FoMRHI Quarterly No.

160 2022

FoMRHI Comm. 2192 Bernhard Fischer & Stephen Murphy

Rebuilding the 1699 Andreas Berr lute from Vienna: a replica of its presumed original
form

The contribution “The Andreas Berr Lute from 1699” published in the Newsletter no. 62
(Galpin Society, Spring 2022) describes a rather small 13-course baroque lute on display in the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). The instrument was initially made as an 11-course lute
by Andreas Berr in Vienna in 1699 as indicated by the inside label. Later, two more courses
were added by an anonymous maker. There exists good evidence that the 11 lute was in the
possession of the famous bohemian lutenist and composer Jan Antonin Losy. 1

Here we briefly describe the construction of a new instrument by Stephen Murphy, luthier in
Mollans sur Ouvèze, France, based as closely as possible on the original 1699 lute.

Before being acquired by the MFA in Boston, the instrument was in the musical instrument
collection at Hever Castle (UK). Michael Lowe, Stephen Gottlieb and Stephen Murphy went
to Hever Castle in the late 1970s to measure and make detailed drawings of this special
instrument. Stephen Murphy recovered these drawings and notes to prepare construction
documents. In addition, photographic images of the instrument and its parts have been
forwarded from the MFA to BF, and then on to the lutemaker.

During discussions between BF and SM, it was agreed to reconstruct the instrument as a 11-
course instrument, as it was originally built by Andreas Berr in 1699. During the lute building
process, SM took a large number of photos to document the construction progress of the new
lute.

Fig. 1. The new lute at the work bench.

1
Jan Antonín Losy, Count of Losinthal (German: Johann Anton Losy von Losinthal); also known as Comte d’Logy
(Losi or Lozi), 1650–1721, was a Bohemian aristocrat, lute player and composer mainly in Prague.
For the top, fine grained spruce from the Jura was chosen. The body was made of 11 ribs of
figured maple. The neck is of spruce veneered with ebony, the bridge is figured maple and the
pegbox is made of figured maple with ebony veneer, and the pegs are black stained plum.

For the construction, SM stayed as close as possible to original techniques.

Fig. 2 shows the inner view of the top of the Berr lute (left) and of the new lute (right).

For the carving of the rose, SM adapted a very close pattern of identical size (Fig.3).

Fig. 3. The rose pattern of the Berr lute (left) and of the new lute (right).

The next figure compares the ribs of the historic instrument (left) with the newly built lute
(right). For the reconstructed lute, historic 17th century paper has been selected to glue the ribs
together. Both the Andreas Berr and the SM labels are placed inside the body.
 Fig. 4. Inside view of the ribs of the Berr lute (left) and the new lute (right).

The figure below compares the body and neck of the historic lute with the new 11-course
instrument. Obviously, the newly build 11-couse instrument has no bass-rider on the pegbox.

Fig. 5. Comparison of the body and neck of the historic lute (left) and the new lute (right).
During the building of the Berr lute as an 11-course instrument, the bass-ride on the pegbox
was omitted, however, otherwise the positions of the pegs and the fixing of gut strings inside
and outside the pegbox were preserved.

Fig. 6. Side by side comparison of the front view of the 13-course Berr lute (left) and the
reconstructed 11-course lute (right).

A single nut of 8.5 cm holds all strings, and has an overhang of approx. 1 cm in comparison to
the size of the upper neck (Fig. 6).
 Fig. 7. View of the reconstructed pegbox of the 11-course instrument.

The bridge has an overall spacing of 13.4 / 13.5 cm which is about the standard on most 11
course lutes of that time, and also corresponds with the Andreas Berr instrument in Slovenia. 2
The present 11-course bridge is located at the same position as the 13-course bridge of the
historic instrument.

2
11 course lute by Andreas Berr (1694), Pokrajinski Muzej, Ptuj GL 46 S.
 Fig. 8. Side by side comparison of the half-profile view of the Berr lute (left) and of the
reconstructed 11-course lute (right).

The string length for all courses is 65 cm. Due to request by BF, double-frets have been added
to be more in-line with historic practice in the 17th and early 18th century substantiated by
numerous lute paintings and modern research. 3, 4 The frets differ in size ranging from 1.05mm
to 0.7mm.

For the new 11 course instrument SM used Aquila pure gut strings for the first six courses and
the bass’ octave strings, and Aquila loaded nylgut for the bass strings.

Currently, the instrument is tuned with a=440 Hz, thus approx. a half tone higher than one
would use for a lute with string lengths of 68 to 70 cm.

3
Taro Takeuchi, An observation on tuning the lute (and other early plucked instruments). Lute News 139 (October
2021), p.27-28.
4
Andreas Schlegel, Personal Communication.
Small baroque lutes are rare objects in today’s music instrument collections, but have been in
use from time to time in the late 17th and early 18th century. Tuning and use of a small lute has
been described in detail by Wenzel Ludwig Edler von Radolt in his lute concert compositions
“Die Aller Treüeste Freindin”. 5 Some of his lute concerts make use of three lutes, namely
“dreyen unterschiedlichen Lautten, kleine, grössere, und große Lautten”. 6 The tuning of the
smallest lute is described as follows “Die erste, so den Sopran fuhret, muß ein sehr kleine
Lautten sein, und wird wenigsten umb einen halben Thon höher alß Cornet gestimmet” 7, 8

The final 11-course lute built by SM has a very clear sound and excellent acoustics after four
months of playing and the resonance lasts well after the strings are played.

5
Wenzel Ludwig Freiherr von Radolt (Vienna, 18.12.1667 - 10.03.1716) was an Austrian aristocrat, composer and
lutenist. His composition „Die Aller Treueste Verschwigneste und nach so wohl Frölichen als Traurigen Humor sich
richtende Freindin …“ (Vienna, 1710) comprises 12 concerti. The first concerto in d minor employs the largest
ensemble that the composer calls for: 3 lutes, in three different tunings, 2 violins, descant viol and bass.
6
English translation „three different lutes, small, larger, and big lutes“
7
English translation „The first [lute] which plays the descant has to be tuned at least a semitone higher than
Cornet“
8
The tuning pitch in Vienna around 1700 lay at least at a1=467 Hz, according to surviving instruments from the
Imperial Court chapel in Vienna.