We have a vari­ety of books for lute and other instru­ments, at a vari­ety of skill levels. Please let us know if you have any ques­tions about any of the pub­li­ca­tions. In the near future we will begin dig­i­tiz­ing all of the books (start­ing with the out-of-print ones), and will make them avail­able here and other places.

All books listed here are for sale unless oth­er­wise stated. A PayPal account is not required for pur­chase, credit cards are accept­ed through PayPal. Those in Cal­i­for­nia will pay sales tax of approx­i­mate­ly 8%. Your cart will show up on right or bottom of page once you click ADD TO CART. If you are inter­est­ed in buying 10 books or more, please email us to receive a dis­count on your order prior to order­ing. Ship­ping is FREE for orders in the USA. Ship­ping for Canada and for the rest of the planet will be entered based on your loca­tion on the Paypal site (after click­ing CHECKOUT).

John Dow­land — The Com­plete Lute Fan­tasias: ed. Stan­ley Buetens

The Fan­tasias of Dow­land are some of the great­est lute music of the Renais­sance. They are the cre­ation of a great spirit and unique musi­cian. They demon­strate why Dow­land was the unri­valled lutenist of his or any age. Ten fan­tasias are pre­sented here, but only seven can def­i­nitely be ascribed to Dow­land. The remain­ing three are also excel­lent pieces, Dow­lan­desque, and can be attrib­uted to no other known com­poser. But strict­ly speak­ing, they must be con­sid­ered anony­mous. In addi­tion to these ten pieces, two other fan­ta­sy-like com­po­si­tions are includ­ed — Sem­per Dow­land Sem­per Dolens and Loth to Depart. The edi­tor con­sulted all Eng­lish ver­sions of these pieces and has resolved ambi­gu­i­ties and cor­rected mis­takes found in the orig­i­nals. Only one of the fan­tasies was print­ed in Dowland’s time, and even this one is not error-free. Thus, the result pre­sented here are com­pos­ite cor­rected ver­sions derived from all Eng­lish sources. In each case, the best, most inter­est­ing, and musi­cally con­sis­tent ele­ments were cho­sen when­ever a choice exist­ed. Sev­eral pieces exist in only one source, so here only obvi­ous mis­takes were cor­rected. The emi­nently read­able tab­la­ture sys­tem of Instru­menta Anti­qua is used and the music is laid out to avoid page turns when­ever pos­si­ble. 37 pages.

Price: $10.75

Quan­ti­ty:  

The First Book of Tablature

Our first book of tab­la­ture brought back by pop­u­lar demand. The orna­ment chart has been updat­ed and the errors in the orig­i­nal have been cor­rect­ed. The book for begin­ning and inter­me­di­ate lute and guitar play­ers that has launched a thou­sand careers. Back in print! All the same con­tent as the orig­i­nal! Main design remains the same. All art­work restored to orig­i­nal qual­i­ty. Can also be pur­chased at Amazon. 26 pages.

Price: $9.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Instruc­tion for the Guitar by Anto­nio Lopes — Facscimile

Instruc­tion for the Guitar by Anto­nio Lopes (pub­lished in 1883 in Brook­lyn, NY) is a com­plete method for the study of the clas­si­cal guitar as well as an extra­or­di­nary ref­er­ence on all aspects of the guitar, har­mo­ny, mod­u­la­tion, accom­pa­ni­ment, rhythm, etc. Here, the guitar is used as a basis for a thor­ough musi­cal edu­ca­tion. It is a prod­uct of an era that was seri­ous about guitar play­ing and musi­cal edu­ca­tion in gen­er­al. Price Reduced!

Price: $12.75

Quan­ti­ty:  

Lute Recer­cars — ed. by Stan­ley Buetens

Thir­teen early Ital­ian pieces by Dalza, Spina­ci­no, Bossi­nen­sis, and Capiro­la are given in French-Eng­lish tab­la­ture with a sep­a­rate tran­scrip­tion for modern guitar. An intro­duc­tion explains the form. SOLD OUT!

Price: $12.75

Luys de Nar­vaez — Del­phin de Musica

The Del­phin de Musica was the second work to appear for the vihuela in the 16^th cen­tu­ry. Milan’s El Mae­stro, which appeared two years ear­li­er, and the Del­phin are the finest of all the vihuela books and rank with the great instru­men­tal music of the cen­tu­ry. Narvaez’s use of the vihuela was orig­i­nal and his musi­cal idiom daring and inven­tive. Even in his own age, his achieve­ments were rec­og­nized and appre­ci­at­ed. Twelve of the best pieces (some of them quite long) are pre­sent­ed in this edi­tion. The tab­la­ture has been changed to the French Eng­lish letter type, since it is more widely known today. It is newly set in Instru­men­ta Antiqua’s unique and beau­ti­ful tab­la­ture system. A playable and care­ful transs­crip­tion for guitar fol­lows the tab­la­ture. The layout was planned to min­i­mize page turns in both the tab­la­ture and guitar-nota­tion sec­tions. Graph­ic illus­tra­tions and sev­er­al pages of the orig­i­nal are also given. A pref­ace explores the nature of the vihuela, explains tab­la­ture, and dis­cuss­es the rhyth­mic intri­ca­cies of Narvaez’s music. 45 pages.

