Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court, 1540-1690

by Peter Holman

Overview

The royal string band at the English court had its origins in a six-man viol consort from Italy brought to England by Henry VIII in the spring of 1540. This book, written by the director of the acclaimed early music group, The Parley of Instruments, charts the history of the royal string band from its beginnings to the time of Purcell. Drawing on a wealth of documentary evidence, much of it new, Holman considers the previous history of instrumentalists at court and recounts the band's establishment at court in the context of the violin's place in sixteenth-century Europe. The first thorough treatment of this subject, Holman's book will be welcomed for the light it sheds on large areas of music history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198165927
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/14/1996
Series:	Oxford Monographs on Music
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	518
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.22(d)

About the Author

Colchester Institute

Editorial Reviews

"Extremely ambitious, and the results successful in nearly every respect....This is a fascinating and very readable work of musicology, and it is not likely to be supplanted in the foreseeable future."—Choice

"Fills a gaping void in the available modern literature on the early violin....[Holman's] fascinating, stimulating and splendidly produced volume will be of great value not only to scholars of Tudor and Stuart music, but also to historians, string players and anyone involved in performing music of the period. It is a veritable mind of information and adds considerably to our sympathy and interest in an undeniably remarkable period of transformation in English music."—Strad

"Nearly a quarter century ago, when Peter Holman was still a student, Thurston Dart told him that the history of the origin of the violin in England could not be written for lack of surviving historical sources, music, and instruments. Now Holman triumphantly proves his distinguished teacher wrong with a seminal study that generously maps for the first time a fascinating terra incognita. This is required reading for anyone interested in Renaissance and Baroque instrumental music, or in the art of piecing together a convincing historical narrative from fragmentary, widely-scattered information."—Neal Zaslaw, Cornell University

"Scholars will happily pore over the academic documentation while others enjoy traversing the rich road of English musical history....References are abundant and clearly identified. Scholarship is thorough. Subject matter is more greatly varied than the title suggests. And the writing is pleasantly readable....Four and Twenty Fiddlers is one of the most highly recommended "reads" of recent early music publications."—Early Music Newsletter

"This is a study of magnificent proportions which has reoriented our perspectives of English baroque music beyond the absorbing discoveries of the violin's widespread use in court and country."—The Musical Times

"A very special book...much detailed information lurks between these covers: the many tables and lists, in which evidence is cited very precisely, will be a boon to other scholars....The reader who can resist applauding when the seemingly inevitable punch-line is reached much be rare indeed....In this volume Holman has succeeded in thoroughly mining what evidence there is and in making exquisite sense of it."—Notes

From the Publisher