
English Comedy From The Fifteenth To The Early Seventeenth Century Abounds In Song Lyrics, But Most Of The Original Tunes Were Thought To Have Been Lost--until Now. By Deducing That Playwrights Borrowed Melodies From Songs They Already Knew, Ross W. Duffin Has Used The Existing English Repertory Of Songs, Both Popular And Composed, To Reconstruct Hundreds Of Songs From More Than A Hundred Plays And Other Stage Entertainments. Thanks To Duffin's Incredible Breakthrough, These Plays Have Been Rendered Performable With Period Music For The First Time In Five Hundred Years. Some Other Note Not Only Brings These Songs Back From The Dead, But Tells A Thrilling Tale Of The Investigations That Unraveled These Centuries-old Mysteries.
This work investigates the historical mystery of lost musical scores in early English drama by proposing that playwrights frequently reused well-known melodies. Ross W. Duffin, a distinguished musicologist, utilizes his expertise in the English song repertory to systematically reconstruct hundreds of tunes that were previously considered lost. By cross-referencing existing song collections with stage plays from the fifteenth to the early seventeenth century, he provides a methodology for restoring period-accurate music to these theatrical works.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and performers frequently cite this text as a foundational resource for authentic period staging and musicological research. Experts highlight the rigor of Duffin's methodology while noting that the prose remains accessible to both academic researchers and theater practitioners.
Page Count:
736
Publication Date:
2018-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190856610
ISBN-13:
9780190856618
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