SONG, DANCE & POETRY OF THE COURT OF SCOTLAND UNDER KING JAMES VI

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Very Good/Very Good. 1969. Hard Cover. 4to 052107181X Dust jacket in clear protective sleeve, unclipped., slight rubbed to edges. Green cloth with bright gilt titling backed in black. No ownership inscription. Xii,286 pages clean and tight. A series of linked studies of the character, origins and history of the court-song of Renaissance Scotland, with substantial critical discussion of poets, musicians and court culture generally. Mrs Shire believes that the song repertory of Scotland in the sixteenth century, tlhough unfamiliar even to scholars, is rewarding poetically and musically both in itself and for the part it plays in the Renaissance culture of Western Europe. Mrs Shire presents here the result of a decade of pioneer study. The poems have never before been studied as songs, nor have their links been properly established with ceremony, costume, dance and the pastimes of courtiers. Mrs Shire does all this; and in addition she isolates for special study the work of two important poets, Alexander Scott and Alexander Montgomerie. She also proposes identities for other hitherto unknown song-writers of the period. Mrs Shire adds to the value of her work by her constant preoccupation with period and background. She sets herself to answer such questions as: who made the songs and how were they presented? Was the music more important than the words? Did the singers act or dance in performance? Were songs a central part of the life of the court? Her answers illuminate a world about which we have hitherto known almost nothing. The music illustrations have been edited by Dr Kenneth Elliott. .