The Resting Position of The Right-Hand Little Finger in Lute Playing
The Resting Position of The Right-Hand Little Finger in Lute Playing
The Resting Position of The Right-Hand Little Finger in Lute Playing
The resting position of the right-hand little finger in lute playing, a survey, by Bernhard Fischer
Right-hand technique has, understandably, been a central point of dis- set your Little Finger down upon the Belly of the Lute, just
cussion for lutenists since the beginning of the revival. In Lute News 77 under the Bridge, against the Treble or Second String
Bill Carter reminded us that some early German and Italian players,
perhaps continuing a mediaeval tradition, secured the lute with the and
both the ring and little fingers of the right-hand, using only the thumb,
index and middle fingers to play; while Lute News 94 Mimmo Peruffo The 2d. thing to be gain’d is, setting down your Little Finger
presented Old Master paintings and soundboad wear marks showing a upon the Belly, as aforesaid, close under the Bridge, about the
remarkable consistency of hand position from c.1600 onwards, perhaps first, 2d, 3d, or 4th Strings . . .
dictated by string set-up and tensions. But perhaps there has never been
a thorough survey of little finger position within the broader study of Esaias Reusner, gives a rare and precious clue to the practice of chang-
right-hand technique. Bernhard Fischer has now attempted such a sur- ing hand position to change the sound; in Neue Lauten=Früchte
vey, with the kind help of David van Edwards. (Berlin, 1676):
Earlier last year I had the chance to inspect the small Andreas Berr Erstlich muß der kleine Finger nicht hinter, sondern für den
Steg etwas gesetzt werden, welches lieblicher klinget
lute (built in 1699 in Vienna, Austria) in the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston. During this, I observed on the soundboard wear marks
(First, the little finger shall not be placed behind but before the
probably resulting from the holding position of the little finger of bridge, for a more smoother sound)
the right hand. The ‘finger mark’ was approx. 4–5 cm away from
the bridge towards the rose. The full report is available on the and in Erfreuliche Lauten-Lust (Leipzig, 1697) he adds:
Ning website, ‘Lute—A network for lovers of lute music’, (http://
lutegroup.ning.com/forum/topics/the-andreas-berr-lute-from-the- An der rechten Hand muß der kleine Finger vor dem Steg ge-
museum-of-fine-arts-a-report-from?xg_source=activity). setzt werden, wann man lieblich spielen will, soll es aber etwas
After returning to Vienna, I looked into little finger holding stärker klingen, kann auch wol den kleinen Finger hinter dem
instructions from various historic lute manuscripts and books of Steg setzten.
the 17th and 18th century. The sources I found are as follows, in
chronological order. (The little finger of the right hand is placed before the bridge, if
one would like to play with a soft sound, however if a stronger
1. Written instructions sound is desired the little finger can be placed behind the bridge.)
Marin Mersenne, Harmonie Universelle, (1636), Livre Second, des Jacques Gallot, Pièces de Luth (Paris, 1684), who according to
Instruments, p. 77 (now downloadable at the Gallica website): George Torres’ very useful compilation of the French luthiste’s
Avertissements (in JLSA xxxvi, 2003) seems to be the only French
En 4. lieu, le petit doigt doit estre appuyé sur la table du Luth baroque player to deign to give advice, says simply that:
proche du chevalet, & de la chanterelle, car ceux qui se mettent
derriere ledit chevalet, contractent une mauvaise habitude, qui se Il faut tenir le petit doigt de la main droitte sur la table prozche le
change par [recte: pas?] apres la nature: de sorte qu’il est difficile chevalet ou les cordes sont attachées et les autres doigts en demy
que les enfans, que l’on accoustume à cette mauvaise pratique, la cercle pout estre prest a toucher et le poulce avance en sort quil se
changent quands ils sont plus grands. C’est pourquoy il leut faut trouve tousiours au dessus des doigts.
faire construire de petits Luths, afin que les espaces des chordes
soient conformes à la grandeur de leur main, & qu’ils la posent (One must hold the little finger of the right hand on the sound-
tout d’un coup comme les grands. board near the bridge, where the strings are attached, and the
other fingers in a half circle in order to be ready to play, and
(Fourthly, the little finger is supported on the table of the lute the thumb moves forward, in such a way that it is always above
near the bridge, and the first string, because those who put it be- the fingers.)
hind the aforesaid bridge, contract a bad habit, which by nature
does not change; in such a way that it is difficult for children, In Cabinet der Lauten (Breslau 1695) composed and published by
whom one makes accustomed to this bad practice, to change it Philipp Franz Lesage de Richée we learn that:
when they are older. That is why it is necessary to have small
lutes built for them, so that the string spacings conform to the Muß der kleine Finger der rechten Hand nicht hinter, sondern
size of their hands, and they place their hands straight away as vor den Steg gesetzt werden.
grown-ups do.)
