The Lutenist

A reenactor plays the Lute in the Great Hall at Hampton Court.
[Photo copyright the author]

The Lute Society of America has a useful selection of clips on YouTube "illustrating the use of the lute and vihuela in various styles of music". (will open in new window)

• Asteria performing fifteenth century music.
• Paul O’Dette performing sixteenth century lute music.
• Hopkinson Smith performing sixteenth century vihuela music.
• Nigel North performing John Dowland (written ca. 1600).
• Robert Barto performing eighteenth century lute music by Silvius Leopold Weiss.
• Robert Barto – an Allegro movement from a Weiss Sonata.
• Ronn McFarlane performing two of his own contemporary compositions.

Enjoy!

Rick Wakeman at Hampton Court

Rick Wakeman is promising a "Mock Rock Tudor Experience" when he performs his legendary concept album The Six Wives of Henry VIII at Hampton Court in May .

This is Rick's contribution to the celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of Henry's accession in 1509 [if you have not yet visited the palace, this is the year to come].

Rick has also been inspired to write 3 new pieces for the event - Tudor Overture, Defender of the Faith and Tudor Rock. Groovy.

If the credit crunch hasn't hit you yet, it's only £150 for the VIP Platinum Package, "including pre-show canape reception and chance to meet Rick Wakeman". Groundlings will still have to cough up almost £50 for the cheap seats.

If you want to sample what to expect, I included a Youtube extract from the Six Wives in this post last year.

More events for the 500th around the world are listed at TudorHistory.

Tudor Music from the BBC - but hurry!

Good news for fans of Tudor Music:

For another 5 days, a 60-minute BBC4 program on Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors is available to everyone (in the UK at least) via the BBC iPlayer streamer.

To quote the blurb: "Simon Russell Beale explores Western sacred music. He looks at the works of Thomas Tallis (pictured) and William Byrd, part of the Renaissance in Tudor England."

The program includes some stunning shots of London.

(Available for 5 more days - 30 days if you download the 600mb file)