Diana Poulton: A Tutor For The Renaissance Lute - With the benefit of her many years study of the repertoire and teaching of the instrument Diana Poulton has completely re-cast her earlier book (An Introduction to Lute Playing 1961) to produce in A Tutor for the Renaissance Lute the most comprehensive method for the lute based on Renaissance precepts. The book will be found equally useful to students working alone - giving clear instructions on all technical matters progressively introduced according to their difficulty - and to teacher (providing a source of some seventy-fivepieces from which to structure their pupils' progress). The advanced student too will find that much of the music is suitable for recital programmes. 

Edited by David Greer70 partsongs by Michael Cavendish Robert Jones Francis Pilkington and John Bartlett are presented in four-part score with lute tablature and transcription.First published in 1987.

This book is aimed at beginner lute and guitar players interested in playing Renaissance lutemusic on either instrument. Lute and guitar tablature are included along with notes on technique biographies of lute composers from the 16th century and general advice on buying stringing and tuning a lute. The book startswith single-line melodies before progressing to two-part and full repertoire pieces. Selections include works by great Renaissance composers such as John Dowland Francesco da Milano Alonso Mudarra Francesco Spinacino andothers with music from England Scotland Italy France and Germany. A useful chord chart is also included. Every piece in the book has been recorded for download by Rob MacKillop--in itself an album worth owning. Includesaccess to online audio.  

A rare work for the Lute-based Theorbo. Below is the programme note from the composer.In July 1998 I decided that I would use a theorbo in Havoc a piece I was writing for the 1999 Proms (premiere September 8th 1999). Since my knowledge of the instrument was negligible I contacted David (The Orbo) Miller and appealed for help since I knew he would be playing in the Proms piece. He kindly and with admirable patience showed me how the instrument worked and I began writing groundwork as a technical exercise - hence one meaning of the title. The other is that it is a set of variations over a ground bass.Since the theorbo possesses eight diapason bass strings - whichare plucked like those of a harp not stopped with the left and - it seemed sensible to use these for the ground bass which consists simply of a rising eight-note scale using all diapason strings in turn. This ground is stated at the beginning and developed through 16 variations. Nos 1 to 7 are straightforward except that some of them compress the ground into itself. Nos 8 to 16 are in stretto: they are gradually overlapped with each other the new ground beginning one note earlier each time. The climax of the piece comes at variations 10 to 11; variations 12 to 14 bring it gradually down to earth; no. 15 is quiet and puts the decorated ground in relaxed canon with itself (in octaves using the top and bottom strings of the instrument). Variation 16 strips the ground of decoration putting tight scrunchy chords over it and the piece ends with the lowest diapason string (G) a quiet raspberry ripple of the other seven diapason strings and a final harmonic G to tell us that our little journey is over. I hope you enjoy the scenery.Giles Swayne

Cette Méthode de Luth Baroque peut vous donner les bases techniques et musicales nécessaires à l?obtention d?une structure assez solide et complète du jeu du luth baroque. Et c?est là tout l?enjeu et le défi de l?écriture de cet ouvrage : donner, au plus grand nombre de passionnés, l?opportunité de s?exprimer à travers le luth baroque, et ce, indépendamment de leur niveau d?apprentissage. Notre livre est destiné non seulement à celui qui n?a jamais joué d?un instrument de musique, mais aussi au guitariste avisé qui veut s?initier aux mystères du luth baroque !

Mode d?emploi

Notre Méthode de Luth Baroque est divisée en trois parties.

La première partie, plutôt théorique, aidera à mieux comprendre la façon de jouer la musique écrite pour le luth baroque. Nous avons jugé indispensable d?avoir des connaissances élémentaires de solfège occidental mais aussi de la tablature (forme de notation musicale spécifique au luth). Ces connaissances, insuffisantes si étudiées de manière isolée, ont été enrichies d?un lexique des pièces instrumentales ainsi que de biographies de la plupart des compositeurs de musique pour luth baroque à 11 et 13 ch?urs.

En deuxième partie, nous avons dédié tout un chapitre à l?étude de la technique et de la production sonore du luth. Riche en photos et détails de toutes les étapes techniques que nous devrons franchir, ce chapitre est, sans aucun doute, le plus important de toute notre Méthode pour bien comprendre l?univers sonore du luth baroque ! Ensuite, nous vous proposons 21 exercices, tous d?un niveau élémentaire, mais progressifs, accompagnés de plusieurs pièces de musique. Vous allez d?abord jouer des mélodies pour ensuite ajouter les basses, et seulement après commencer à jouer les ornements.

