Lutes

thumb|start=7|thumbtime=12|Playing a lute made A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.

thumb|right|100px|Kemençe of the Black Sea thumb|right|100px|Classical kemençe Kemenche (; ) or kamancha (; ) is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Greece, Armenia, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black Sea. These instruments are folk instruments, generally having three strings and played held upright with their tail on the knee of the musician. The name Kemenche derives from the Persian Kamancheh, meaning a "small bow".

The archlute (, , ) is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the performance of solo music, and the Renaissance tenor lute, which lacked the bass range of the theorbo. Essentially a tenor lute with the theorbo's neck-extension, the archlute lacks the power in the tenor and the bass that the theorbo's large body and typically greater string length provide.

File:Mandora MET DP168838.jpg|Mandora (1726) File:Lute 2, MfM.Uni-Leipzig.jpg|6~9 courses lute (Calchedon, Calichon) (1735) File:Gallichon, Muzeum Instrumentów Muzycznych w Pradze.jpg|Gallichon The mandora or gallichon is a type of 18th- and early 19th-century lute, with six to nine courses of strings. The terms were interchangeable, with mandora more commonly used from the mid-18th century onwards.

plucked string instrument of the lute family of the baroque era

three-stringed lute instrument from the Tuvan Republic

The torban (, also teorban or Ukrainian theorbo) is a Ukrainian musical instrument that combines the features of the Baroque lute with those of the psaltery. The Torban differs from the more common European bass lute known as the theorbo in that it had additional short unfretted treble strings (known as prystrunky) strung along the treble side of the soundboard.

The colascione (or calascione, , , also sometimes known as liuto della giraffa meaning giraffe-lute, a reference to its long neck, is a plucked string instrument from the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, with a lute-like resonant body and a very long neck. It was mainly used in southern Italy. It has two or three strings tuned in fifths.

stringed musical instrument

musical instrument