EarlyMusicNews.Org

“OMI (Old Manuscripts & Incunabula) is the leading source of facsimile editions of music and art. Since 1986 our offerings have been the most comprehensive selection available anywhere. Supplying institutions, scholars, performers, and collectors worldwide, we pride ourselves on our friendly personal service and our very competitive prices.“

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Added on: Jul 05, 2009 | Hits: 360

“For more than 30 years we have been known as specialists in early music. We send music editions and books on music all around the world. ..“

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Added on: Jul 11, 2009 | Hits: 318

“Edition Baroque - Olaf Tetampel, Jörg Jacobi and Martina Bley - three experienced and high profile musicians in the field of early music, offer new editions of compositions of the 17th and 18 Century. ..“

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Added on: Jul 14, 2009 | Hits: 391

“Before starting with this database, I had indices of only a few manuscripts and a whole series of concordances lying scattered around. Then Markus Lutz sent around his compilation of Weiss' works with concordances, with the request to check the concordances, and the spark was generated to put some system in the information I had lying around, using Markus' info as the starting point, amplifying the project to other non-Weiss manuscripts. First of all, I chose a manuscript-based setup, and for each manuscript in my possession I listed the contents, along with the key in which the pieces were given. Where present, the manuscript-own page numbering was followed, while for others and ad-hoc numbering was applied. ..“

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Added on: Jul 14, 2009 | Hits: 417

“A disclaimer note: This document raises some questions, but does not purport to answer them. This is not a musicological article, it is an essay based on its writer's historical sense and his sense of musical and visual aesthetics. It does not provide bibliography to the degree customary in mucicology, unless it is called for by some specific and IMPORTANT issue, and a number of details and nuance found in these pages are based on educated and perspicacious conjecture. This document is intended primarily for lutenists who might wish to acquaint themselves with Ukrainian music and culture in the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and Biedermeier Eras, and bandurists, who might wish to gain some understanding of Ukrainian tradition of domestic music-making without commercialism and with some modicum of authenticity. Hopefully it would also hold sufficient interest for lay public as well, and we certainly hope that the MP3 files we provide as musical illustrations would by enjoyed universally. ..“

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Added on: Jul 24, 2009 | Hits: 276

“Performing editions of historical lute songs are very difficult to come by. Lutenists and singers have had to double as scholars and make their own editions, either from the original sources or by cutting and pasting from scholarly editions that are completely unsuitable for the performer in their published format.

What's more, even informed scholars and performers routinely make the grevious error of taking early manuscript and printed sources at face value by transposing lute parts to fit the written vocal line. This was never intended by the original performers of the music. The voice was always a transposing instrument and was pitched to a comfortable and pleasant range or, in the case of lute songs, to match the tuning of the lute.  ..“

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Added on: Jul 25, 2009 | Hits: 247

“Here, brought together for the first time, you will find 50 Renaissance and Baroque ostinato basses, songs and dances on which composers repeatedly wrote variations over the course of decades or even centuries. These pieces circulated from country to country, from one publication or manuscript to another, and also served as a basis for improvisation by performing musicians of the time.

In the tradition of Jazz Standards anthologies, Pascale Boquet and Gérard Rebours have assembled over a hundred pages of the 50 most-used pieces in their basic versions, followed by transpositions and a selection of 210 variants and common derived forms. The examples are enriched with explanations, comments, historical notes and references, supported by the final glossary and bibliography. A generous preface provides theoretical analysis and practical hints for improvising. ..“

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Added on: Jul 26, 2009 | Hits: 376

“This site is dedicated to the librettos and librettists. It will provide librettos, biographical notes and documents regarding libretto technique, themes, aesthetics, and staging.

The focus on the baroque age won't prevent to broaden  the views to other periods, especially through thematic sections and picture exhibitions.“

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Added on: Jul 27, 2009 | Hits: 337

“Welcome to OperaGlass. Here you can get detailed information on many operas, including:
    * Libretti
    * Source Texts
    * Performance Histories
    * Synopses
    * Discographies
    * Rôle Creators

plus pictures, background information, and more; also commemoration calendars, special features, and pointers to other opera information sites.  ..“

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Added on: Jul 27, 2009 | Hits: 195

“WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.“

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Added on: Sep 16, 2009 | Hits: 263

“From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection now contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Libraries possessing this collection find they are able to fulfill the most exhaustive research requirements of graduate scholars - from their desktop! - in many subject areas, including: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science. ..“

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Added on: Sep 20, 2009 | Hits: 314

“Pendragon Press is the leader in the publication of musicological research, musical reference works, and studies of many aspects of musical life. With 259 titles in print, we have been serving the musicological community for over thirty years.

