Five collections of lyra viol music published by John Playford
Creators: name: Pullen, Ginger Lee
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: John Playford, the well known English music publisher, published at least five different volumes for the lyra viol between the years 1651 and 1682. This was a period of intense musical activity among London's upper classes. The lyra viol publications were a part of Playford's output designed to meet the amateurs' demands for instructional material and for music geared to their interests and abilities. The first edition, entitled A Musicall Banquet, was a collection of vocal and instrumental music, one-third of which was devoted to the lyra viol. The four subsequent editions were entitled Musicks Recreation and were made up entirely of material for the lyra viol. All five lyra viol editions contain instructions and lyra viol pieces. The music, on the whole, is light, unpretentious and charming. There are lyra viol arrangements of popular songs and original dances for the instrument, many of the latter by the best composers of Playford's day, such as Charles Coleman, William Lawes, Simon Ives and John Jenkins. The body of music contained in the five editions is sizeable. Despite similar titles, the editions are not merely reprints. The musical contents vary considerably. Each successive lyra viol edition retains a certain number of pieces from the previous edition(s), but draws many new pieces from outside sources as well. All told, the editions contain 299 different pieces of music. This thesis is a study of Playford's five lyra viol editions. It takes the form of an historical commentary, including an analysis of the music, and a series of appendixes. The commentary is divided into five chapters. In the chapters, the author surveys Playford's career and publications, presents a history of the dates of issue of the lyra viol editions, and discusses the instructional material within the editions, the types of music the editions contain, and the composers and arrangers contributing to the editions. One of the most interesting aspects of the historical commentary appears in the first chapter where some previously unknown facts are presented which lead to a revision of the commonly accepted date of issue for the earliest surviving edition of Musicks Recreation. Six appendixes follow the historical commentary. Here, there are tables of contents for all the lyra viol editions, indexes arranged according to title and composer of all the music within the five editions, complete bibliographic descriptions of each successive lyra viol edition, and fifty-one of Playford's lyra viol pieces in transcribed versions. A thematic catalogue, one of the most important parts of the entire study, is contained in the third appendix. The catalogue, which contains an entry for each of the 299 different pieces in the editions, is arranged according to musical characteristics. The catalogue indicates concordances between the five lyra viol editions, cites instances where the lyra viol pieces appear in other seventeenth-century sources, and gives cross-references to the other indexes and tables within the thesis. For reasons of format, accuracy, and availability, this catalogue supercedes all earlier studies.