Revised and expanded, A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth Century Music is a comprehensive reference guide for students and professional musicians. The book contains useful material on vocal and choral music and style; instrumentation; performance practice; ornamentation, tuning, temperament; meter and tempo; basso continuo; dance; theatrical production; and much more. The volume includes new chapters on the violin, the violoncello and violone, and the trombone—as well as updated and expanded reference materials, internet resources, and other newly available material. This highly accessible handbook will prove a welcome reference for any musician or singer interested in historically informed performance.

Research in the field of keyboard studies, especially when intimately connected with issues of performance, is often concerned with the immediate working environments and practices of musicians of the past. An important pedagogical tool, the keyboard has served as the ’workbench’ of countless musicians over the centuries. In the process it has shaped the ways in which many historical musicians achieved their aspirations and went about meeting creative challenges. In recent decades interest has turned towards a contextualized understanding of creative processes in music, and keyboard studies appears well placed to contribute to the exploration of this wider concern. The nineteen essays collected here encompass the range of research in the field, bringing together contributions from performers, organologists and music historians. Questions relevant to issues of creative practice in various historical contexts, and of interpretative issues faced today, form a guiding thread. Its scope is wide-ranging, with contributions covering the mid-sixteenth to early twentieth century. It is also inclusive, encompassing the diverse range of approaches to the field of contemporary keyboard studies. Collectively the essays form a survey of the ways in which the study of keyboard performance can enrich our understanding of musical life in a given period.

The 17th century was the century of the organ in much the same way the 19th century was the century of the piano. Almost without exception, the major composers of the century wrote for the instrument, and most of them were practicing organists themselves. This historical book surveys, analyzes, and discusses the major national styles of 17th century European organ music. Due to the extraordinarily extensive body of literature produced during this 100-year period, this text includes 350 musical examples to illustrate the various styles. The book also includes brief discussions of the various national styles of organ building, an appendix about the various notational methods used in the 17th century, and a chapter on Spain and Portugal written by Andre Lash, an expert on the subject.

Featuring 102 music examples, this edited collection features contributions by leading scholars from the UK, United States, Australasia and Europe on what characterized the period. This collection focusses on the stylistic and cultural interchange that characterizes the musical period of the mid-Baroque (c.1650-1710). The idea of musical transition during this period is evident in two principal ways: geographical and chronological (the two often overlap). Chapters examine geographical transition by tracing the exchange of regional and national styles, while considering chronological evolution from the perspective of music theory, performance practice, source studies or specific repertoires. Studies range across instrumental and vocal music, both sacred and secular, and encompass some of the main European traditions prevalent at the time: Italian, German, French and English. The collection features contributions by leading scholars from the UK, the United States, Australasia and Europe. CARRIE CHURNSIDE is Associate Professor in Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (part of Birmingham City University).

Few details are known about the life of Henry Purcell. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the most obvious documentary evidence of Purcell's career - the music manuscripts of his own hand and those copied by his colleagues. Robert Shay and Robert Thompson offer a richly illustrated study of Purcell's sources, examining in detail the physical features of the manuscripts as well as their musical content. Their survey sheds light on the chronology of composition and copying of Purcell's works and reassesses the place of extant autographs in his musical development. Major sources are fully catalogued, providing information about the context in which Purcell's music was collected and performed, and his handwriting is more closely examined than ever before. The book represents a significant reference tool for scholars, applying a forensic approach that greatly enriches our knowledge of the composer and the music of his time.