We offer 34 classification series, ranging from aesthetics to the history of theory, to vocal music.  ..“

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Added on: Oct 20, 2009 | Hits: 349

“The Düben Collection Database Catalogue is a digitised catalogue presenting meta-data and scanned facsimile of the Düben Collection, a large and important collection of musical manuscripts and prints from the 17th and early 18th centuries. The Catalogue is managed from the Department of Musicology at Uppsala University. ..“

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Added on: Oct 22, 2009 | Hits: 293

“The Royal Society, the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth, is at the cutting edge of scientific progress.

We support many top young scientists, engineers and technologists, influence science policy, debate scientific issues with the public and much more. We are an independent, charitable body which derives our authoritative status from over 1400 Fellows and Foreign Members.“

Visit website for more information on the Royal Society. Also visit their Trailblazing site and online articles.

Added on: Dec 01, 2009 | Hits: 206

“John Dowland is without question the most famous lute player and composer of all time, arguably more popular now than at any time in the past, including his own time. His fame is justifiable. Whatever musical genre he turned to, whether solo lute, song, vocal or instrumental ensemble, he created something without precedence and set the path for others to follow.

This website aims to celebrate his genius, record his complete works for free download, and provide thoughtful analyses of his oeuvre. Here you will find recorded performances by both professional and amateur lute players, singers and viol consorts, and possibly other instrumentalists and ensembles as well. You will also find essays by renowned academics and by performers moved to describe the experience of performing Dowland's works.

The existence of the site depends on contributions - in all areas: performances, videos, essays, scores, etc. If you feel you have something to contribute, please go to the Contributions page in the first instance. I particularly hope to hear from viol players and singers. ..“

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Added on: Dec 27, 2009 | Hits: 333

In the section of the EarlyMusicNews.org website labeled “(DE) Anton Höger: Lute Intavolations”, are offered pieces for Renaissance lutes in tablature for 2, 3, and 4 lutes in various tunings. All of the pieces have been carefully intabulated by Anton Höger, based his 20-year experience as a lutenist.

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Added on: Dec 27, 2009 | Hits: 453

“At Music 4 Recorders you will find free, creative arrangements for your recorder ensembles. Arrangements are in .PDF format (free Acrobat Reader) and the all links are working. But, if you need parts, e-mail me at . ..“

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Added on: Jan 02, 2010 | Hits: 349

“In Japan, there are many unavailable collections of musical sources (musical notes, books on music, etc.). Of primary consideration is the Nanki Music Library, founded by Marquis Yorisada Tokugawa (1892-1954) in Azabu-Iikura, Tokyo in 1918, which includes autographs of Beethoven, Liszt, and other composers. The Nanki Music Library was the first public musical library in Japan and actively collected many rare musical sources from throughout the world, such as the bibliotheca of William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915), a British music educator. The Library was closed to the public in 1931 due to financial difficulty of the Tokugawa family; nevertheless, international attention has remained focused on the collection.

This project aims to design and create digital content materials from such sources with the expert assistance of digital archivists at the studio of the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC), Keio University. The digitized musical contents will be distributed internationally, and will enhance Japan’s contribution to music in the future. Emphasis in the digitization process is both on the applicability of the collections’ structure to other musical archives and its potential for use in the development of new educational materials. ..”

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Added on: Jan 08, 2010 | Hits: 310

“The collection of 3,421 items was donated in 1969 by New York rare book dealer Hans P. Kraus. It consists primarily of texts of Italian opera, but also includes Italian cantatas, serenatas, oratorios, dialogues and Passions. Dating from the seventeenth through the twentieth century, the collection documents musical performances by Italian, French, German and Austrian composers given mostly in Italian cities, but also in Vienna and elsewhere.

The earliest item in the collection is the libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini for "La Dafne," performed in 1598, published in Florence in 1600, and generally considered to be the first opera. Also included is the first edition of Rinuccini's "L'Euridice," produced in Florence in 1600 for the marriage of Henry IV of France and Maria de' Medici, and the earliest opera for which the music survives.

