SOLO MUSIC

This is the most extensive section of the website. Much of the music I have arranged is English (and Scottish) renaissance music from the ‘Golden Age’ of lute music in this country associated with the popularity of the instrument at the English and Scottish royal courts and among the nobilty. The height of this popularity was during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509 - 1547), Edward VI (1547 - 1553), Mary Tudor (1553 - 1558) and Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603) in England; and the reigns of James V (1513 - 1542), Mary Stewart (1543 - 1567) and James VI (1567 - 1625) in Scotland - continuing to some extent in James VI’s subsequent reign as James I of England (1603 - 1625). Music printing came late to the British Isles, and nearly all of this music is to be found in manuscript sources.

The ‘golden age’ tradition did continue to some extent in the seventeenth century, though lute music in England became increasingly influenced by French styles and there was also a gradual decline in the popularity of the instrument. Nevertheless there is a considerable amount of interesting seventeenth century English lute music to be found and I hope to be able to arrange more of this. Currently this music is represented here by Cuthbert Hely and John Wilson.

I have also arranged a number of pieces from continental sources. Many of these are later than the English pieces. There are early sources from all over Europe but with progression towards Baroque styles in the seventeenth century France and Germany became the main centres of innovation in lute music, with the popularity of the lute persisting in Germany well into the eighteenth century.

The seventeenth century is marked by the transition in lute tuning from renaissance tuning (viel ton) through a number of transitional tunings to baroque tuning, later lutes usually having more bass courses (so that Sylvius Weiss, the last of the great German lutenists, used instruments with as many as 13 courses. Pieces written in baroque tuning for these larger instruments often pose a considerable challenge to the arranger!

There is a fascinating and very detailed account of the history of the lute in Great Britain in Spring (2001), and a beautiful illustrated account of the lute in Europe in Schlegel (2006).