Theorbo
Inquiries about collaboration for /with theorbo are welcome [see contact page].
The latest addition to my instruments is a 14-string Theorbo/Chitarrone built by German luthier Renatus Lechner.
This instrument, a member of the guitar family, is typically utilized as a continuo instrument. However, it is still rarely employed in the context of contemporary music.
Besides mastering the instrument, my wish is to expand the repertoire for Theorbo through future collaborations with composers. Undoubtedly, exploring the instrument in collaboration with composers will open new horizons, and new challenges will arise and expand the possibilities of its instrumental praxis, making it a more versatile instrument and hopefully attract both early and new music audiences.
Projects and Collaborations Featuring Theorbo
La Chair de l’ombre
La chair de l’Ombre is a solo work for theorbo by the French composer Franck Christoph Yeznikian. Conceived as an “echo suite after a suite by Robert de Visée,” it offers a subtle reflection on the style and spirit of its Baroque model. A recording of the suite by de Visée that inspired this work may be found here.
Degrees of Brokenness
Degrees of Brokenness is the result of a creative collaboration between British composer James Erber and myself. This new solo theorbo piece was completed in August 2025 and is now published by Composers Edition. Details of the premiere performance will be announced soon.
]noēm[ by Richard Barrett
The composer writes: ]noēm[ for solo theorbo was written for Mauricio Galeano in the summer of 2026. It is based on the theorbo part of the vocal-instrumental quartet phonáessa which is a setting of 24
fragmentary texts by Sappho, and addresses the fragmentary nature of the texts in a variety of ways. ]noēm[ continues this process, by exploding the theorbo part into a scatter of smaller
fragments, imagining that these represent the surviving fragments of a solo composition, and reconstructing it, in the course of which the fragments become reordered and the hypothetical
lacunae between them filled out with many different kinds of “speculative” sound-structures. The title occurs as part of an unknown word in fragment 12 which is too fragmentary to be read
(see below). I chose it also because it reminded me of the last word in Paul Celan’s stanza:
Weggebeizt vom
Strahlenwind deiner Sprache
das bunte Gerede des Anerlebten –
das hundertzüngige Meingedicht,
das Genicht.
The premiere is planned for July 25th at Künstler*dorf Schöppingen(DE)
Photos © Ina Walter
MAURICIO GALEANO 