A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance

A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance
Author: Douglas Alton Smith
Publisher:
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2002
Genre: Music
ISBN:

By the year 1500, the lute's almost universal appeal throughout Europe had made it a unifying element of Western music and culture. Renaissance composers, singers and dancers all found in the lute a perfect tool for the musical development and maturation of their art. In fact, the lute's unique musical and physical characteristics inspired artists and poets alike to elevate it to a place of such high honor that the lute's image has come to symbolize music itself. This traces the lute's development from the early instruments of Classical Greece to its glorious flowering in Renaissance Europe's golden age of polyphony. This illustrated and comprehensive book explores the historical and cultural reasons behind the lute's importance as the preeminent musical instrument of the Renaissance. With its lengthy bibliography, index, 74 illustrations and 55 musical examples, the author has told the lute's story with a scholarly and visual depth.

The Lute in Britain

The Lute in Britain
Author: Matthew Spring
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2001
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780195188387

"Spring focuses on the lute in Britain, but also includes two chapters devoted to continental developments: one on the transition from medieval to renaissance, the other on renaissance to baroque, and the lute in Britain is never treated in isolation. Six chapters cover all aspects of the lute's history and its music in England from 1285 to well into the eighteenth century, whilst other chapters cover the instrument's early history, the lute in consort, lute song accompaniment, the theorbo, and the lute in Scotland."--Jacket.

Study of the Lute

Study of the Lute
Author: Ernst Gottlieb Baron
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2019-04-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781094710662

E. G. Baron's Study of the Lute (Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten) published in 1727, is one of the most comprehensive and important lute treatises in the 300 year history of the instrument. It contains much information that is unique to it, and deals with subjects that can be found in no other source. It is a mine of information concerning the history of the instrument, lute makers, composers, players, technique and performance practices of the day. At last, this work has been translated into delightful English by Douglas A. Smith, retaining much of the flamboyant flavor of the original. A long preface gives the background of the work, its era, and the life of Baron. The present edition improves the value of the original, since explanatory footnotes, appendices, and an index have been added. Also, the voluminous Latin and Greek passages have been translated. The book is both delightful and informative.

Instrumentalists and Renaissance Culture, 1420-1600

Instrumentalists and Renaissance Culture, 1420-1600
Author: Victor Coelho
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2016-05-26
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1107145805

This is the first in-depth study in any language exploring the vast cultural range of instrumental music during the Renaissance.

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance
Author: Marina Belozerskaya
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2005-10-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0892367857

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

The History of Musical Instruments

The History of Musical Instruments
Author: Curt Sachs
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 562
Release: 2012-09-19
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0486171515

Written by a distinguished musicologist, this comprehensive history of musical instruments traces their evolution from prehistoric times in a fusion of music, anthropology, and fine arts. Includes 24 plates and 167 illustrations.

European Music, 1520-1640

European Music, 1520-1640
Author: James Haar
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 600
Release: 2014
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 184383894X

Chronological surveys of national musical cultures (in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, England, and Spain), genre studies (Mass, motet, madrigal, chanson, instrumental music, opera), as well as essays on intellectual and cultural developments and concepts relevant to music (music theory, printing, the Protestant Reformation and the corresponding Catholic movement, humanism, the concepts of "Renaissance" and "Baroque").

The Renaissance Vihuela & Guitar in Sixteenth-Century Spain

The Renaissance Vihuela & Guitar in Sixteenth-Century Spain
Author: Frank W. Koonce
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2010-10-07
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1609746813

Scholarly editions, which serve different purposes than performance editions, are not often designed with the modern guitarist in mind. for instance, Renaissance vihuela tablatures are usually transcribed with the open first string as G, not E. Most are presented in double-staff notation, a medium that is superior for realizing counterpoint but unconventional as guitar notation. Furthermore, these editions sometimes give idealized, but not realistic, solutions for voicing, note duration, and other matters that need to be considered within the limitations of our instrument. Guitarists who try to play from these editions essentially are faced with the task of transcribing the transcription!This 188-page anthology is designed as a companion volume to the Baroque Guitar in Spain and the New World (MB21122). It includes representative selections, edited for modern guitar, from the seven books for vihuela that were published in Spain between 1536 and 1576.As well as being fun and entertaining music for all to enjoy, these collections are intended to help bridge the gap between scholarly editions and performance editions by providing a hands-on introduction to tablature transcription and to issues concerning historically informed performance of early music on the guitar.A 188-page anthology, edited for modern guitar, from the seven books for vihuela that were published in Spain between 1536 and 1576A companion volume to the Baroque Guitar in Spain and the New World (MB21122)Intended to help bridge the gap between scholarly editions and performance editionsAn introduction to tablature transcription and to issues concerning historically informed performance of early music on the modern guitar.

Meantone Temperaments on Lutes and Viols

Meantone Temperaments on Lutes and Viols
Author: David Dolata
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2016-07-04
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0253021464

Written for musicians by a musician, Meantone Temperaments on Lutes and Viols demystifies tuning systems by providing the basic information, historical context, and practical advice necessary to easily achieve more satisfying tuning results on fretted instruments. Despite the overwhelming organological evidence that many of the finest lutenists, vihuelists, and viola da gamba players in the Renaissance and Baroque eras tuned their instruments in one of the meantone temperaments, most modern early instrument players today still tune to equal temperament. In this handbook richly supplemented with figures, diagrams, and music examples, historical performers will discover why temperaments are necessary and how they work, descriptions of a variety of temperaments, and their application on fretted instruments. This technical book provides downloadable audio tracks and other tools for fretted instrument players to achieve more stable consonances, colorful dissonances, and harmonic progressions that vividly propel the music forward.