I have to keep myself focused on finding
information that will help me in my presentation, the subject of which I am
ever narrowing. I am now honing in on the Renaissance and English lute, with
emphasis on the lute's role in song and poetry (especially Shakespearean) as
well as performance practice at the time.
Even with a more circumscribed
research scope, it is still difficult to visualize and craft my final
presentation. I do know that I want it to include historical information about
the instruments and the music, accompanied with examples of tunes and
techniques.
Research--
Poulton, Diana. "Graces of Play in Renaissance Lute
Music." Early Music 3.2 (1974): 107-14. JSTOR. Web. 1 Jan.
2015. <jstor.org>.
Poulton discusses how even if graces were not
consistently documented until the Baroque ere, they were certainly heavily in
use in the Renaissance. Renaissance musicians would have learned graces by ear
from listening to other performers in a more improvisational style. One of the
main reasons that graces did not appear in printed music was the as yet
primitive technology of the printing press. Mass music reproduction was still
in its early stages and so besides the lack of efficient machinery and
technology, there was also no clearly defined method of notating graces and
other ornamentations.
___________________________________________________________________
Gill, Donald. "The Lute and Musick's Monument." The
Galpin Society Journal 3 (1950): 9-11. JSTOR. Web. 1 Jan. 2015.
<jstor.org>.
·
Gill gives a light recapping of some of the
themes in Thomas Mace’s Musick’s
Monument. Gill is, I think, overly cynical of Mace’s work. Mousick’s Monument came out at a time
when the lute was in steep decline, and Mace was attempting to return it to
favor by creating a sort of do-it-yourself guide to lute playing and care. Mace
has sections on tuning (he was especially fond of a new French method which made
it easier to form basic chords), lute care (supposedly the best place to store
one’s instrument was between the blanket and top sheet of one’s bed), and much
more, including suggestions on building and modifying the lute. Gill suggests
the Mace was an old man grasping at the threads of a fast-receding time.
Perhaps Mace was just passionate and looking to share his passion with others.
______________________________________________________________________________
Leppert, Richard. "Music, Representation, and Social
Order in Early-Modern Europe." Cultural Critique No. 12, Discursive
Strategies and the Economy of Prestige (1989): 25-55. JSTOR. Web. 18 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/1354321>.
·
styles of music reflect social class of
listeners
o
In lower classes, music integrated with
environmental sounds
o
in upper classes, performed music is a distinct
entity from everyday sounds.
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Pattison, Bruce. "A Note on the 16th-Century Lute Songs." The
Musical Times No. 12, Discursive Strategies and the Economy of
Prestige.1051 (1930): 796-98. 796-798. Web. 18 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/1354321>.
·
16th century lutenist placed
accompanied solo song on an equal artistic level with polyphonic song.
o
also gave accompanied solo song a unique style.
·
Rise of education and literacy changed audience.
Lutenists no longer played for only the rich and noble, although they still
often needed an aristocratic fan base. However, if they could garner enough
popular appeal, they might not need a noble patron.
·
University trained lutenists shared a social
group with poets, and this influenced the rise of accompanied monophonic song.
Poetry was in the air for the 16th century European, so it was
natural to set poems to music, and this practice sped the popularization of
lute song. Indeed lute song became so popular as to pervade the collective
cultural consciousness, as evidenced by the work of Shakespeare and his
contemporaries.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Smith, Douglas Alton. A History of the Lute from
Antiquity to the Renaissance. Massachusetts: Lute Society of America, 2002.
Print.
·
The lute in the 15th century
·
The 15th century saw the development
of polyphonic playing styles and players discarded the plectrum in favor of
plucking melodies with their fingers.
·
Rose to popularity among Renaissance elite
because it offered comfortable solo polyphony while paying homage to classical
mythology.
·
Almost no music written down until the end of
the century. Lute was part of early Italian Renaissance “unwritten tradition,”
where players improvised accompaniments to usually well-known, simple songs and
tune.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Lowe, Michael. "The Historical Develpoment of the Lute
in the 17th Century." The Galpin Society Journal 29 (1976): 11-25. JSTOR.
Web. 6 Dec. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/841856>.
·
Music appears for 7 course lutes around 1580,
but 6 course instruments were more popular during the 16th century.
·
It seems that the French were the first to
experiment with different tunings, which became a feature of their music
through the first half of the 17th century.
·
Peaking
around 1600, a lute construction style using a greater number of ribs (15-50)
appeared. This style produced some of the finest lutes, including the work of
Michael Hartung, Mango, and Wendelin Tieffenbrucker. Most common wood for the
back ribs was yew, and luthiers made a point of selecting pieces harvested from
the point in the tree where the dark heartwood met the lighter sapwood,
creating a stripped effect.
·
Flemish and Dutch paintings from the 1620s-1630s
show 10-course lutes with 10 frets, both additions to the 6- or 7-course,
eight-fretted instruments Dowland talks about playing.