Price: $10.95

Quan­ti­ty:  

Luys Milán — Six Pavans & Three Fantasies

Orig­i­nal­ly for Vihuela in num­bered tab­la­ture, they are pre­sent­ed here in French-Eng­lish tab­la­ture and also given in a tran­scrip­tion for modern guitar. Milan’s orig­i­nal instruc­tions of 1536 are given plus an intro­duc­tion explain­ing tab­la­ture and the nature of the music.

Price: $8.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

The Mean­ing & Per­for­mance of Orna­ment Signs in Eng­lish Lute Tablatures

This mono­graph by Stan Buetens final­ly solves the mys­tery of the use of orna­ments in Eliz­a­bethan times. The solu­tion is both simple and com­plex because one of the signs has two mean­ings and dif­fer­ent man­u­scripts employed dif­fer­ent signs to rep­re­sent the same orna­ments. This is all explained with simple lan­guage and can be easily fol­lowed by all lutenists. Back in stock! New cover! Com­plete­ly redesigned but with all of the same con­tent! Can also be pur­chased at Amazon.com.

Price: $13.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Method for the Renais­sance Lute — Stan­ley Buetens

Sev­en­ty-five graded exer­cis­es toward the devel­op­ment of a lute tech­nique based upon his­tor­i­cal prin­ci­ples. Sec­tions on tab­la­ture, tuning, orna­men­ta­tion, play­ing from a score and many more. Eng­lish-French tab­la­ture. One of our best­sellers! Orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in 1969. This is the 5TH Edi­tion.

Price: $10.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Lassus: Bicini­um Revis­it­ed, Vol. 1

In the early 17^th Cen­tu­ry an anony­mous com­pos­er added a third (and higher) part to this excel­lent col­lec­tion of 12 duets by the master Roland de Lassus and a few years later in 1622 a lower part was added by anoth­er anony­mous gen­tle­man in the style of the early baroque. The music can thus be per­formed in dif­fer­ent ways: The orig­i­nal duet, the trio (with added des­cant) or as a trio (with added bass). The bass line can be played on a melod­ic instru­ment alone or on a key­board instru­ment or both togeth­er. They will not work as quar­tets since the two addi­tive gen­tle­men were unaware of each other. Each volume con­tains two of the 12 duets so 6 edi­tions of this music are envi­sioned. Score and sep­a­rate parts are includ­ed with an extra part in tenor clef for the tenor recorder. Two copies avail­able (please note that they are dam­aged but read­able).

Avail­able Qty: 2

Price: $5.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Sonata For Guitar And Flute (or Tenor Recorder) — E. G. Baron

A charm­ing Baroque sonata in G orig­i­nal­ly for lute and flute. The orig­i­nal key is main­tained so it can be played on the lute as well as the guitar. About 7 min­utes. PLEASE E‑MAIL TO CHECK ON AVAILABILITY OF THIS TITLE.

Price: $5.00

Study of the Lute — Ernst Got­tlich Baron

BACK IN PRINT! New soft­cov­er version! 

E. G. Baron’s Study of the Lute (Unter­suchung des Instru­ments der Lauten) pub­lished in 1727, is one of the most com­pre­hen­sive and impor­tant lute trea­tis­es in the 300 year his­to­ry of the instru­ment. It con­tains much infor­ma­tion that is unique to it, and deals with sub­jects that can be found in no other source. It is a mine of infor­ma­tion con­cern­ing the his­to­ry of the instru­ment, lute makers, com­posers, play­ers, tech­nique and per­for­mance prac­tices of the day. 

At last, this work has been trans­lat­ed into delight­ful Eng­lish by Dou­glas A. Smith, retain­ing much of the flam­boy­ant flavor of the orig­i­nal. A long pref­ace gives the back­ground of the work, its era, and the life of Baron. The present edi­tion improves the value of the orig­i­nal, since explana­to­ry foot­notes, appen­dices, and an index have been added. Also, the volu­mi­nous Latin and Greek pas­sages have been trans­lat­ed. The book is both delight­ful and infor­ma­tive. Over 200 pages. Our best seller! 

*PLEASE NOTE* New paperback/softcover ver­sion now avail­able. There are NO hard­cov­er books avail­able. Buy the paper­back here or on Amazon.com.

Price: $12.75

Quan­ti­ty:  

The Bagel Book

OK, as you might have guessed, this book has noth­ing to do with music or the lute! Full title: The Bagel Book: How to make great pro­fes­sion­al bagels at home using Stan’s Orig­i­nal Bagel Maker Kit. Though cre­at­ed to be part of a kit, this book easily stands on it’s own as a guide to making great bagels. Spiral-bound. Now includes addi­tion­al page explaining/updating ingre­di­ents and where to get them.

