BOOKS (reviews below)

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Hopkinson Smith writes: 

“A wealth of information and insight” 

Lute Society of America Quarterly, Joe Harris (Fall 2016):

… This book, as stated in the introduction, is meant to help lute and theorbo players learn how to perform 17th and 18th century music in an expressive manner, reflecting the stylistic practices of that era, and providing the most important tools necessary for achieving this goal. As I have read and referenced this book over many months, I would say that this book achieves its goal not only due to its exhaustive use of original source citations, which are meticulously documented, but moreover because of its interpolation of these source materials with the vast real-world experience of the author. We know that having original documented sources of historical performance practices are critical to being able to create legitimate and informed musical interpretations. One of the things that these source materials cannot give us is the perspective of a modern musician who has had a vast amount of experience in their field applying this knowledge over the course of many decades. This is where the book is most useful and excels in its mission to be “practical” as stated in the title. … 

I have to conclude that this book is one of the most useful, easy to read and thoughtful texts written on baroque-performance practice.  What makes this book special is the exhaustive use and citation of original sources juxtaposed with the authors personal experience from his life as a player of historical-plucked instruments. We know that music is a living art form and accordingly there is only so much information that can be learned from a text compared to a live lesson with a teacher. In my experience, an in-person lecture and demonstration on performance practice in a classroom is the most ideal way to learn the intricacies of historical performance practice, but barring that, I have to say that this book might be the best alternative.  I whole heartedly recommended it to anyone interested in the subject. 

The German Lute Society - Lauten-Info, Markus Lutz (3/2016):

In his book Peter Croton passes along many tips and thoughts leading to an historically appropriate but individualized approach to baroque music. Despite its orientation to historical sources, this well-grounded handbook points us above all toward an informed, yet passionate and simultaneously effortless performance. Between the lines we sense time and again the engaged musician and teacher who wishes to share his knowledge of this music and the joy it gives him. Indeed one cannot thank Peter Croton enough; in my opinion, this essential book belongs in the hand of every musician, professional or amateur, interested in baroque music on instruments of the lute family.

French Lute Society, Pascale Boquet (Autumn 2016):

“Strong points of this book: review of the fundamental characteristics of each lute-type, the numerous quotations and the author’s commentary thereon, the charts outlining very clearly the characteristics of French and Italian style, the affects of intervals (melodic and harmonic) and of different keys, the numerous musical examples, the references to past centuries (in particular regarding improvisation and ornamentation) …

A fascinating section of Peter’s book: an evocation of Sprezzatura in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries (the art of ‘being’ or of acting without apparent effort) and of the parallel between Sprezzatura and Tao (i.e. the concept of ‘non-action’ in common to both), in the form of an imaginary dialogue between Castiglioni (The Book of the Courtier) and Herrigel (Zen in the Art of Archery).

To finish up, a chapter about basso continuo (examples of realization, a survey - according to country and epoch - of plucked instruments appropriate for continuo). Basso continuo would merit an entire book of its own, which Peter has already written: for guitarists! (Figured Bass on the Classical Guitar, Amadeus Verlag).

A reference work, clear and lively, that doesn’t demand too high a level of English from us French-speakers!

Newsletter of the Lute & Early Guitar Society of Japan, 

David van Ooijen (January 2017):

“… Peter Croton has a very clear way of writing about how to use the tools at our disposal to play Baroque music with rhetorical expression. Because to play Baroque music in a stylistic manner, Croton argues, we must play with rhetorical expression, that is, we must communicate passions to our audience. … All quotes of historical sources, and all examples, are given relevance for modern players by Croton’s explanation on how to apply the knowledge to your own playing. Croton is an experienced teacher and explains his points very clearly. For me this book is a gem, it’s a joy to find all relevant information in one volume, clearly explained, with a practical aim and always focused on the one overriding aim: playing with rhetorical expression. If you didn’t buy the book for classical guitar players because you are a lute or theorbo player, then do buy the book for lute and theorbo players, you will not regret it.

THE BELGIAN LUTE ACADEMY- Geluit-Luthinerie, (09/2016):

This interesting book offers a wealth of historical and practical information on the baroque period, in particular regarding lute and theorbo. Numerous treatises are cited and interpreted, and in the appendix one finds the original texts – the book being, of course, in English. Topics including inégalité, tempo rubato, dynamic indications, timbre, ornamentation (also from harpsichord music) and the affects are illustrated with a wealth of examples, often with scores. Differences between the Italian and French styles are made clear by a table juxtaposing their respective characteristics. The emotional significance of the intervals and of the different keys – let us not forget that equal temperament had not yet generalized things – is much more far-reaching than we now realize. By feeling the life and immersing ourselves in the customs and ways of thinking of the period, we can – partly thanks to this book – pursue in our music-making an historical approach which is as appropriate as possible.

David Russell writes:

“Congratulations on this fabulous book. It will be a great help and inspiration to many guitarists.”

