I enjoyed this introduction to the Oud

[Tico]

... Perhaps you will too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5VdzRHhud

[mc1]

The link to that video appears to still be tuning up. Is this the same:

[mc1]

I'm gonna plow ahead and assume that's the video. If it wasn't, it was good as well.

I listened to some videos of his recommended players, Anouar Brahem and Naseer Shamma. Most were pretty good but not highly recommendable. Anouar is all over the place, and has collaborated with Jan Garbarek - I plan to check some of that out later.

This was the standout (standoud?) for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhVUm29rHEc

[Tico]

mc1, yes that was the video in my link.
For some reason it doesn't work here; it just says "video unavailable."

Thanks for your video.
I'm looking forward to checking it out later as I can't right now.

[David Rance]

Oud in Spanish is 'el laude arabe'. In Moorish Granada during medieval times, when much of Spain was Moslem, and then later, the word and the instrument turned into 'Lute'. The stem of the word luthier is derived from lute. It is too simplistic to say that the lute became the guitar though. There are hundreds of stringed instruments around the world and although evidence for a direct evolution from the oud to the lute seems likely, a similar evolution of the lute to the guitar is less convincing. But the troubador accompaniment of singing and dancing with stringed instruments especially amongst the poor was widespread in the Iberian peninsula over the centuries. Then the guitar itself became very popular amongst the middle classes more widely across Europe in the 18th and 19th century, went to America where it evolved down several new paths and is still evolving. In Russia classical guitars have 7 strings. Australia loves to experiment with different woods. Taylor fiddles with the bracing. Martin fiddles with the neck and sticks holes in.

Where will it end?!