A Briefe Introduction to the Skill of Song, C. 1587

Book excerpt: A facsimile of Bathe's work, the first musical text book to appear in the English language, describes musical methods old and new and will be of great interest to musicologists and players of early music. When, in 1584, William Bathe, then just a young student at Oxford, published a tract on the teaching of music, his work became the first musical text book to appear in the English language. No copy of this work now exists, but some years later Bathe produced a new version, now called A brief Introduction to the skill of song. In it Bathe sought to present a new, much simpler way to learn music, in open opposition to the traditional approaches of theday, the "manifold and crabbed, confused, tedious rules", as he puts it. This book, a facsimile of Bathe's work, describes musical methods old and new and will be of great interest to musicologists and players of early music. Introduction by Bernarr Rainbow and published in the series ClassicTexts in Music Education.