LUTE is a string plucked instrument of quartal tuning. It consists of a pear-shaped body, short, thick, curved to the back fingerboard and plane upper table descended from Arabic countries (from Arabic "al ud" that means "wood"). During VII-IX centuries the LUTE was moved by Iberian peoples from Northern Africa to Spain and after some time it was brought to Europe. Through its history the number of strings of lute was permanently rising up to 24 and more. This made the sound stronger and enriched the structure of music with chords. The contemporaries had a joke: when lutenist tuned last strings, he found out that first strings had already put out of tune. LUTE appeared in Europe at Late Middle Ages and by the middle of XIX century it almost got out of use. Nowadays it is revival of the lute. Reconstructed lute of today takes part in orchestras playing the music of Renaissance.