Liuto forte – The 21st Century Lute

Since “liuto” means lute in Italian, so Liuto Forte gives us a “strong lute”.

With the Liuto Forte we have the further evolution of the European lute into a new, brilliant and powerful plucked instrument. It combines the best elements from the rich and more than four-hundred-year-old tradition of lute instrument building, but also possesses many fascinating sound characteristics which were never available, either to the historical lute or the classical guitar.

Lutes in general, due to the shape of their bodies, have a fundamentally greater acoustical efficiency than guitars. This was the reason for their position as dominant plucked instrument in western music history for several centuries. The patented construction of the Liuto Forte makes the most of this advantage in the lute’s shape while at the same time removing the causes which led to the stagnation of that instrument at the end of the eighteenth century.

Music from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, including everything for the classical guitar, can be performed on the various models of the Liuto Forte, in addition, of course, to the complete lute repertoire. The enormous wealth of playable music available to it, as well as its amazing clarity when performing in ensemble, is what makes the Liuto Forte easily the most versatile plucked instrument on the market today.

To become a Liuto Forte player means joining a noble and ancient family, yet without the obligation of being weighed down by the past. On the one hand, Liuto Forte instruments make the whole family heritage accessible. On the other hand, they allow you to enrich this treasury of music by doing something totally new.

In contrast to the historical lute the Liuto Forte does not exclude the guitarist. Guitarists, on the contrary, are welcome to bring their abilities to bear on a lute instrument. Thanks to its lighter construction and lighter strings, playing the lute demands less physical exertion than the classical guitar, but at the same time yields more tone with less expenditure of energy. The Liuto Forte does not, however, cramp the musician’s style and temperament, like the considerably more laxly strung historical lute tends to do. It sets no limits to the dynamic will and design of each player.

The several models of Liuto Forte create the contemporary conditions for re-establishing the lute as the predominant plucked instrument in serious music. And, what’s more, for extending its traditions into future western music history.

We invite you to participate in this exciting development and wish you lots of interesting reading and inspiring listening here on our website.

Your Liuto Forte team