The 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.

Christopher Page (Author)

9781107108363, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 July 2015

270 pages, 26 b/w illus.
24.4 x 17 x 1.6 cm, 0.63 kg

'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

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], History [HB], Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literature & literary studies [D], Medieval & Renaissance music [c 1000 to c 1600 AVGC2], Early music [up to c 1000 CE AVGC1], Theory of music & musicology [AVA], Music [AV], Performance art [AFKP]