Editing Lute (section)

== Lute in the modern world ==
The lute enjoyed a revival with the awakening of interest in historical music around 1900 and throughout the century. That revival was further boosted by the [[early music]] movement in the twentieth century. Important pioneers in lute revival were [[Julian Bream]], Hans Neemann, Walter Gerwig, Suzanne Bloch and [[Diana Poulton]]. Lute performances are now not uncommon; there are many professional lutenists, especially in Europe where the most employment is found, and new compositions for the instrument are being produced by composers.

[[File:Ren-lute-ref.jpg|thumb|right|Man playing a [[Renaissance]] lute (holding position), 2006]]
During the early days of the early music movement, many lutes were constructed by available luthiers, whose specialty was often classical guitars. Such lutes were heavily built with construction similar to that of classical guitars, with fan bracing, heavy tops, fixed frets, and lined sides, all of which are anachronistic to historical lutes. As lutherie scholarship increased, makers began constructing instruments based on historical models, which have proven lighter and more responsive instruments.

Lutes built at present are invariably replicas or near copies of those surviving historical instruments that are in museums or private collections. Many are custom-built, but there is a growing number of luthiers who build lutes for general sale, and there is a fairly strong, if small, second-hand market. Because of this fairly limited market, lutes are generally more expensive than mass-produced modern instruments.  Factory-made guitars and violins, for example, can be purchased more cheaply than low-end lutes, while at the highest level of modern instruments, guitars and violins tend to command the higher prices.

Unlike in the past, there are many types of lutes encountered today: 5-course medieval lutes, renaissance lutes of 6 to 10 courses in many pitches for solo and ensemble performance of Renaissance works, the [[archlute]] of Baroque works, 11-course lutes in d-minor tuning for 17th-century French, German and Czech music, 13/14-course d-minor tuned German Baroque Lutes for later High Baroque and Classical music, [[theorbo]] for basso continuo parts in Baroque ensembles, gallichons/[[mandora]]s, bandoras, [[orpharion]]s and others.

Lutenistic practice has reached considerable heights in recent years, thanks to a growing number of world-class lutenists: [[Rolf Lislevand]], [[Hopkinson Smith]], [[Paul O'Dette]], [[Christopher Wilke]], [[Andreas Martin (lutenist)|Andreas Martin]], [[Robert Barto]], [[Eduardo Egüez]], [[Edin Karamazov]], [[Nigel North]], [[Christopher Wilson (lutenist)|Christopher Wilson]], [[Luca Pianca]], [[Yasunori Imamura]], [[Anthony Bailes]], [[Peter Croton]], [[Xavier Diaz-Latorre]], [[Evangelina Mascardi]] and [[Jakob Lindberg]]. Singer-songwriter [[Sting (musician)|Sting]] has also played lute and archlute, in and out of his collaborations with [[Edin Karamazov]], and [[Jan Akkerman]] released two albums of lute music in the 1970s while he was a guitarist in the Dutch [[rock band]] [[Focus (band)|Focus]]. Lutenist/Composer [[Jozef van Wissem]] composed the soundtrack to the [[Jim Jarmusch]] film ''[[Only Lovers Left Alive]]''.