Noted librettists represented in the collection in addition to Rinuccini are Apostolo Zeno, Pietro Metastasio, and Arrigo Boito. Composers include Giuseppe Verdi, Domenico Cimarosa, Giovanni Paisiello, Gaetano Donizetti, and Gioacchino Rossini.“

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Tags: opera, libretti, libretto

Added on: Jan 18, 2010 | Hits: 365

Why I give away Free Tablature and Free Music I am hoping it's sort of like a drug addiction. You play the free tune, think it's sort of nice maybe, and then dismiss it. But then a while later, you find yourself humming a tune, and can't figure out what it is. You finally figure out it's something I wrote, then you play it more and more often, as you get better at it, you become addicted, you need more. You are then forced to send me money for new pieces to supply your new habit. You start to come to the page every week hoping to see new tunes. It's all an insidious plot.

Website by Allan Alexander.

Tags: lute, mandolin, guitar, GuitarAndLute.com

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Added on: Feb 15, 2010 | Hits: 334

“Here you will find more than 3000 lute pieces in French tablature in the following formats: Fronimo (ft2 and ft3), from Francesco Tribioli, TAB from Wayne Cripps, midi, and PDF (which you can read using Acrobat Reader). (Why the different formats?).  I apologize to those who prefer other formats, such as Spanish or Italian, but I believe French is the most widely used format, though it is easy to change to another format -- even German tab (not that anyone would really want to do this…)! 

I have collected these pieces over the years from the internet or have entabulated and/or arranged or realized them myself. I have edited all of them and formatted them to fit nicely on US letter size paper (8.5 x 11 in), though some are formatted for US legal size (8.5 x 14 in). I have not formatted any for A4, as life is too short.  ..“

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Added on: Mar 30, 2010 | Hits: 359

“There are hundreds of printed and manuscript books of music for plucked-string instruments from the late fifteenth century through the end of the eighteenth century. Most of these sources were written for the lute or guitar; there were also a few books for lesser-known plucked string instruments: the vihuela, cittern, bandora, mandora, and orpharion, as well as instruments related to the lute such as the arch-lute and theorbo. This site concentrates primarily on sources that employ a notational system called "tablature." Sources which can be played on these instruments but are in standard notation (such as those calling for continuo accompaniment) are not generally included.

The list contains basic bibliographical information for as many of these tablatures as I can find. Sources used include various volumes in the Répertoire international des sources musicales (RISM) series, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2000), and Howard Mayer Brown's Instrumental Music Printed before 1600: A Bibliography (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1965). A variety of other sources were used as well, cited in the bibliographies for each entry, and new sources have come to light since the publication of the core bibliographic works.

This remains a work-in-progress, but I felt the inclusion of manuscripts and materials outside the sixteenth century was important enough to warrant a basic list, however incomplete. I currently have a list of prints and manuscripts from the late fifteenth century to 1800 (the RISM series cutoff) and will be completing information for this list and adding it to the page over the next few weeks. Detailed information on the tablatures will only be available from the sources I have studied either first-hand or from copies and will thus take much, much longer (I am beginning with the tablatures c1500). 

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Added on: Apr 16, 2010 | Hits: 475

“This book is about the instrument which evolved into the bassoon. My original idea was to compile a complete guide to all extant curtals and all known references to their use. This has proved to be an impossible task since not only are new instruments still occasionally found, but also because there are enough references to their use in Spain alone to warrant a whole lifetime researching them all. The chronological and repertoire sections in particular should therefore be regarded as giving representative examples, illustrating the enormous use which was made of these instruments. ..“

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Added on: Apr 17, 2010 | Hits: 348

Kenneth Sparr’s site on the Guitar, the Lute and the Early Keyboard

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Added on: Apr 17, 2010 | Hits: 312

“The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) is a comprehensive site covering all aspects of J.S. Bach's cantatas and his other vocal works. The BCW contains discussions and detailed discographies of each cantata and other vocal works, performers and general topics. The BCW also contains texts and translations, scores, music examples, articles and interviews, and over 6,800 short biographies of performers of Bach's vocal works and players of his keyboard and lute works, as well as of poets & composers associated with Bach. There are also other relevant resources such as the Lutheran church year, database of chorale texts & melodies and their authors, detailed discographies of many Bach's instrumental works (solo keyboard, lute, Art of Fugue, Musical Offering, etc.) and piano transcriptions and their performers, reviews and discussions of Bach’s instrumental works, books and movies on Bach, terms and abbreviations, schedule of concerts of Bach's vocal works, Bach Festivals & Cantata Series, guide to Bach tour, Bach in arts and memorabilia, thousands of links to other relevant resources. The BCW is an international collective project, being compiled from various postings about the subject, most of which have been sent to the Bach Mailing Lists.“

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Added on: May 03, 2010 | Hits: 244