En troisième partie, nous avons choisi près de 250 pièces pour luth baroque à 11 et 13 ch?urs. Ces pièces, divisées en trois niveaux, sont d?un degré de difficulté qui s?échelonne du niveau « débutant », « moyen » à « avancé ». Nous avons, tout comme à l?époque baroque, séparé ces pièces selon leurs tonalités et leur nom. Aussi, nous n?avons choisi que très peu de tonalités différentes, afin que le luthiste débutant puisse travailler l?essentiel de son instrument, au lieu de perdre son temps à essayer de s?accorder tout le temps et de jouer des morceaux bien trop complexes pour son niveau. Il n?y a pas de mauvaise musique mais, parfois, il y a de mauvais musiciens ! Faire de la musique n?est simplement pas jouer des notes et réaliser quelques acrobaties, souvent sans intérêt. Un musicien « mûr » se plaît le plus souvent à jouer une simple mélodie et à jouir des merveilles sonores de son instrument !

Nous espérons que cette méthode pourra aider ceux qui n?ont pas accès à un professeur (même si nous leur conseillons d?aller en voir un le plus régulièrement possible), mais aussi tous les professeurs n?ayant pas suffisamment de matériel pour faire travailler, d?une manière systématique, leurs élèves.
Bon courage à tous !
Miguel Yisrael - formerly Miguel Serdoura, now carrying the surname of his mother - was born in Lisbon, where he began his musical and artistic career, earning his Diploma in Classical Guitar in 1994. In 1995, he moved to Paris, where he studied the lute with Claire Antonini in the Early Music Department of the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris - CNR. He also took part in several master classes in his discipline, with Rolf Lislevand and other prestigious artists. From 1999 to 2004, he completed his musical education at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland with the grand maestro Hopkinson Smith.
As a soloist, Miguel Yisrael has given recitals in France, Portugal, United-Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, China and USA. In 2000, he took part in a television documentary devoted to the lutenist Hopkinson Smith, broadcast by Arte, Mezzo, Classica, RTBF and TSR. He currently lives and teaches baroque and renaissance lute in Paris, where he gives frequent concerts/lectures in the framework of the ?Musicien au Musée? program of the Musée de la Musique - Cité de la Musique in Paris.
Miguel Yisrael performs on lutes built by Cezar Mateus, Princeton, USA, and with strings from Mimmo Peruffo, Vicenza, Italy.
He recorded his first solo CD for the Dutch Label Brilliant Classics in 2008.

The Original First and Second Books Including Dowland's Original Lute Tablature. THE FIRST BOOK OF SONGS
I. Unquiet thoughts
II. Who ever thinks or hopes of love
III. My thoughts are wing'd with hopes
IV. If my complaints could passions move
V. Can she excuse my wrongs'
VI. Now, O now, I needs must part
VII. Dear, if you change
VIII. Burst forth, my tears
IX. Go crystal tears
X. Think'st thou then by thy feigning
XI. Come away, come sweet love
XII. Rest awhile you cruel cares
XIII. Sleep, wayward thoughts
XIV. All ye, whom Love or Fortune
XIVa. All ye, whom Love or Fortune
XV. Wilt thou, unkind, thus reave me
XVI. Would my conceit
XVII. Come again
XVIII. His golden locks
XIX. Awake, sweet love, thou art return'd
XX. Come, heavy Sleep
XXI. Away with these self-loving lads
------ My Lord Chamberlain his Galliard
(For two to play...)
THE SECOND BOOK OF SONGS
I. I saw my Lady weep
II. Flow my tears
III. Sorrow, stay
IV. Die not before thy day
V. Mourn, day is with darkness fled
VI. Time's eldest son, Old Age (The first part)
VII. Then sit thee down (The second part)
VIII. When others sing Venite (The third part)
IX. Praise blindness eyes
X. O sweet woods
XI. If floods of tears
XII. Fine knacks for ladies
XIII. Now cease my wand'ring eyes
XIV. Come ye heavy states of night
XV. White as lilies was her face
XVI. Woeful heart
XVII. A shepherd in a shade
XVIII. Faction that ever dwells
XIX. Shall I sue
XX. Toss not my soul
XXI. Clear or cloudy
XXIa. Clear or cloudy
XXII. Humour say what mak'st thou here (a Dialogue)