With the benefit of her many years' study of the repertoire and teaching of the instrument, Diana Poulton has completely re-cast her earlier book (An Introduction to Lute Playing, 1961) to produce, in A Tutor for the Renaissance Lute, the most comprehensive method for the lute based on Renaissance precepts. The book will be found equally useful to students working alone – giving clear instructions on all technical matters, progressively introduced according to their difficulty – and to teachers ...

• The Instrument - Stringing - Tuning - Some practical advice on tuning - Tablature - Holding the Lute - The right hand - The left hand - The diapasons - Italian tablature - The nexachord - Spanish music and the bihuela - More about Spanish music - Questions - Scales - The use of graces in Renaissance lute music - The performing of graces - Graces in English sources - Intabulations of polyphonic vocal music - The interpretation of signs in the French air de cour - The "half" barré - German tablatu...