THE Haydn Lute Trio last performed in Chipping Sodbury on 13 February 2007, and has been delighting audiences ever since, with its widely varied programmes featuring the 18th century lute and theorbo in ensemble. The trio has regularly featured in arts festival, music society and educational programmes, contrasting rarely heard early classical Lute trios by Haydn and his contemporaries with the great violin sonatas of Bach, Handel and Corelli, using the theorbo as continuo.

You may be thinking “what’s a theorbo?” 'Theorbo' is an anglicised form of the Italian word 'tiorba', which was a colloquial name for a large instrument of the lute family. It was developed in Florence during the 1580s and is basically a lute with a long neck extension. The theorbo has two pegboxes, one at the top of the fingerboard and the other at the end of the extension. The extended neck is necessary because, before the invention of wire-wound strings, increasing the length was the only way to obtain a clear and sustained sound from low bass strings. Its voice has something of the lute, the guitar and the harp, but it also has resources that are not available on other instruments.

By popular demand the Trio will be returning to the Town Hall on Tuesday 5 May at 7.30 pm to present a new and exciting programme of music on the baroque violin, baroque cello, lute and theorbo. Tickets are still available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/csmusicsociety or from the Box Office on 01454 315741.