The little finger of the right hand shall not be placed behind but
In the Burwell Lute Tutor (1660–72) we find this. in front of the bridge.
For the right hand, it must be placed between the rose and the Ernst Gottlieb Baron in Historisch-theoretisch und practische Unter-
bridge, but nearest to the bridge. Your hand must lie upon the suchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nürnberg, 1727) instructs the
belly of the lute with the little finger only, which must be as it reader as follows:
were glued unto it.
Damit es [die Laute] nun aber auch befestigt werde, so dienet
Thomas Mace, in Musicks Monument (London, 1676), The Sec- zur Nachricht, daß in der linken Hand der Daumen und in der
ond, and Civil Part: Or, The Lute made Easie’, teaches the reader rechten Hand der kleine Finger dazu das meiste contribuieren
in two paragraphs to: müssen. Denn mit dem Daumen wird die Laute vorwarts an den
(In order to stabilize the lute the following serves as advice: that To further substantiate one or the other hypothesis, I inspected my
in the left hand the thumb and in the right hand the little finger own collection as well as various lute iconography databases and
must make the most contribution. While the lute rests on the other online resources with pictures from the 17th and 18th cen-
right thigh, the lute will be pushed forwards towards the table tury showing the baroque lute from different perspectives. Several
with the thumb while the right [hand] little finger must be placed hundred pictures were identified initially. Next, such pictures were
behind the bridge up by the Chanterelle or thinnest string, right selected in which the baroque lute is actually played or directly held
where it ends in a little curve. When it comes to the question: at in position in individual or group, where the view of the instru-
which position one ought to touch the lute strings to produce ment allows us to see the position of the right-hand little finger.
the proper strength of tone, it serves one to know that this should This yielded 55 drawings or paintings ranging from 1610 to 1764
be in the centre of the space between the rose and the bridge,
(I can supply an annex of images on request, and likewise an annex
because there the touch makes the greatest effect.)
of original images of the written sources, above.) Then the pictures
were grouped into three categories regarding the resting position
In the lute manuscript PL-Wu RM 4137 (1728 or soon after) a
of the right-hand little finger: behind the bridge, at or in direct
hand-written comment is added at the last pages of the little book:
contact with the bridge, and in front of the bridge.
The result was surprising for the author, at least: while 8 pictures
Man setzte den kleinen Finger der rechten Hand in die Ecke oder
Höhlung der Saitenhalterung bey der Chantarelle. clearly showed the little finger behind the bridge, and 19 pictures
showed the little finger in front of the bridge, 28 pictures showed
(One puts the little finger of the right hand in the niche or curve the right-hand little finger either directly on top of the bridge or in
of the bridge next to the chanterelle.) direct and close contact with it, or on the concave side of the curvy
end or niche of the bridge.
The lute manuscript PL-WRu-2002 ( the ‘Kniebandl’ manuscript, When David Van Edwards searched his lute iconography da-
1740) states: tabase, on the Lute Society website, for ‘little finger behind the
bridge’ this resulted in 52 entries, searching for ‘little finger in front
Muß der kleine finger der rechten Hand nicht hinter sondern vor of the bridge’ resulted in 200 entries, whereas ‘little finger on the
den Steg gesetzet werden. bridge’ resulted in 399 entries (though these were figures for all
lutes, not just baroque ones). Accordingly, majority of visual repre-
(Do not put the little finger of the right hand behind the bridge sentations show the right-hand little finger not in front, but on or
but in front of it.) behind the bridge.* Here are some representative examples of the
different types of image.
Taking all this written evidences together, we can see that the cor-
rect positioning of the little finger of the right hand was thought Little finger behind the bridge
important by lute composers and players. Second, if there had not
been different little finger positions in general practice, or if only
one (correct) little finger position had been in use widely, this issue
would surely not have been stressed repeatedly in various baroque
lute books, in Germany in particular.
