Guitar in Tudor England - A Social and Musical History

This book reveals the most popular instrument in the world as it was in the age of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Imagery; 2. Who owned a gittern?; 3. The gittern trade; 4. 'An instruction to the Gitterne'; 5. Sounding strings; 6. The gittern and Tudor song; 7. Thomas Whythorne: the autobiography of a Tudor guitarist; Conclusion; Appendices: Appendix A. The terms 'gittern' and 'cittern'; Appendix B. References to gitterns from 1542-1605; Appendix C. The probate inventory of Dennys Bucke (1584); Appendix D. Octave strings on the fourth and third course; Appendix E. The fiddle tunings of Jerome of Moravia, swept strings and the guitar; Appendix F. The mandore and the wire-strung gittern; Appendix G. The ethos of the guitar in sixteenth-century France; Appendix H. Raphe Bowle.

About the author

Christopher Page is a Fellow of the British Academy, Professor of Medieval Music and Literature at the University of Cambridge, and from October 2014 Gresham Professor of Music at Gresham College, London for three years. He holds the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association awarded for outstanding services to musicology. In 1981 he founded the professional vocal ensemble Gothic Voices, which now has twenty-five CDs in the catalogue, three of which won the coveted Gramophone Early Music Record of the Year award. In 2012, he was a founder member of the Consortium for Guitar Research at Sidney Sussex College, an affiliate of the Royal Musical Association. He has published many books and articles on early music, most recently a major study, The Christian West and its Singers: The First Thousand Years (2010).

Summary

The guitar was played everywhere in the age of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare, from the royal court to the tavern. This groundbreaking book uses new literary and archival material, together with depictions in contemporary art, to explore the social and musical world of the instrument among courtiers, gentlemen and apprentices.

Product details

• Authors: Christopher Page, Christopher (Sidney Sussex College Page, Page Christopher
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2018
• EAN: 9781107519374
• ISBN: 978-1-107-51937-4
• No. of pages: 268
• Series: Musical Performance and Reception; Musical Performance and Recept; Musical Performance and Reception
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; England, History, Music, Europe, MUSIC / General, Social & cultural history, Literature & literary studies, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Theory of music & musicology, Renaissance style, Performance Art, c 1500 to c 1600, C 1600 To C 1700, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Art music, orchestral and formal music, String instruments, Medieval & Renaissance music (c 1000 to c 1600), Medieval style, Early Music (Up To C 1000 Ce)