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Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court, 1540-1690 » (REPRINT)

Book cover image of Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court, 1540-1690 by Peter Holman

Authors: Peter Holman
ISBN-13: 9780198165927, ISBN-10: 0198165927
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: March 1996
Edition: REPRINT

Author Biography: Peter Holman

Colchester Institute

Book Synopsis

The royal string band at the English court had its origins in a six-man viol consort from Italy brought to England by Henry VIII in the spring of 1540. This book, written by the director of the acclaimed early music group, The Parley of Instruments, charts the history of the royal string band from its beginnings to the time of Purcell. Drawing on a wealth of documentary evidence, much of it new, Holman considers the previous history of instrumentalists at court and recounts the band's establishment at court in the context of the violin's place in sixteenth-century Europe. The first thorough treatment of this subject, Holman's book will be welcomed for the light it sheds on large areas of music history.

	List of Plates
	List of Figures
	List of Tables
	List of Music Examples
	Note to the Reader
	Abbreviations
1	'Quagmires of History and Terminology': The Origin of the Violin	1
2	'The Place of a Musicon in Ordinary': Place and Patronage at Court	32
3	'Mynstrelles with Straunge Soundes': Fiddles, Rebecs, and Viols at the Early Tudor Court	58
4	'Ministers of Pastime': The String Consort 1540-1558	78
5	'Musicke of Violenze': The Elizabethan String Consort	104
6	'Common Musicke': The Violin outside the Court	123
7	'Nach Englischer Art': A 'Lost' Repertoire of Elizabethan Dance Music	144
8	'In the Arte of Musicke and Skill of Danceing': The Jacobean Court Orchestra	173
9	'Coperarios Musique': The Households of Prince Henry and Prince Charles	197
10	'His Majesties Musique of Violins': The Caroline Court Orchestra	225
11	'The Fancy-Musick': The Violin and Court Chamber Music 1625-1663	251
12	'The Fideldedies': Charles II and the Twenty-four Violins	282
13	'Waiters upon the Violin': The Twenty-four Violins at Court	305
14	'By Intervals Design'd': Music for the London Stage	331
15	'Infinitely Gallant': Court Masque and Opera	359
16	'The French Fantastical Light Way': Violins in the Chapel Royal	389
17	'A Mighty Musique Entertainment at Court': Reform and Retrenchment 1685-1690	415
	App. A. Succession of Places for String-Players at the Early Tudor Court	437
	App. B. Succession of Places for Court Violinists 1540-1642	438
	App. C. Succession of Places in the Twenty-four Violins 1660-1685	440
	App. D. Some Sizes of Court Violin Bands in Performance 1607-1685	443
	Bibliography: Books and Articles	447
	Bibliography: Music	473
	Index	479