Paul Galbraith writes: 

“This handbook is a distinguished addition to the ever-expanding body of instructional literature for guitarists. In effect, we're treated here to a guided tour through a wealth of selected historical quotations and information, under the experienced supervision of Peter Croton, who offers his considered opinion at every step. A highly stimulating, provocative and educational read!”

Oscar Ghiglia writes: 

“A very precious collection of musical wisdom, in the words of Peter Croton and from the heritage of ancient living documents expressing profound opinions of historical writers, on their contemporary art of feeling and performing their music.” 

IL FRONIMO, Lorenzo Micheli (January 2017):

“[This] work by American lutenist and guitarist Peter Croton undertakes to shed light on the current state of study on the subject, and provides essential tools for orientation in the universe of baroque and galant music. The text is the result of the research and extensive teaching experience of the author, who is teacher of lute and basso continuo at the Schola Cantorum in Basel and at the Music Conservatories in Basel and Bern. The subject is vast and perilous, but Croton unravels a jungle of sources with skill … In the third chapter, the treatise gets to the heart of the matter; it explains extensively and in depth the new musical sensibility … characterized by a strong rhetorical system in which the understanding of the text … acquires new importance and priority. Croton writes: ‘With this music, tools (or ‘weapons’) such as phrasing, articulation, slurs, punctuation, tempo, rhythmic inequality, emphasis, agogic, rubato, dynamics, timbre, improvisation and ornamentation were used by singers and instrumentalists to enhance the rhetorical effect of a performance’. …

Thanks to the universality of the concepts and the wealth of historical and bibliographical references, the usefulness of ‘Performing Baroque Music on the Classical Guitar’ goes far beyond the narrow world of the six strings, and to some extent transcends also the limited chronological period of the baroque period and galant, because the book insists on the idea of music as a rhetorical narrative, with ample room for improvisation and for the interpreter's subjective intervention, stretching almost to embrace the entire repertoire of almost all cultures and eras (as witnessed by the substantial number of examples from jazz music). … 

Croton asserts that he considers rhetoric to be ‘the central point around which all the expressive devices revolve’; and indeed, his book devotes ample space to the identification and discussion of the main issues of musical rhetoric, beginning with the theatrical power of the conflict between dissonance/consonance and the rhetorical-expressive meaning of melodic and harmonic intervals. … A text that, in little more than two hundred pages, aims to outline a panorama of themes which for decades bitterly divided musicologists and musicians from around the world can seem like an act of presumption, or – simply – an experiment destined for failure from the start. Instead, the synthesis accomplished by Croton, clear and balanced, hits the target. With great intelligence, he does not avoid giving his own interpretation of subjects or expressing an opinion about central questions of interpretation, but manages to avoid falling into the trap of sterile dogmatism. Lining up the sources, ‘sewing them’ historically into a tapestry that knows no chronological boundaries nor stylistic rigid boundaries, and leaving open all the doors inviting the reader to form their own mental representation of the problem and possible solutions. He does not say ‘do it like this’, but rather ‘among the many ways that you could do this, this seems the most appropriate to me.’ The impatient reader might get to the end of the book with the uncomfortable feeling of having made two steps back rather than one forward, but those backward steps are essential to have a more comprehensive view of the majestic and immense cathedral that is the interpretation of music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”

THISISCLASSICALGUITAR.COM, Bradford Werner:

“… Peter Croton, early music performer on guitar and lute (and more), and teacher at the world-renowned Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as well as at the Conservatories of Basel and Bern has tackled the task of making a handbook that will bring the new and old worlds together. In his book, Croton has the best of both worlds: a wealth of period sources and universal musical knowledge as well as specific reference to lute, Baroque guitar, and other plucked instruments and composers of the era. The combination of both elements will greater allow guitarists to make informed musical decisions… I love the massive amount of footnotes, references, and index. The footnotes alone would make me happy to recommend this book. If you haven’t read books such as this before you can expect a great deal of period quotes, that is, writings and examples from the time period. This offers us first-hand information about music performance of the time. With these quotes Croton offers the reader discussions and arguments that will inform interpretative decisions. It’s academic but also reads nicely with Croton telling the reader the significance of the quotes and developments in the instruments or musical styles and the how this might be useful to the modern guitarist. He even offers some specific tips and personal opinions for us to ponder.

Highly recommended. This is an important book because it puts Baroque music into perspective and offers guitarists a legitimate source of information on historical performance practice.”

SOUNDBOARD, David Grimes (March 2016) 

“Peter Croton has done a great amount of investigation into the sources that cast light upon the subject, and this book is a compendium of what he has discovered. Central to the book is the principle that rhetorical presentation of the music was the desired ideal, relating constantly to vocal models. This has very important implications for the issues of how to use phrasing, shaping, articulation and dynamics to produce the desired ‘affect’ and to evoke specific emotional responses in the listener. … Topics that will be of special interest, of course, are notes inégales, dance styles and tempi, and ornamentation. All of these are treated extensively and thoughtfully, and everything is supported by a large number of citations from the period. ... I found this to be a most valuable presentation of useful information, and I am very pleased to recommend it as essential reading for all those playing Baroque music on the guitar.”

