Resources for Scholarly Research on the Lute

Bibliographies

Catalogs

Databases

Dissertations & Theses

Baldassarre, Joseph Anthony. 1979. “A Discussion of the contents of Robert Dowland’s Varietie of Lute-Lessons (1610).” MA, Kent State.

Beasley, Douglas William. 2007. “Mus. Ms. 1511b: A Historical Review of a Lute Manuscript in the Herwarth Collection at the Bavarian Library, Munich.” MM diss., University of North Texas, Denton.

Callahan, Clare. 1976. “Jacques Gallot’s Pieces de Luth (c.1673): A style study and critical edition.” Master’s Thesis.

Cantalupi, Diego. 1996. “La tiorba ed il suo uso come strumento per il basso continuo.” Dissertation for degree in musicology, Università di Pavia; revised 2006 for publication on the Internet (in Italian).

Casey, William Sherman. 1960. “Printed English Lute Instruction Books, 1568-1610. Volumes I and II.” PhD diss., University of Michigan.

Court, Suzanne E. “Giovanni Antonio Terzi and the Lute Intabulations of Late Sixteenth-Century Italy.” Analyzes the lute works of Giovanni Antonio Terzi, which are contained in his two tablature collections published in Venice in 1593 and 1599. The second volume of the dissertation includes forty-five transcriptions of intabulations and fantasias by Terzi and his contemporaries.

Craig-McFeely, Julia. “English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes 1530-1630.” Study of the English lute manuscripts of the so-called Golden Age, including a detailed catalog of the sources.

Davies, Sarah. 2010. “Resonet in Laudibus: The Geistliche Repertory in Organ and Lute Tablatures of the Deutsches Sprachgebiet, c.1510-1590.” PhD diss., New York University.

Dean, Alexander. 2009. “The Five-Course Guitar and Seventeenth-Century Harmony: Alfabeto and Italian Song.” PhD diss., Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Denhard, Gus. 2006. “Lute Realizations for the English Cavalier Songs (1630-1670)—A Guide for Performers.”  DM diss., Indiana University. Prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the DM degree at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. An in-depth look at the theory and practical aspects of providing accompaniment for English song between approximately the death of John Dowland and the Restoration. 

Dry, François. 1992. “Théorie Musicale et Technique Instrumentale d’après les Écrits et les Oeuvres des Vihuelistes Espagnoles 1536-1593..”  PhD diss., Université de Tours.

Gale, Michael. 2014. “Learning the lute in early modern England, c.1550 – c.1640.” PhD diss., University of Southampton.

Goy, François-Pierre. 1989. “Les sources manuscrites de la musique pour luth sur les “ACCORDS NOUVEAUX” (vers 1624–vers 1710) : catalogue commenté“. PhD diss, Paris-Sorbonne University.

Griffiths, John Anthony. “The Vihuela Fantasia: A Comparative Study of Forms and Styles.” PhD diss., Monash University.

Hong, Choon Mee. 1984. “Sebastian Ochsenkun’s Tabulaturbuch auff die Lauten (1558): Transcription and Study.” PhD diss., Michigan State University.

Inglefield, Ruth Karin. 1973. “The Bernhard Jobin Lutebooks (1572, 1573).” PhD diss., University of Cincinnati.
Addendum providing several missing pages from the original file.

Lewon, Marc. 2017. “Transformational Practices in Fifteenth-Century German Music.” D.Phil. thesis in music, St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford.

Liddell, Catherine. 1976. “The Guitar, Theorbo, and Lute Works of Robert de Visee: A Study of His Process of Arranging” (pdf.). Thesis, Schola Cantorum  Basiliensis.

Lüdtke, Joachim. 1999. “Die Lautenbücher Philipp Hainhofers (1578-1647).” PhD diss., Göttingen (in German).

Lumsden, David. 1957. “The Sources of English Lute Music, Volume I.” and “A Thematic Catalogue of the Sources of English Lute Music, Volume II.” PhD diss., University of Cambridge. 

Moe, Lawrence Henry. 1956. “Dance music in printed Italian lute tablatures from 1507 to 1611.”  PhD diss., Harvard University.

Ness, Arthur J. 1984. “The Herwarth Lute Manuscripts at the Bavarian State Library, Munich: A Bibliographical Study with Emphasis on the Works of Marco dall’Aquila and Melchior Newsidler. Parts 1 & 2.”  PhD diss., New York University. 

Nolde, Richard James. 1984. “English Renaissance Lute Practice as Reflected in Robert Dowland’s Varietie of Lute-Lessons.” MM degree thesis, Rice University.

Ochsenkun, Sebastian. 1984. “Tablaturbuch auff die Lauten (1558): Transcription and Study.” PhD diss., Michigan State University

Rave, Wallace John. 1965. “A Baroque Lute Tablature: Jacob Bittner, Pieces de Lut,1682.” MA Thesis, University of Illinois

Rave, Wallace John. 1972. “Some Manuscripts of French Lute Music 1630-1700: An Introductory Study.” PhD Diss., University of Illinois

Rolfhamre, Robin. 2010. “French Baroque Lute Music from 1650-1700.” Master’s diss., Agder University.

Rolfhamre, Robin. “The Popular Lute: An Investigation of the Function and Performance of Music in France between 1650 and 1700.” PhD diss., University of Agder.

Schmidt, Henry Louis, III. 1969. “The First Printed Lute Books: Francesco Spinacino’s Intabulatua de Lauto, Libro primo and Libro secondo (Venice: Petrucci, 1507).” PhD diss., University of North Carolina

Sequera, Hector. 1977. “House music for recusants in Elizabethan England: performance practice in the music collection of Edward Paston (1550-1630).” PhD diss., University of Birmingham.

Smith, Douglas Alton. 1977. “The Late Sonatas of Sylvius Leopold Weiss.” PhD diss., Stanford University.

Sutton, Julia. 1962. “Jean-Baptiste Besard’s Novus Partus of 1617. Vol. I & II.” PhD diss., University of Rochester

Tompkins, Daniel C. 2017. “Early Seventeenth-Century Harmonic Practice: A Corpus Study of Tonality, Modality, and Harmonic Function in Italian Secular Song with Baroque Guitar Accompaniment in Alfabeto Tablature.” PhD diss., Florida State University.

Toombs, Stephen H. 1975. “The Lute Ricercars of Giovanni Maria da Crema: A Critical edition.” Master of Music Thesis, Washington University.

Witmer, Talitha. 2018. “The Can of Norms: Expanding the Modern Lute Plucking Technique” Research Paper: Master of Early Music Lute, The Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

Educational YouTube Channels

  • Early Music Sources. Videos on theory and performance hosted by Elam Rotem to accompany the online database at EarlyMusicSources.com.
  • me:mo. Video essays by Lukas Henning about music and art history. “The aim is to present music in its cultural context, offering a glimpse into the lives behind it, past and present.”

General References

  • Čepalák, Jiří, compiler. Taking Care of Your Lute. Straightforward instructions.
  • Wolf, Johannes. 1919. Handbuch der Notationskunde. Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel. Freely available in many formats, including several for e-readers. Lute tablature is treated in Chapter 2, beginning on p. 35.

Iconographies

  • Rasmussen, Mary, compiler. An Extensive Iconography of the Lute. Divided geographically and chronologically (scroll down to Lute Iconography). University of New Hampshire.
  • Lute Society, compiler. Lute Iconography Database (LuteIDB). An online resource for lute makers, scholars, players and others interested in the iconography of the lute, containing over 3300 iconographic entries.

Journals

Other Shared Content