Songs & Tales Books

A Treasury of Early Music - $19.00
Carl Parrish. 50 first-rate musical compositions document the development of musical style from the early Middle Ages to the Middle of the 18th century. Among the selections are a Gregorian hymn, an English lute piece, operatic arias, instrumental and vocal motets, a French ballad, as well as works by Vivaldi, Telemann, Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Buxtehude, and other masters. Commentary evaluates style, form and historical setting, and complete compositions or sections of compositions are supplied when possible. 352pp. Pb.

An English Medieval and Renaissance Song Book - $16.00
Noah Greenberg. 47 vocal works from the 12th to the 17th centuries, including songs by Henry IV and Henry VIII as well as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Thomas Ravenscroft, Thomas Morley, John Dowland, and Thomas Weelkes. 224pp. Pb.

English Keyboard Music Before the Nineteenth Century - $17.00
John Caldwell. English keyboard art from Robertsbridge Codex (c. 1325) to John Field. Illuminating coverage of organ, harpsichord, pianoforte, other instruments; works of Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Tomkins, many others. 352pp. Pb.

John Dowland's Lute Songs: 1st & 2nd Books - $21.00
Transcribed for Voice and Guitar by David Nadal. The preeminent lute virtuoso and composer of the early 17th century, John Dowland wrote numerous songs, both gay and melancholy, that dazzled the courts of England and Europe. This rare compilation features 43 of these splendid works in transcriptions for voice and guitar, plus two dances for solo guitar. Original lute tablature and complete song texts included. 128pp. Pb.

John Dowland's Lute Songs: 3rd & 4th Books - $21.00
Transcribed for voice and guitar and edited by David Nadal. Unsurpassed in his day as a lute virtuoso, John Dowland (1563–1626) today continues to delight singers, musicians, and music lovers alike. This collection of 45 songs includes all the works in Dowland's original third and fourth books of lute songs, the composer's contributions to his son's anthology of 1610, and a dance for solo guitar — all in an affordable, handsomely engraved edition that is both practical and scholarly. 144pp. Pb.

Medieval Lays & Legends of Marie de France - $12.00
An artful storyteller whose tales continue to enthrall modern readers, the twelfth-century poet known as Marie de France transformed folklore and legends into a distinctive variety of romance. Knights, fairies, princes in disguise, and werewolves populate her captivating variations on Arthurian myths and other stories of magic and mystery. Many of her tales are rooted in Celtic and Breton traditions; seven centuries later, her rhythmic and colored language retains its charm and offers insights into medieval customs and philosophy. In addition, this volume features two famous medieval romances, "A Story of Beyond the Sea" and "The Chatelaine of Vergi." 240pp. Pb.

The Medieval Stage - $32.00
E K Chambers. Comprehensive, groundbreaking work encompasses vast amount of material — from the demise of ancient Roman spectacles (c. 400 AD) to a new class of professional players by the 16th-century. Excellent accounts of wandering minstrels, mimes, mummers, miracle and morality plays, puppet shows, dramatic pageants, liturgical plays and much more. An indispensable reference for historians, students of English theater and anyone interested in medieval life. 960pp. Pb.

Middle Eastern Mythology - $16.00
S. H. Hooke. This tome recounts the legends of the Egyptions, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites and Canaanites, and discusses the mythological elements of the Jewish apocalyptic literature. Familiar stories such as those in Gensis and those surrounding Noah'sflood and Christ's nativity and resurrection - whatever their basis in fact - have parallels in other cultures. Prof Hooke provides a braord perspective on these and other tales, encompassing the roots of Greek, Roman, and even Celtic Mythology. 199pp. Pb.

Njal's Saga: or The Story of Burnt Njal - $16.00
George Webbe Dasent (translator). An authoritative and authentic edition of the great Norse Medieval epic This thirteenth-century saga is perhaps the capstone of Icelandic literary achievement. Recounting a long and costly blood feud, these stories are a document on Viking civic and legal institutions, a cogent exposition on Icelandic religious practices, and of course, stirring tales of battle and conquest. 400pp. Pb.

One Hundred English Folk Songs - $29.00
Cecil J Sharp. Border ballads, folksongs, collected from all over Great Britain. "Lord Bateman," "Henry Martin," "The Green Wedding," many others. Piano. 235pp. Pb.

Petrie's Complete Irish Music: 1582 Traditional Melodies - $49.00
George Petrie. Edward Bunting fell into his destiny when, at the age of 19, he was commissioned to write down the tunes performed at a gathering of traditional harp players in Belfast in July 1792. This innocent beginning signaled the start of a 100-year process of enormous importance: the preservation of a country's music, which otherwise might be lost forever. In time, Bunting passed the torch to apprentice George Petrie who, in turn, became instrumental in founding the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland, which published Petrie's first collection in 1855. Finally, it was Petrie's daughter who entrusted the much-honored Sir Charles Stanford with three bound volumes of her father's work, leading to the ultimate compilation, published in 1905, of 1,582 traditional melodies--the musical wealth of a nation. Unabridged Dover republication, in one volume, of The Complete Collection of Irish Music as Noted by George Petrie from the Original Manuscripts--the three-volume set originally completed by the Irish Literary Society of London between 1902 and 1905. 448pp. Pb.

The Story of My Misfortunes - $10.00
Peter Abelard. Among the most read and studied masterpieces of the Middle Ages This autobiography of one of history's great intellectual figures remains a spellbinding account of philosophical and spiritual enlightenment and tragic personal circumstances. Here, Abélard gives an absorbing portrait of monastic and scholastic life in pre-University twelfth-century Paris, as well as his doomed romance with a student, Heloise. 128pp. Pb.

Tuning and Temperment - $19.00
J Murray Barbour. The demands of tuning (attaining the perfect scale) and temperament (the compromises necessary for composing in every key) have challenged musicians from the earliest civilizations onward. This guide surveys these longstanding problems, devoting a chapter to each principal theory and offering a running account of the complete history of tuning and temperament. Organized chronologically, the book features a helpful glossary and numerous illustrative tables, and it requires minimal background in music theory. This new reissue is currently the only edition in print of a much-quoted classic. 9 figures. 180 tables. 240pp. Pb.

Wine, Women and Song - $12.00
John Addington Symonds. Here are some 60 songs - love songs, drinking songs, hymns to spring, and more - sung by the wandering students of the Middle Ages. Selected by translator John Addington Symonds from a 13th-century manuscript known as the Carmina Burana, the verses include "Welcome to Spring," "The Lover and the Nightingale," "Love Among the Maidens," "Wine and Venus," "Death Takes All," and many others. They appear here with a perceptive introductory essay by Symonds and brief accounts of the extant information on the authors of the verses. 6 b/w illus. 192pp. Pb.

.

Modern Historical Fiction

Murder at The War: a Modern Day Mystery with a Medieval Setting - $20.00
Mary Monica Pulver. What happens when someone dies at an SCA event? He or she gets taken to Resurrection Point, and then rejoins the fight. But this time, the death is real...