The Printed Lute Song: a Textual and Paratextual Study of Early Modern English Song Books
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The Printed Lute Song: A Textual and Paratextual Study of Early Modern English Song Books Michelle Lynn Oswell A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music Chapel Hill 2009 Approved by: John Nádas Timothy Carter James Haar Anne MacNeil Severine Neff © 2009 Michelle Lynn Oswell All Rights Reserved ii Abstract Michelle Lynn Oswell: The Printed Lute Song: A Textual and Paratextual Study of Early Modern English Song Books (Under the direction of John Nádas) The English lute song book of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries represents a short-lived but well-admired flowering of English printed music. Situated between the birth of music printing in Italy at the turn of the sixteenth century and the rise of music printer John Playford in England in the 1650s, the printed lute song book’s style quite closely resembles the poetic miscellanies of the time. They were printed in folio and table book format rather than quarto-sized and in part books, their title pages often used elaborately-carved borders, and their prefatory material included letters rich with symbolism. Basing my work on the analyses of paratexts done by Gérard Genette and Michael Saenger, I examine the English printed lute song book from 1597-1622 as a book in and of itself. While there has been a fair amount of research done on the lute song as a genre and on some individual composers, which I discuss in the introduction, comparably little discussion of the books’ paratexts exists. I begin in chapter two with an analysis of title pages and other engraved material (the visual paratexts), examining at least one title page from each lute song book printer. Title page layout, font choices, and wording indicate a fair amount of planning, and composers and printers made statements through these choices aimed at attracting an audience to their publications. In chapter three I review the verbal paratexts of these song books with an eye to how composers simultaneously enticed readers iii and patrons to their books and fashioned identities for themselves out of their dedicatory letters and letters to the reader. In chapter four, I review the texts and music of the book proper in a structural analysis of small-scale compositional decisions regarding text choices and larger-scale issues of song placement within the book. Also, I consider the possibility that some books’ contents and structure were planned out based on elements of the books’ paratexts, including titles and dedicatees. Finally, I readdress the issue of the lute song book as a book rather than simply collection of songs. iv Acknowledgements Surely to leave a permanent record of events not previously recorded for the benefit of posterity is worthy of the highest praise; and the real worker is not the man who merely changes the order and arrangement of another man’s work, but the one who has something new to say and constructs a historical edifice of his own. – Josephus, The Jewish War1 Over the course of the dissertation process one finds so many people deserving of thanks and acknowledgement it becomes a Herculean task to name them all. Nonetheless, I gladly take on the challenge in offering my gratitude to the following people. First, I’d like to thank my advisor, John Nádas, whose time and patience has been more than I could have asked for, considering my tendency to work in spurts and at a pace of my own choosing. Not many would have been as understanding, and I truly appreciate his guidance throughout my time at Chapel Hill. On a related note, I acknowledge my readers – Tim Carter, Jim Haar, Anne MacNeil, and Severine Neff – for their time and effort in reading and commenting on my work. I’d also like to thank the staff of the Music Library – Phil, Diane, and Eva – for their assistance and welcoming nature during my stay at Chapel Hill and at MLA conferences since: my appreciation is even greater now that I’m a librarian myself than it was when I was a graduate student. There are those friends and colleagues from school who make one’s day-to-day life more bearable; in this there is no one I can thank more than Paul Harris, whose sense of 1 Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, Rev. ed. (New York: Penguin, 1981), 29. v humor, fine fashion sense, and iron stomach may not have done much for my sobriety but certainly kept me laughing. After all, what more can one ask of life than playoff hockey and a few beers, preferably in the company of a dog (pace Paul, the feline owner) and a commiserative friend? My colleagues at Haverford College have offered great support in my short time with them. To my former boss, Bob Kieft, I thank you again for giving me a chance despite my lack of experience and for granting me time off to write and defend my dissertation. To Margaret Schaus, her husband Tom Izbicki, Christa Williford, and Sue Stuard, all of whom have lent their ears many a time to discuss questions of scholarship and life. To my ILL buddy Rob Haley, for his dog treats (for which Bess of course thanks you as well) and his never-failing ability to get me those materials not available at Haverford. To my colleague at Swarthmore College, Donna Fournier, who knew I could do it even when I didn’t. And to the faculty of the music department at Haverford past and present, especially Rich Freedman and David Kasunic, whose advice and accommodation are greatly appreciated. To my little Bessa, who has kept me laughing these last eleven years. And finally, to my loving parents, who I’m sure had no idea of what was to come when they told a seventeen-year-old girl it was okay to major in music. Their support, monetarily to be sure, but most especially emotionally, gave me the strength to persevere when I might otherwise have abandoned my work. vi Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... x List of Examples..................................................................................................................... xii Chapter One ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 Background Research......................................................................................................................3 Music Printing in England and the Lute Song Printers ...............................................................9 Chapter Two: Image-based paratexts.................................................................................... 20 Title Pages.......................................................................................................................................21 John Dowland’s First Booke of Songes or Ayres (1597, Peter Short)........................................................24 Francis Pilkington’s The First Booke of Songs or Ayres of 4. parts (1605, Thomas East).........................33 Robert Jones, Ultimum Vale (1605, John Windet) .....................................................................................37 Morley’s First Booke of Ayres (1600, William Barley/Henry Ballard)......................................................44 William Corkine’s Ayres (1610, William Stansby) ....................................................................................49 John Maynard’s The XII Wonders of the World (1611, Thomas Snodham) ..............................................54 Other engraved material ...............................................................................................................58 Engraved Headers and Footers ...................................................................................................................59 Initials .........................................................................................................................................................63 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................73 Chapter Three: Verbal Paratexts .......................................................................................... 76 Dedicatory Epistles and Letters to the Reader............................................................................77 High rhetoric for connected patrons............................................................................................................81 Private Texts ...............................................................................................................................................84 Gentle Readers and Worthy Texts ..............................................................................................................88 Flawed Texts...............................................................................................................................................91 Faulty Readers ............................................................................................................................................92 Embodied Texts ..........................................................................................................................................98