Baroque lute

Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739 - 1796)

Three Sonatas for lute and violin/flute obligato Dessau, ca. 1791 (for 13-course baroque lute) edited by Andreas Schlegel; arrangement for flute: Andreas Besteck

Sound example: Romanza G-Dur
(taken from the CD: Sonatas for Lute und Violin by Friedrich Wilhelm Rust and Bernhard Joachim Hagen
 Myrtha Indermaur - Baroque Violin
Andreas Schlegel - Lute)

These three sonatas belong to the latest chamber music with lute and are composed in the classical style. The audience very well likes especially the song-like movements. The grandson of Friedrich Wilhelm Rust - the cantor of the Leipzig Thomas church Wilhelm Rust - wanted his grandfather to appear as a predecessor of Beethoven and did not shrink back from massive tampering with the score in the 1880s. The original score that was kept by Wilhelm Rust was strongly romanticized - and the changes were written in the original lute tablature and violin part, although only a few specialists could read the lute tablature in those days! Due to the rediscovery of the lute parts in two sonatas, the romanticizing could be seen clearly and the three sonatas could be reconstructed.

- Set Laute: Score with introduction and transcription of the lute tablature; lute part in tablature; violin / flute part
Best.-Nr. LC 9806
CHF 42.00 Sale   Sale

The books can also be bought individually:

-Score lute: Introduction and transcription of the lute tablature for keyboard, 46 pages, ring binder Order no. LC 9801
CHF 32.00   Sale

- partbook Lute (Tablature for 13-course baroque lute, 20 pages, ring binder
Order no. LC 9803
CHF 24.00 Sale Sale


- partbook Violin / flute part, 16 pages, stapled Order no. LC 9805
CHF 12.00 Sale


Music for Accords nouveaux from the ms. Basel, F.IX.53 for 11-course baroque lute in d-minor tuning, arranged by A. Schlegel
Order no. LC 9821
CHF 19.50 Sale

After 1615 French lutenists started to change from the Renaissance tuning (G c f a d' g') to the Baroque tuning (A d f a d' f'). The tunings employed during this period were called "Accords nouveaux". With our modern string materials, these tunings accords nouveaux sound unsatisfactory with tuning up or down and playing is impaired severely. For these reasons some of the most attractive pieces from the famous Basel manuscript (and related sources) were arranged for "normal" d-minor tuning and grouped in two suites and thus made it accessible to all baroque lute without having to make any changes on her instruments.


Monsieur Jacobi: Sonate Eb-Major (D#-Major) (from the Harrach collection, today New York) arranged for 12-course baroque lute in d-minor tuning (original scordatura resolved)

Order no.LC 9808
CHF 15.90    Sale

This suite was written by a certain "Monsieur Jacobi" in the second third of the 18th century. Originally, it was composed for a 11-course baroque lute in the scordatura As B f a d' f'. This original scordatura is problematic with modern strings, so this very attractive work could not be performed on stage or for private enjoyment at a satisfactory level. Therefore, in this edition, the original scordatura was resolved and the music was arranged for a 12-course baroque lute.

Johann Jacob FROBERGER (1616-1667)

SUITE Bb-Major for 11-course Lute

anonymus arrangement after FbWV 605 and FbWV 612 (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Mus. Ms. 40601)

edited by François-Pierre GOY

order no. LC 0304
CHF 12.00    Verkauf

Although Johann Jacob Froberger made no lute music it's detectable in his works for keyboard that was influenced by the french lute music. Music for keyboard was seldom transcribed for the lute in the 17th century. The present Suite was edited by an anonymus lutenist and came to us in an also anonymus manuscript which came into being shortly after Froberger's death. It's up to now the only known example of a work by Froberger in a contemporary version for the lute.

The suite for lute combines the entire Partita V for Cembalo with it's movements Allemande, Courante and Sarabande from the Libro secondo (1649, FbWV 605) with the Gigue from the Partita VI taken from the Libro quarto (1656, FbWV 612) as final movement. Both of the keyboard works are in C-Major but the editor transposed them to Bb-Major and choosed the Mercure tuning which better fits this key. This tuning varies the usual d-minor tuning by tuning the 6th course to Bb instead of A.