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Lute and theorbo toccatas of seicento Italy: the historical significance of a sidelined repertory


 A survey of the extant toccatas in the 17th-century Italian lute and theorbo repertories reveals that the toccata emerged as an important genre for these instruments in the early Baroque. The assumption that the toccata was primarily a keyboard genre has, however, meant that lute and theorbo toccatas have received little scholarly attention to date. Like the toccatas in the keyboard repertory, the lute and theorbo works in various printed and manuscript sources show the emergence of idiomatic instrumental music that was increasingly freed from vocal style and from contrapuntal traditions. Some lute and theorbo toccatas also reveal how instrumental composers working in different milieus grappled with the expressive possibilities of the new musical language of the seconda pratica. This article considers various musical and contextual aspects of the lute and theorbo toccatas in order to argue that this rich repertory not only deserves more prominence within a representative history of the toccata genre in particular, but also has much to contribute to musical and social studies of the 17th century in general.