Playing with Patterns on the Lute

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Through a comprehensive study of the sixteenth-century lute repertoire, in Playing with Patterns, Nigel North provides a clear and detailed method for all lutenists who wish to learn how to ornament their music with divisions. While there are methods for wind and stringed instruments by writers such as Ortiz, Rognioni, and Bassano, there are no surviving methods from the sixteenth century for learning these skills specifically on the lute. There are, however, a wealth of examples in thousands of European lute tablatures. Through an analysis of the divisions used by sixteenth-century lutenists in these tablature sources, North has extracted a method for the modern lutenist and explains, with multiple examples, how Renaissance lutenists approached their division-making. Eleven Tablature Case Studies form a central place in this work, and the lutenist composers from whom patterns have been extracted include Hans Newsidler, Alonso Mudarra, Luis de Narvaez, Francesco da Milano, Vincenzo Galilei, Giovanni Terzi, Adrian Le Roy, John Johnson, and John Dowland. From their music, North has created The Missing Tutor with over 100 exercises.</jats:p>