Constantinopolitan lute (lavta)

The lavta, also known as the Constantinopolitan lute, was played in Ottoman music before the oud, but almost completely disappeared during the 20th century.

Unlike the Greek laouto, the lavta has movable frets and is not tuned in equal temperament. It is smaller and quieter than the laouto of Greece, is played with a quill plectrum, and has three double strings and one single. The neck is made of ebony, the body of mahogany, walnut, kelebek, rosewood or mulberry, and the soundboard of pine. Its range is two and a half octaves. The usual tunings are A–D–A–D and A–D–G–C. It belongs to the urban popular music of Constantinople, mostly as a melody instrument but also for accompaniment.

It is part of the large family of traditional instruments rooted in Greek traditional music and beyond, which share a repertoire, a way of playing and a theoretical basis in the theory of Byzantine music, and whose music reaches inside and beyond the borders of Greece. Influenced in its playing by the oud and the tambouras, the lavta adds a decisive voice to the traditional ensemble, both as a solo and as an accompanying instrument.