Early Music Muse

There were three Ravens first appeared in print in Melismata, a book of songs compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft, published in 1611. A previous article, There were three Ravens: sublime love and ridiculous riddles, explored the layers of meaning in the

In a manuscript dated 1395–1401 is a most unusual two part polyphonic song in Middle English, which begins: “Me lykyþ ever þe lenger þe bet by Wyngestyr þat joly syte”. It is a song in praise of Winchester, a city

Mirie it is while sumer ilast, dated to the first half of the 13th century, is the earliest surviving secular song in the English language, preserved only by the good luck of being written on parchment, torn from a discarded

Part 1 brought together the written, iconographical and material evidence for the characteristics of plectrums used to play the gittern, lute, psaltery, citole and cetra, made from quills, gut strings, metal, bone, and ivory. In part 2 we examine the

Among the treasures of surviving medieval instrumental music are eight French royal estampies in the Manuscrit or Chansonnier du roi, c. 1300. This article includes: • an outline of the manuscript, putting the estampies in context; • a description of

This interview with Bruno de Labriolle, Gregorian choir leader in Lyon, discusses why historically informed performance of medieval ecclesiastical chant has proved controversial. In this wide-ranging interview, Bruno discusses: • how very recent changes in chant are wrongly considered to

Lambeth Palace Library, the national library and archive of the Church of England, has a collection of medieval and renaissance manuscripts which includes MS 457, a compilation of religious matters and, on one folio, four pieces of music from c.

Following on from the first article outlining the evidence for the citole’s multiple physical forms, string material and tuning, this second article examines the evidence for the citole’s playing style, repertoire, and the social contexts in which it was played.