Dear Charles,
I looked for this title on the antiquarian market and found about dozen
copies ranging in price from an outrageous $45 (30 Euros) to an obscene $85.
The book's so bad, it's become notorious--now, in this modern edition from
1966, and
back then, in Elizabethan days. The title is misleading. It's not a history
of lute music, but rather an edition of William Barley's A New Booke of
Tabliture of 1596, which was itself a disaster. Dowland complained about
it, because it had so many mistake-filled versions of his music. For
example, Barley published the second lute part for a Dowland duet, but not
the first lute part.
In Newcomb's hands it fairs no better. (He didn't know
it was a duet part, either.) One of my favorite Thursdon Dart quotations
comes from his review of the edition, "Barley's book bristles with more
snags than a teasle, and Newcomb has been caught by rather too many of
them.""
It may be worth a few dollars as a curiosity. Otherwise, . . .
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Browne" <char...@brownecowie.fsnet.co.uk>
To: "lute@cs.dartmouth.edu" <Lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 4:27 PM
Subject: [LUTE] [lute]"lute music of shakespeare's time' Newcomb
Dear lutelist.
can anyone tell me whether this book is worth getting, for its music
content? I understand that there was an article about it in JSTOR but I
cant get it in our library and I was wondering about the book's contents
thanks
Charles
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