The question whether the little finger should rest before and/or
behind the bridge has sometimes raised controversies in modern
times among lute teachers and players. In his article ‘Some 18th
century German sources for right-hand placement and fingering’
Robert Barto (LSA Quarterly, 2007) argues that ‘all information we
have from the middle of the 17th century onwards would indicate
that “behind the bridge” was no longer recommended’. However,
in the opinion of the author the quotations gathered here tell us a
slightly different and more varied story: Mace (1676) favours a lit-
tle finger position just close behind the bridge—something which
Mersenne had rejected. Esaias Reusner stipulates a little finger posi-
tion before (1676) and behind (1697) the bridge, depending on the
desired quality of sound. Mary Burwell’s teacher, whoever he was Portrait of A Lutenist, detail, late 17th century, anonymous
(1660–72) instructs us to ‘glue’ the little finger onto the belly near-
est to the bridge. In 1695 Philipp Franz Lesage de Richée supports
the little finger position before the bridge. Ernst Gottlieb Baron
(1727) suggests a little finger position behind the curvy end of
the bridge, as does the scribe of lute manuscript PL-Wu RM 4137
Le Duo, detail (1628), by Hendrik ter Brugghen The Concert, detail (1630), by Jan Hermanszoon van Bijlert
Le bouffon au luth, detail (1623), by Frans Hals The lute player, detail (1667), by Gerard ter Borch
An allegory of hearing, detail (1750), L’homme au luth, detail (1615), Pierre Paul Rubens (attributed)
by Anna Rosina von Lisiewska
A lady playing the lute, detail (1654), by Ferdinand Bol Musician, detail (1660), by Theodore van Thulden
An awkward stretch
To position the little finger on, or close to, or behind the bridge,
while at the same time playing in the middle between the bridge
and the rose, apparently required a massive stretching of the little
finger towards the end of the lute. In his aforementioned article,
Robert Barto noted that ‘on a typical lute of the period it seems
that it would be very uncomfortable to place the little finger be-
hind the bridge and then play half-way between the rose and the
bridge. However, such uncomfortable little finger positions are
Le concert, detail (1624), by Gerrit van Honthorst documented in great detail in various pictures, including a 1727
portrait of Baron himself.
This lute, firmly attributed to Frei by Wegerer, with neck and peg-
box made by Fux ? and handwritten label: Hans Frei in Bologna
//. Printed label: Matthias Fux // Röm. Kay. May. Lautenmacher
in Wienn 16 [ms] 83 zuegericht //, shows a little finger wear about
an inch in front of the bridge but very pronounced thumb or finger
wear right across the string band.
Mrs. Arabella Hunt, detail (1692), by Godfrey Kneller
NEWS
Congratulations to the Deutsche Lautengesellschaft, who have just Members will be sorry to hear of the passing of David Wade, sud-
started their own Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/ denly, at Easter, had been a member for more than 20 years, and of
channel/UCaHOxQSVf8XefHJGWQ_gBZQ. The very first film Dieter Weber at the end of May, also a long-standing member, who
is of Musiche Varie, Susanne van Os and Martin Lubenow, per- had regularly contributed his original compositions to our archive,
forming early baroque works on theorbo and cornetto, then music for all to enjoy.
for renaissance lute, baroque lute and 19th century guitar. It costs
nothing to subscribe. Despite the return of some live concerts, musicians continue to
face cancellations and uncertainty. To help period-instrument
Via the reviews columns I (CG) have been trying to keep track of ensembles to continue planning and performing, the Continuo
all the lute quartets which play regularly together, and now there is Foundation is now inviting applications for a second round of
a new one, an all-female quartet based in Basel, the Casulana Lute grants; £100,000 is available for grants to projects scheduled from
Quartet, consisting of Alice Letort, Emma-Lisa Roux, Cornelia October 2021 to March 2022. However, this amount will be in-
Demmer and Talitha-Cumi Witmer. We look forward to discs, creased by any additional donations received before 1st September
films and concerts. You can hear them performing the Vallet lute 2021, with 100% going to grants.
quartet suite on the new Deutsche Lautengesellschaft channel at This new round follows the initial £150,000 in grants awarded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkC1BIgoFhM. in March 2021 to 23 ensembles, creating 377 paid engagements
for freelance musicians. The first round highlighted the number of
Congratulations to Jadran Duncumb, a real star of the younger excellent ensembles struggling in lockdown, and the great need for
generation of players, on his new post teaching lute at the Scuola support. Since April 2021, four new recordings, one opera world
Civica di Milano. The deadline to apply for courses there is 6th premiere and numerous concerts—filmed for streaming and with
September. live audiences—have taken place. The vibrant calendar of current
grantee events continues until October.
In May, Partridge’s auction house in Macclesfield held a 4-day Grants from Continuo are open to professional UK-based peri-
auction selling instruments including numerous lutes, guitars etc od-instrument ensembles. Applications have a submission deadline
from the estate of the late Ephraim Segerman. Numerous items of 9 August 2021. Grant decisions are expected by 21 September.
with a starting price of tens of pounds sold for hundreds, or over Full details on how to apply are available on the Foundation’s web-
a thousand pounds, and the auctioneer was heard to remark that site: www.continuofoundation.co.uk
many of the instruments had been undervalued in the pre-auction
estimates! Many of the instruments are basically good but needed BBC Radio 3 is going to broadcast Brian Wrights’s ‘Tombeau for
restoration, which will doubtless keep the nation’s restorers busy Julian Bream’ played by Bernhard Hofstoetter on August 14th ,the
for a while! Luke Emmet was one of the purchasers, and you will be first anniversary of Julian Bream’s death, on their Breakfast Show.
able to read about one of his purchases in the next issue. When did they last broadcast a contemporary piece for the lute?