The Guitar in Tudor England

A Social and Musical History

Christopher Page (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge)

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Hardback

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English

Cambridge University Press
30 July 2015

Medieval & Renaissance music (c 1000 to c 1600); Guitar

Series: Musical Performance and Reception

Few now remember that the guitar was popular in England during the age of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare, and yet it was played everywhere from the royal court to the common tavern. This groundbreaking book, the first entirely devoted to the renaissance guitar in England, deploys new literary and archival material, together with depictions in contemporary art, to explore the social and musical world of the four-course guitar among courtiers, government servants and gentlemen. Christopher Page reconstructs the trade in imported guitars coming to the wharves of London, and pieces together the printed tutor for the instrument (probably of 1569) which ranks as the only method book for the guitar to survive from the sixteenth century. Two chapters discuss the remains of music for the instrument in tablature, both the instrumental repertoire and the traditions of accompanied song, which must often be assembled from scattered fragments of information.

By: Christopher Page (Sidney Sussex College Cambridge)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 244mm, Width: 170mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 630g
ISBN: 9781107108363
ISBN 10: 1107108365
Series: Musical Performance and Reception
Pages: 270
Publication Date: 30 July 2015
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

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.

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).

Reviews for The Guitar in Tudor England: A Social and Musical History

'The book is especially valuable because the author examines both the social and musical history of the guitar. Studies that focus just on one instrument can be sincere but dull, their pages filled with tables, measurements, stringing lists, and pretty pictures. Important information, to be sure, but missing a crucial point: these instruments were held in human hands and used for very human purposes. Here, Mr Page's book shines brightly ... Readers who want to learn all things about the guitar in Tudor England could do no better than to read this superb book.' Mark Kroll, Early Music America 'Christopher Page's study of the Tudor gittern presents the reviewer with a challenge, since it is impeccably conceived, comprehensively researched and exquisitely written; so what can one add beyond words of praise?' John Milsom, Early Music

Short-listed for PROSE Award for Music and the Performing Arts 2016
Short-listed for PROSE Awards: Music & the Performing Arts 2016
Shortlisted for PROSE Awards: Music & the Performing Arts 2016.