This thesis examines the performance techniques for playing the Politic l>>ra, a vertically-held bottle-shaped bowed lute which is the main instrument of the Poetic Greeks. The objectives of the research were to identify the ways in which the traditional performance techniques for the lyra have been extended in the past, especially in the work of Gogos Petrides, and to explore the possibilities of extending these further in order to enable the lyra player to effectively perform styles and repertoires from outside Greece, with particular reference to the music of Afghanistan. A detailed discussion of changes in performance practices required the use of a broad range of contextualising material, enabling the author to position his work in the context of modern Greece. The thesis begins with a historical overview and provides background information about the culture and history of the Pontic settlements on the Black Sea coast of what is modern Turkey, up to the population exchanges of 1922. It provides a detailed organological study of the instrument and looks into its history, concluding it has a European/Byzantine rather than a Middle Eastern origin. The author also discusses the traditional and the contemporary performance techniques of the Pontic lyra and describes his own experience as both performer and ethnographer during extended periods of fieldwork. The DVD and CD included in the thesis are of major importance as they provide a key role in demonstrating and illustrating the author's core research methods, findings and outcomes. The author's work was `mirrored' in an unassessed recital given at the end of the research. Chapter 1 provides a historical overview of the culture of the Pontic Greeks. Chapter 2 describes the morphology of the Pontic lyra and discusses its origins. Chapter 3 discusses the traditional and the contemporary performance techniques for the lyra; the author also describes his own learning experience within the context of a musical family. Chapter 4 considers three traditional genres of lyra music, the extended techniques attributed to Gogos Petrides, which have been further developed by the author. Chapter 5 recounts fieldwork carried out in Greece with six well-established Pontic musicians, who have much to say about the influence of Gogos Petrides. Chapter 6 explains how, through making a study of Afghan music as played on the dutar and rubab, the author has adapted pre-existing and devised new techniques for playing the Afghan repertoire on the Pontic lyra. Chapter 7 summarises the research carried out, while an Appendix describes the preparations made for the recital which is part of the examination process. This thesis is accompanied by a CD and a DVD illustrating aspects of the research.

In part because of the complexities of the German tablature system, lute music preserved in manuscripts from German-speaking regions has been much less studied than music from sources notated in French or Italian tablature. This thesis provides editions and analysis of music from three important German manuscripts of the sixteenth century: M6983, stored in the University Library in Lodz, Poland; F.IX.70, kept in the Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität in Basel, Switzerland; and G.1.4, stored in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, Germany. This is the first transcription, edition, and analysis of this music. The thesis shows relationships between these three manuscipts and other sources of the period through comparison with other German and European manuscripts and prints. More detailed analysis of selected forms – Passamezzi; free forms such as the Prelude, Intrada and Fantasia; and intabulations – provided a method for selecting material for edition as well as for further comparisons with better known sources from elsewhere in Europe. I also consider instructions on playing the lute, included in many German sources, comparing them to the pedagogical texts in the selected manuscripts. The main goal of this work is to shed considerable new light on manucripts that have never been studied in detail, providing new knowledge about their notation, contents, and possible users. In addition to insights on the individual sources, by studying more than one source from the region, I can advance secure hypotheses about the cultivation of the lute in a defined geographical and linguistic area. Finally, by looking more closely at the German lute tablature system, from the perspective both of research and of performance, the significance of this music can be shared with the wider community including lute players familiar with French, English, Italian, and Spanish repertory. Examination of the three selected manuscripts shall show their place in the history of Renaissance music.

This thesis is a study of the three books of lute music by the Italian composer Melchiore de Barberiis (fl 1546, 1549). The content of the music in the books is mostly based on intabulations of vocal songs but also includes a number of dances and fantasias. In this study I have provided transcriptions of the complete contents of the three books. Intabulations of vocal pieces are examined, as well as Fantasias and dances, in order to understand the composer’s intabulation and compositional techniques. Intabulations are compared to different versions of the same pieces, where possible, and focus on the structure and the implications for musica ficta. The styles of fantasias and dances – two contrasting styles in terms of structure and harmony – are studied, with further reference to parallel pieces by other composers. In addition, the study illustrates the frequency of – what are normally regarded as harmonic – solecisms in each genre. Further comments on stylistic and idiomatic lute playing are included, as well as historiographical information in order to place Barberiis in the compositional context of his time. Moreover, excerpts from intabulations and dances are quoted and analysed, based on the theory of hexachords. The purpose of this approach associates with the idea of using musica ficta evidence found in intabulations, as a guide for performance.

This study explores the popularity of lute instruction in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England and the ways in which this accomplishment was used in constructions of social status. The opening chapter outlines the functions of the lute in early modern English culture and surveys previous research on the instrument and its repertory. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the hierarchical structure of Elizabethan society, highlighting shifting conceptions of “gentle” status during the sixteenth century. The complex position of music within early modern discourses on elite identity is discussed, alongside the potential of lute-playing skills to contribute towards social advancement. Four case studies follow, each exploring the uses of lute-playing amongst practitioners located on the hazily defined boundaries between “gentle” and lower-class status. Chapter 3 uses the autobiography of Thomas Whythorne as a focal point in order to examine the ambiguous role of musicians in household service. By teaching coveted “courtly” skills to their social superiors, these music tutors were in an advantageous position to secure further rewards and enhance their status. Chapter 4 reassesses the Mynshall lutebook, highlighting the roles of music-making and literary production amongst a circle of mercantile-class men in provincial England. It reveals how lute-playing and poetic exchange facilitated social interaction and consolidated kinship bonds within this group as they sought to forge a collective identity grounded in the cultural practices of more elite circles. The role of recreational music-making amongst university men is examined in Chapter 5 through a reappraisal of the Dallis lutebook, showing how playing and collecting lute music could form a strand in the fashioning of a distinctively learned “scholarly” identity. My final case study assesses the printed tutor books marketed from the 1560s onwards, paying close attention to the material forms of extant copies (as evidence of their usage) and their paratextual materials. A close reading of Thomas Robinson’s Schoole of Musicke (1603) reveals how this publication was designed to appeal simultaneously to two very different markets: aspirant middle-class autodidacts, and wealthier “gentleman” readers who could provide further patronage and career advancement to the author.