Early English Viols

Music of great importance and quality was performed on viols in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. Thomas Mace (1676) writes that 'old English viols' are ideal, and names five English makers than whom 'there are no Better in the World'. To understand and play this music we need reliable information and suitable viols. Neither can be derived exclusively from old instruments because of their rarity, inaccessibility, and degradation by time, use and alteration. Using a wide variety of evidence including the viols, their music, and documentary evidence surrounding the trade of instrument making, Fleming and Bryan illuminate the changing nature of viols in early modern England.

Michael Fleming, after graduating from the Queen's College, Oxford, worked for Robert Goble & Son for five years, making early keyboard instruments. Since 1982 he has worked as an independent musical instrument maker, specializing in viols and bows. In 1986 he was joint recipient of the Best Maker prize at the Crafts Council Open Exhibition, London. Fleming was a member of an Expert Group drafting the Museums and Galleries Commission guidance: Standards in the Museum Care of Musical Instruments (published 1995). Since 2004 he has worked on The Galpin Society Journal (international journal of organological research), including five years as editor. He has contributed to standard reference works such as Grove and ODNB, and published articles in Early Music, The Galpin Society Journal, The Viola da Gamba Society Journal and elsewhere. John Bryan is Head of Music at the University of Huddersfield, where he was awarded a higher doctorate for his practice-based research in 2015. Following study at the University of York, he has developed a career that encompasses performance, research and teaching in equal measure. His research has been published in articles for Early Music and The Journal of Musicology, and a book chapter for Ashgate. He has taught early music at the Universities of York, Leeds and Hull, founded the North East Early Music Forum and coached viol consort performance at Dartington International Summer School. As a performer, he has worked with many leading ensembles since the 1970s, including the Rose Consort of Viols, Musica Antiqua of London, I Fagiolini and the Consort of Musicke, with whom he has made some 40 CDs, given many radio recordings, and appeared at international festivals in USA, Canada and throughout Europe. His performance focus is on music for viols, but he also plays Renaissance woodwind and harpsichord, and regularly directs and conducts early music performances. He has contributed to a range of programmes on BBC Radios 3 and 4, and is an Artistic Adviser to York Early Music Festival, which he helped to found.

Contents Note to Readers 1 'English viols are the ones which one normally plays': Researching Early English viols 2 'Choice Consorts ... (Rare Chests of Viols)': The Evidence of the Repertory 3 'We chiefly Value Old Instruments': Extant Old English Viols 4 'This way will I disrobe the images': Images of Viols 5 'Such as now do lawfully exercise any art, mistery, or manual occupation': Viol Making as a Job 6 'These were Old': Early English Viol Makers 7 'Let Viol-makers take notice hereof': Viol Makers' Physical Resources 8 'I will search impossible places': The Future for Early English Viols Bibliography