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Books, Treatises, Methods, Collections, etc

History and Performance

50 Standards
Renaissance & Baroque

by Pascal Boquet & Gérard Rebours. 50 popular ground absses from the 16th-18th centuries "with variants, examples & advice for playing & improvising on all instruments." Most include 2-4 variants, each with at least one period example written out. The preface offers a useful introduction to the art of improvisation & diminution based on historical tutosr.

Price: $30.00

A New Treatise on Accompaniment (1701)

by Michel de Saint Lambert. Translated and edited by John Powell.

Price: $16.00

Baroque Music: Style & Performance

Donnington summarizes the principles of authentic interpretation in Baroque music and their practical application in performance. Topics include tempo, shaping the line, ornamentation, etc.

Price: $18.95

Baroque String Playing for Ingenious Learners

by Judy Tarling. An overview of historic al stylistic conventions, with technical "how-to's". Covers rhetoric (articulation, ornamentation, etc.), technique (fingering, shifting, bowing), national styles, and more. Indispensible for modern players "taking the plunge"; 296 pp with CD.

Price: $50.00

Before the Chinrest
by Stanley Ritchie

A Violinisht's guide to the mysteries of pre-chinrest technique and style. A welcome resource, with illustrated sections on right-and left-hand technique, as well as interpretation for Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic music.

Price: $35.00

Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford’s "Danc
Barlow, ed.

(1651-ca. 1728), edited by Jeremy Barlow. 535 tunes, including every variant from all eighteen editions of Playford's popular dance collection with informative commentary and an index of tunes.

Price: $25.00

Embellishing 16th Century Music

by Howard Mayer Brown. Still the classic text for 16th century ornamentation, covering embellishments applied to single notes, passaggi (divisions), 16th century examples of solo and ensemble diminutions, etc.

Price: $35.00

Figured Bass for Beginners

A Self-paced Primer in Playing from a Figured Bass by Helen Keaney. An excellent beginning tutor.

Price: $26.00

How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and why you
Ross Duffin

Did Bach hear more colorful harmonies than we do today? Read this "comprehensive plea for more variety in tuning methods".

Price: $15.00

Interpretation of Early Music

by Robert Donington. A classic reference for 17th and 18th century performance practice, completely revised and updated. Includes sections on style, tempo, rhythm, dynamics, accidentals, expression, ornamentation, and much more.

Price: $40.00

Meter in Music 1600-1800

George Houle's insightful study of meter and rhythm in the 17th and 18th centuries. Covers the origin of the measure, time signatures, rhythmopoeia (poetic meter in music), perception of meter, accent, and articulation.

Price: $16.95

Performer's Guide to 17th Century Music
Ed. Stewart Carter, Jeffrey Kite-Powell

Edited by Stewart Carter, revised and expanded by Jeffrey Kite-Powell; covers performance practice, ornamentation, tuning, temperament, meter and tempo, basso continuo, dance and theater, with new chapters on the violin, violoncello and violone, and trombone.

Price: $49.95

Performer's Guide to Medieval Music

Edited by Ross Duffin. Essays by Benjamin Bagby, Timothy McGee, Paull Hillier, et al,. on chant, organum, secular monophony, and other genres, with 13 chapters on instruments and performance practice, and 5 on theory (early notation, ficta, tuning, and more).

Price: $29.95

Performer's Guide to Renaissance Music
Jeffrey Kite-Powell

Edited by Jeffrey Kite-Powell. Finally back in print, considerably revised and expanded from its 1991 first printing. 23 essays address every aspect of historical performance practice (vocal & choral music, ensembles, instruments & instrumentation, regional style, dance, etc.) plus Sarah Mead's excellent introduction to Renaissance music theory and a new chapter on ornamentation.

Price: $50.00

Running the Numbers

A Thorough Figured-Bass Workbook for Keyboard Players by Frances Conover Fitch and Jack Ashworth. As one reviewer put it, "At last, a continuo treatise that begins with music-making... instead of abstract theory." A practical and multi-faceted workbook approach to learning to realise a figured bass, which accomodates a variety of learning styles.

Price: $29.95

The Finishing Touch of Ensemble Playing

by Bart Spanhove (Flanders Recorder Quartet). Practical suggestions for perfecting ensemble skills (articulation, phrasing, tuning, etc), coaching recorder ensembles, and solving technical problems, with a historical chapter by David Lasocki.

Price: $30.00

The Recorder Book
by Ken Wollitz

Ken Wollitz's popular book, with updated repertoire lists. Easty to read, with practical advice drawn from years of teaching; for players and teachers of all levels.

Price: $30.00

The Weapons of Rhetoric

A Guide for Musicians and Audiences by Judy Tarling. From 1600 to at least 1750, classicalrhetoric influenced every aspect of music from composition to performance. Using sources from Aristotle and Quintilian to Avison and Quantz, the author explains the principles of rhetoric and their application in performance. Topics include affect, specch-based delivery, articulation, structure, ornamentation, repetition, and more.

Price: $40.00

Decorative Arts

50 Standards
Renaissance & Baroque

by Pascal Boquet & Gérard Rebours. 50 popular ground absses from the 16th-18th centuries "with variants, examples & advice for playing & improvising on all instruments." Most include 2-4 variants, each with at least one period example written out. The preface offers a useful introduction to the art of improvisation & diminution based on historical tutosr.

