"There is another Iugler, that beeing well skild in the Iewes Trumpe, takes vpon him to bee a dealer in Musicke: especiall good at mending Instruments: he iugled away more instrumentes of late, than his bodie (being taken) will euer be able to make good." - Henry Chettle, Kind-Hartes Dreame, (1592).
Over the last few years, documentary evidence from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has provided increasing amounts of information about instrument-making in English cities other than London and has assisted those who seek a more accurate understanding of provincial music. Building on previous work about inhabitants of Oxford and York, new research into the people involved in musical activities in Oxford will now be presented and discussed. This will focus on people who made musical instruments, but will also include information about professional and amateur instrumentalists, and about some of the relationships between all these and other musicians and woodworkers. Some common sources of confusion in research about instrument-makers will be described and exemplified.
The information to be presented will support earlier findings about the nature of instrument-makers, particularly that for many, instrument making was only part of their work, so instruments were often made not by specialist instrument-makers but by people who may be better known for other activities. This raises important questions, such as how did English instruments attain their high international reputation ? The work also casts new light on some important names in the string instrument making world. There are indications that relatively obscure Oxford instrument-makers are connected with some better-known makers in London. It is possible that far from being backward, derivative or even parasitic in relation to London, centres such as Oxford provided not only the manpower but possibly also the foundation or driving force for significant developments in other parts of the country, including the capital
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
