The Instrument - Stringing - Tuning - Some practical advice on tuning - Tablature - Holding the Lute - The right hand - The left hand - The diapasons - Italian tablature - The nexachord - Spanish music and the bihuela - More about Spanish music - Questions - Scales - The use of graces in Renaissance lute music - The performing of graces - Graces in English sources - Intabulations of polyphonic vocal music - The interpretation of signs in the French air de cour - The "half" barré - German tablature - Cifra nueva - The ten-course lute - List of Sources and Modern Editions
With the benefit of her many years' study of the repertoire and teaching of the instrument, Diana Poulton has completely re-cast her earlier book ("An Introduction to Lute Playing", 1961) to produce, in "A Tutor for the Renaissance Lute", the most comprehensive method for the lute based on Renaissance precepts. The book will be found equally useful to students working alone – giving clear instructions on all technical matters, progressively introduced according to their difficulty – and to teachers (providing a source of some seventy-five pieces from which to structure their pupils' progress). The advanced student, too, will find that much of the music is suitable for recital programmes.