Price: $30.00

A Baroque Ornamentation Tutor
János Bali

A compendium of written-out ornamentation from the 17th-18th centuries: Ortiz, Bassano, Fontana, van Eyc, Schop, dalla Casa, Corelli, Barsanti, Couperin, Hotteterre, Telemann, Bach, Quantz, et al., plus an overview of baroque ornamentation and national styles. Most selections are accompanied (realised continuo part included). An excellent resource for study & practice!

Price: $30.00

Der Fluyten Lust-hof (Utrecht, 1655)

The complete edition with commentary and 45 related settings from Dolce, edited by Marijke Oostenkamp and Bernard Thomas. Der Fluyten Lust-Hof is a large collection of variations on popular songs, dances, and psalm tunes by Jacob van Eyck first published in 1646. These delightful works range from simple to virtuosic, and are a primary source for the study of Renaissance ornamentation.

Price: $32.75

Embellishing 16th Century Music

by Howard Mayer Brown. Still the classic text for 16th century ornamentation, covering embellishments applied to single notes, passaggi (divisions), 16th century examples of solo and ensemble diminutions, etc.

Price: $35.00

Jacob van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lust-Hof

by Ruth van Baak Griffioen. An exhaustive and extremely useful study of van Eyck's life and musical style, including a detailed listing of the tunes on which the variations are based, their source, texts, and translation, and concordances. Newly revised and corrected edition, hardcover only.

Price: $80.00

Opera Intitulata Fontegara
Silvestro Ganassi

The earliest method for recorder, with information on 16th century ornamentation and articulation and an extensive table of figures, including subdivisions of 5 & 7 parts, and intricate rhythms.

Price: $37.50

The Art of Diminution in the XVIth and XVIIth cent

by Philippe Matharel. Over 1000 ornamentation figures from Ortiz, Ganassi, Bassano, Rognoni, et al, grouped by interval, with cadential formulas and excerpts from the solo repertoire.

Price: $44.95

The Grammar of Ornament
Eric Haas

Ornamentation and embellishment in the late Baroque, by Eric Haas. A practical guide for ornamenting Baroque solo repertoire, both free ornamentation and the "essential graces", with contemporary examples and exercises to assimilate the figuration. For alto recorder, but applicable to any treble instrument.

Price: $15.00

Trattado de Glosas...
Diego Ortiz (Rome, 1553)

Perhaps the most important primary source for 16th century ornamentation, with ornaments grouped by cadence & melodic interval, solo ricercate, divisions on madrigals, and 'improvisations' on popular Renaissance basses. Includes an introduction by Annette Otterstedt, English & German translation, and solo viol part.

Price: $70.00

Step Lively

Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford’s "Danc
Barlow, ed.

(1651-ca. 1728), edited by Jeremy Barlow. 535 tunes, including every variant from all eighteen editions of Playford's popular dance collection with informative commentary and an index of tunes.

Price: $25.00

Dance and the Music of J.S. Bach, expanded edition

Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne examine dance practices of the courts and cities where Bach worked, defining the character of each dance through choreographies and 17th and 18th century theoretical writings. Two useful appendices catalogue Bach's titled dances and other pieces in dance forms.

Price: $27.95

Playford Dances, Vol. 1: 68 Dances in 4 pts
Thomas, ed.

Score Only

Price: $13.25

Playford Dances, Vol. II
Ed. Bernard Thomas

We were FINALLY able to get more copies of this long-awaited 'sequel' to Bernard Thomas's first collection of English country dances in 4-part settings; 82 dances, score only (SATB).

Price: $13.25

Tutti Fluti

Method for the One-Keyed Flute
Boland

by Janice Boland. A new method for traverso based on 18th century sources, from basic tone production to articulation, ornamentation, etc. Includes fingering chart, bibliography, and nearly 100 pages of practice material.

Price: $35.00

On Playing the Flute
J.J. Quantz

English translation of Quantz's classic "Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen" ("Essay on playing the transverse flute"), containing a wealth of information on technique, ornamentation & 18th century performance practice.

Price: $33.00

Principes de la Flute
Principles of the Flute, Oboe, and Recorder

An English translation of Hotteterre's Principes de la Flute, an important treatise for understanding French Baroque ornamentation and articulation.

Price: $8.95

For a Song

Broadside Ballads
Full texts and tunes of 70 ballads

"Song from the streets, taverns, theatres and countryside of 17th century England", selected and edited by Lucie Skeaping. The "pop" songs of their day, broadsides covered every imaginable subject, from serious ("Gunpowder Plot") to ridiculous ("Downfall of Dancing"); full texts of 70 ballads, with tunes and notes.

Price: $37.00

Observations on the Florid Song
Pier Francesco Tosi

Johann Ernst Galliard's 1743 English translation of Pier Francesco Tosi's "Opinioni de´cantori antichi e moderni", the definitive treatise on vocal technique, interpretation & embellishment in the late 17th-early 18th century.

Price: $16.00

Shakespeare's Songbook
Ross Duffin

Ross Duffin's anthology provides musical settings for all of the 60+ lyrics in Shakespeare's plays. Each entry includes a citation from the play, music, full text, and commentary. Excellent performances of about half the songs in the book are included on a CD. A treasure for scholars & Shakespeare lovers alike.

Price: $39.95

Singing Early Music

Indispensible resource for the spoken word in Europ, 1100-1600, covering Scots, English, French, Occitan, Italian, Spanish, Galician-Portuguese, German, Flemish and the Latin pronunciation for each. Samples texts are rendered in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); 330pp with CD.

Price: $34.95

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