 courses, though a very few pieces from the Early Baroque period require a 19-course theorbo.
In the performance of basso continuo, theorboes were often paired with a small pipe organ. In France, theorboes were appreciated and used in orchestra music just as well as in chamber music until the first 3rd of the 18th century (Nicolas Hotman, Robert de Visée). Court orchestras at Vienna, Bayreuth and Berlin employed theorbo players still after 1750 (Ernst Gottlieb Baron, Francesco Conti).
Solo music for the theorbo is notated in tablature.
Theorbo tuning
This is theorbo tuning in A. Modern theorbo players usually play 14-course instruments, though (lowest course is G). A number of Theorbo players will use an alternative tuning in G, a whole step lower, to facilitate playing in flat keys, which are unwieldy on instruments tuned in A, better suited for sharp keys.
While usually players will have the top two courses down an octave in reëntrant tuning, this does create problems for voice leading and the playing of harmonies above the bass when accompanying and playing Basso Continuo. Jahrhundert, 1990, ISBN 3-927445-04-5, available at the author's homepage
Robert Spencer, Chitarrone, Theorbo and Archlute, in: Early Music, Vol.
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