Description
Book SynopsisIn
Paying the Piper Elizabeth Baldwin studies the early music situation in a single county, Cheshire, from the late Middle Ages to the beginning of the Civil War, focusing on music outside the regular control of the church and looking not only at the trained professional but at music makers, from the performers at guild feasts to the gentleman who takes music lessons and the alehousekeeper who plays the pipes. Baldwin attempts to set the performer of music in a social, economic, legal, and possibly political context. Who was performing music, where, when, and why? What instruments were played, and by whom? What attitudes were there towards music, and how did they vary according to circumstances and religious affiliation? Did Cheshire’s special status with respect to the Statute of Vagabonds really make any difference to the performers in the county?
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
I. Music in Context
II. Part 1. Music in the City by David Mills
II. Part 2. Music in the Country
III. Music and the Gentry
IV. The Musical Instruments
Appendix I. Inventories of Cheshire Musicians
Appendix II. Named Musicians
Notes
Bibliography
Index
