Christopher Morrongiello plays lute compositions by the Galilei family Saturday, August 8, at Lick Observatory. (Photo by Sarah Rosenbaum)

It could be said that Christopher Morrongiello plays retro music, if you consider the 16th and 17th century retro. Morrongiello, who performs at Music of the Spheres on Saturday, August 9, is an expert at the lute, a delicate stringed instrument often associated with the Renaissance.

His concert at the Lick Observatory celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s first telescope demonstration. Morrongiello will play works by the Galilei family and their musical contemporaries. Many people may not know that the father of modern astronomy was a talented lutenist.

Director of the Bacheler Consort and a member of the Venere Lute Quartet, Morrongiello teaches at Hofstra University. He took time out from his busy summer to answer a few questions for Weekend Santa Cruz via email.

How did you discover that Galileo and his family were accomplished lutenists? Historians and musicologists have long known that Galileo was a lutenist and that his family championed the lute…. Galileo acquired proficiency on the instrument at an early age and apparently reached a high level of virtuosity.

“Among his most treasured entertainments,” recounted his biographer and last disciple Viviani, “were the practice of music and playing upon the frets of the lute, in which, with the example and instruction of his father, he came to such excellence, that he found himself in competition with the best professors of that time in Florence and Pisa, being most rich of the invention on that instrument, and exceeding his father in gentleness and grace of playing; he retained this suave style always even to his last days.”



Galileo’s father, Vincenzo Galilei, is thought to have attracted the admiration of his chief patron Giovanni de’ Bardi with his lute playing; Vincenzo later became a distinguished teacher of the lute and an important theorist, composer, polemicist and musical reformer. His second son, Michelagnolo, who was groomed to become a professional musician from an early age—he wrote the dedicatory epistle of his father’s Contrapunti a due voci (1584) when he was nine—served as a professional lutenist at the royal courts of Vilna and Munich; he published an important collection of ten-course lute music in 1620, selections of which will be presented in my program.

His son Vincenzo followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and became a professional lutenist, as did his brothers Alberto Cesere and Cosimo. You can see that there was an important tradition of lute playing in the Galilei family, and that their skill in composing for it and performing on it brought them status, patronage, honor and fame.


What do you think it was about the lute that attracted Galileo as an instrument and how did it help in his work? With its rosette derived from ancient Arabic geometrical patterns, its elliptically shaped soundboard and belly… and its diverse sizes (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) modeled according to Pythagorean proportions, the lute was thought to be a model of mathematical perfection, a microcosm of the universe. Indeed, for many humanists of the Renaissance, the “symphony of sounding numbers” of the universe was most clearly revealed in its well-tuned, well-played strings.

The lute was also a practical instrument for the traveling musician or scholar. “It can be taken any place where we may be, such as walking, riding horseback, sitting at the window, or in bed—wherever you may happen to be,” asserted Galileo’s father.



Vincenzo Galilei was an ardent empiricist who exposed his son to all sorts of experiments in musical acoustics. He worked zealously with various tuning systems for voices and instruments. For fretted instruments such as the lute he came up with the ratio 18 : 17 (virtually identical to equal temperament, used today on most instruments), which he recommended using for setting each successive fret up the neck of the instrument. His “long observations” on the manner of fretting his lute must have made a lasting impression on his son, the scientist.

According to historian Stillman Drake, Galileo apparently used the frets of his lute in one of his early experiments on motion. He tied the lute frets at precise distances on an incline plane and rolled balls down the plane, measuring the intervals of time that had elapsed when the balls passed over the frets. Such empirical observations helped Galileo reach the conclusion that for a freely falling object, the distance fallen is proportional to the square of the elapsed time.


What is it about the lute that attracted you? I have always found the lute extremely beautiful to look at and to listen to; its voice has a sweetness and delicacy that’s hard to describe in words. It’s like a beautiful woman whispering many ancient and profound mysteries. Of course, it was one of the most important instruments in the history of Western culture. So many of the great personages of the Renaissance played the instrument, including Henry VIII, Ann Boleyn, Isabella d’Este, Elizabeth I and Martin Luther. The astrologer Marsilio Ficino and the astronomer Christian Huygens were also avid practitioners of the lute.

Galileo was, in some ways, an explorer – exploring the unknown. In what ways have you found yourself exploring the musical world with your instrument? A musical instrument can serve as a vehicle for exploring the artistic expressions of another culture or age. For me, the lute opens the oaken door to the artistic expressions of the Renaissance and Baroque. What’s interesting about its music is that the tablature notation in which most lute music survives shows you exactly where on the instrument to put your left-hand fingers. In essence, the notation allows you to experience the same kinesthetic sensations that lutenists of olden times experienced. It’s like putting on a virtual reality glove that lets you tap into the energy, skill and grace of the old masters.



Another aspect of the lute that I find really appealing is its rather quiet sound. In this age, which is getting progressively louder as we speak, the quiet beauty of the lute is a refreshing alternative to louder or amplified instruments. Although it takes a little time to get used to the lute’s subtle sounds, once the ears relax, the mind seems very willing to allow its music to speak directly to the soul. For many melancholics with a troubled soul, lute music is often the only medicine that works.


Tell us about your instrument. How old is the lute you play and what is its history? I shall be playing two lutes in my recital at the Lick. Both were made by Grant Tomlinson, one of the world’s finest luthiers. Incidentally, the world luthier, which means a maker of stringed instruments, comes from the word lute.

The smaller of my two lutes is an exact copy of one made by Vvendelio Venere in Padua in 1592, now housed in the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna. Venere was the foremost luthier in 16th-century Italy. He was the Stradivarius of his time. The second instrument, which has more courses (double pairs of strings) and is more appropriate for early Baroque lute music, is based on a lute by the 16th-century Bolognese luthier Hans Frei that was converted in the early 17th century to accommodate extra bass courses. This instrument is now lodged in the Warwick County Museum in England.

Both of my lutes are strung entirely in gut, by the way. Gut is much more responsive to the player’s expressivity. When the strings are fresh and in tune, gut has that inimitable, magical sound. Philosophers and writers have marveled at this sound since ancient times—Shakespeare perhaps expressing it best: “Is it not strange that sheep’s guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?” 



I also like to rest my lute against a wooden table when I play. In the Renaissance, the table was the center of the domestic musical world. There are iconographical representations of players utilizing the table, sources of lute music in table-book format, surviving music tables (the “Aeglentyne Table,” for instance), and written instructions of lute pedagogues who advocated playing in this manner. There are also instruments showing evidence of having been modified for table-playing. The table adds extra resonance to the sound and allows the player to sit erect with both feet on the ground. The table also accommodates lots of sprawling music, as well as a basket of fruit and even a cup of tea. Indeed, when have you seen a music stand in a 16th-century painting of a lutenist?

Christopher Morrongiello plays lute as part of Music of the Spheres. An astronomy talk and a look through a Lick telescope follow. 8 p.m. Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton Road, 19 miles east of San Jose. $35 – $155. santacruztickets.com.