From “Lute News” The Lute Society (UK)

“... Peter Croton will present his groundbreaking new lute tutor...”

“… its 281 pages include sections on historically inspired performance, introduction to anatomy and biomechanics, preparing to play, tuning, hold, right-hand exercises, left-hand exercises, graces, two-voice music, advanced shifting, multi-voice music, and—uniquely—chapters on 10-course lute and archlute, and a coda with sections on sprezzatura, bibliography, lute music publishers and so on. Of course there is a good deal of music, including plentiful samples of facsimile tablatures.”

Christopher Goodwin

Review excerpts from The German Lute Society Lauten-Info 1/2020 

“Magic. That's what it's all about”. With these words, Peter Croton begins TO THE READER, which opens his new tutor for Renaissance lute. The author wants to pass on the magic of lute playing, as felt by listeners of Francesco da Milano, to the readers of his lute method. Croton is not trying to encourage imitators of his own playing style and interpretation, but wishes to enable his students - also through this lute tutor - to find their own playing style inspired by the knowledge of historical performance practice, and to decide their own interpretations in a well-founded and convincing way. Croton designed the school for teenage and adult beginners on the lute, as well as for advanced players who want to re-evaluate their technique and musical approach. It is written in English throughout, which should not be too much of a problem in most parts. 

A Method for the Renaissance Lute by Peter Croton is a lute tutor that starts with basics, and ultimately looks at lute playing from a holistic perspective. Paying attention to physical fundamentals will certainly help players avoid bodily ailments in the first place. In addition, the resultant mindfulness will, in my opinion, make it easier to learn to play the lute in a more relaxed, musical way. One can tell from this book that the author is an experienced lute teacher, for whom the most important thing is for his students to play the lute as effortlessly as possible and to develop their own musical expressiveness. He wants to open space for the reader's own further development. The overall focus of the tutor is primarily on reflection on and awareness of one's own playing. In this respect, it can also be a useful acquisition for advanced lute players.

The tutor can be worked through in self-study, but it is certainly useful to be supervised by an experienced teacher. The playing material is somewhat limited but can be easily supplemented by sources that are accessible nowadays. In the meantime, a large part of the lute repertoire is easily accessible digitally in transmission or facsimile on the net. 

The large-format lute school, somewhat exceeding the A4 size, is printed on beautiful paper with softcover and thread stitching and costs about 90 Euros. A Method for the Renaissance Lute, with a Supplement for the Archlute by Peter Croton, for Renaissance lute in Italian and French tablature, was published in 2019 by Le Luth Doré, order number LLDE0021, and can be ordered from the home page www.leluthdore.com.

Markus Lutz

Review excerpts from the Lute Society of America, Winter 2019

Lute methods written during the lute revival of the twentieth century go even further, since we no longer have the luxury of hearing and seein an authentic renaissance lute player and must try to reconstruct every aspect of style and technique through the fog of time. Into this picture steps Peter Croton, who has produced a work that extends the concept of the lute method quite beyond anything that has been attempted so far. Not only does Mr. Croton’s method lead the beginning student through the first steps up to an intermediate level with a well-thought-out program of exercises and easy pieces, but he also provides a large amount of background material ranging from questions of musical style to an exploration of the anatomical and biomechanical workings of the hands and body, and the cognitive and psychological considerations of learning an instrument.

This is a large book, 281 pages (plus 9 pages with roman numerals at the beginning) in a generous 9x12-inch format, divided into thirteen chapters, several addenda and a coda. The actual method starts on chapter five and the last three chapters are devoted to specific repertoires: English lute music, the ten-course lute, and the Italian archlute. For this reviewer, the book has two outstanding features that make it worth the hefty price (€79.57 plus tax and shipping from the web site). The first is the method itself. Following the principles of musical rhetoric discussed in chapter 1, many of the exercises (starting with single line melodies and graduating to two, three, and finally “multi-voice” pieces) are accompanied by texts and transcriptions in mensural notation, so that the student can learn to associate every musical gesture with a rhetorical one from the very beginning of his or her studies. The other is the consistent emphasis on human anatomy, how each movement of the fingers radiates out to the entire body and, ultimately, the mind, and how we can use these connections to develop the best approach to learning our instrument.

Playing the lute is not an exact science, and naturally there will be many subtle and not so subtle aspects on which well- meaning players and teachers will disagree. Do you use rest-stroke with the thumb in sixteenth-century lute music? Where do you arpeggiate chords in renaissance music? Do you plant your finger on the double-string of a course before plucking it? These are a small sample of things about which this reviewer disagrees with the author, and interested readers can consult the longer review that will be published in the next Journal of the LSA to find out more. However, the judicious student and teacher can make use of the many strengths of this book while adopting alternative approaches to specific questions of technique or interpretation; in- deed, Mr. Croton himself wisely invites us to do so in the coda: “I hope you could make [this book] your own by absorbing what is meaningful for you, ignoring what is not. . . .” This is a sentiment that was even acknowledged by the great Silvestro Ganassi:

Paul Beier