Price: $4.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

We have a vari­ety of books for lute and other instru­ments, at a vari­ety of skill levels. Please let us know if you have any ques­tions about any of the pub­li­ca­tions. In the near future we will begin dig­i­tiz­ing all of the books (start­ing with the out-of-print ones), and will make them avail­able here and other places.

All books listed here are for sale unless oth­er­wise stated. A PayPal account is not required for pur­chase, credit cards are accept­ed through PayPal. Those in Cal­i­for­nia will pay sales tax of approx­i­mate­ly 8%. Your cart will show up on right or bottom of page once you click ADD TO CART. If you are inter­est­ed in buying 10 books or more, please email us to receive a dis­count on your order prior to order­ing. Ship­ping is FREE for orders in the USA. Ship­ping for Canada and for the rest of the planet will be entered based on your loca­tion on the Paypal site (after click­ing CHECKOUT).

John Dow­land — The Com­plete Lute Fan­tasias: ed. Stan­ley Buetens

The Fan­tasias of Dow­land are some of the great­est lute music of the Renais­sance. They are the cre­ation of a great spirit and unique musi­cian. They demon­strate why Dow­land was the unri­valled lutenist of his or any age. Ten fan­tasias are pre­sented here, but only seven can def­i­nitely be ascribed to Dow­land. The remain­ing three are also excel­lent pieces, Dow­lan­desque, and can be attrib­uted to no other known com­poser. But strict­ly speak­ing, they must be con­sid­ered anony­mous. In addi­tion to these ten pieces, two other fan­ta­sy-like com­po­si­tions are includ­ed — Sem­per Dow­land Sem­per Dolens and Loth to Depart. The edi­tor con­sulted all Eng­lish ver­sions of these pieces and has resolved ambi­gu­i­ties and cor­rected mis­takes found in the orig­i­nals. Only one of the fan­tasies was print­ed in Dowland’s time, and even this one is not error-free. Thus, the result pre­sented here are com­pos­ite cor­rected ver­sions derived from all Eng­lish sources. In each case, the best, most inter­est­ing, and musi­cally con­sis­tent ele­ments were cho­sen when­ever a choice exist­ed. Sev­eral pieces exist in only one source, so here only obvi­ous mis­takes were cor­rected. The emi­nently read­able tab­la­ture sys­tem of Instru­menta Anti­qua is used and the music is laid out to avoid page turns when­ever pos­si­ble. 37 pages.

Price: $10.75

Quan­ti­ty:  

The First Book of Tablature

Our first book of tab­la­ture brought back by pop­u­lar demand. The orna­ment chart has been updat­ed and the errors in the orig­i­nal have been cor­rect­ed. The book for begin­ning and inter­me­di­ate lute and guitar play­ers that has launched a thou­sand careers. Back in print! All the same con­tent as the orig­i­nal! Main design remains the same. All art­work restored to orig­i­nal qual­i­ty. Can also be pur­chased at Amazon. 26 pages.

Price: $9.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Instruc­tion for the Guitar by Anto­nio Lopes — Facscimile

Instruc­tion for the Guitar by Anto­nio Lopes (pub­lished in 1883 in Brook­lyn, NY) is a com­plete method for the study of the clas­si­cal guitar as well as an extra­or­di­nary ref­er­ence on all aspects of the guitar, har­mo­ny, mod­u­la­tion, accom­pa­ni­ment, rhythm, etc. Here, the guitar is used as a basis for a thor­ough musi­cal edu­ca­tion. It is a prod­uct of an era that was seri­ous about guitar play­ing and musi­cal edu­ca­tion in gen­er­al. Price Reduced!

Price: $12.75

Quan­ti­ty:  

Lute Recer­cars — ed. by Stan­ley Buetens

Thir­teen early Ital­ian pieces by Dalza, Spina­ci­no, Bossi­nen­sis, and Capiro­la are given in French-Eng­lish tab­la­ture with a sep­a­rate tran­scrip­tion for modern guitar. An intro­duc­tion explains the form. SOLD OUT!

Price: $12.75

Luys de Nar­vaez — Del­phin de Musica

The Del­phin de Musica was the second work to appear for the vihuela in the 16^th cen­tu­ry. Milan’s El Mae­stro, which appeared two years ear­li­er, and the Del­phin are the finest of all the vihuela books and rank with the great instru­men­tal music of the cen­tu­ry. Narvaez’s use of the vihuela was orig­i­nal and his musi­cal idiom daring and inven­tive. Even in his own age, his achieve­ments were rec­og­nized and appre­ci­at­ed. Twelve of the best pieces (some of them quite long) are pre­sent­ed in this edi­tion. The tab­la­ture has been changed to the French Eng­lish letter type, since it is more widely known today. It is newly set in Instru­men­ta Antiqua’s unique and beau­ti­ful tab­la­ture system. A playable and care­ful transs­crip­tion for guitar fol­lows the tab­la­ture. The layout was planned to min­i­mize page turns in both the tab­la­ture and guitar-nota­tion sec­tions. Graph­ic illus­tra­tions and sev­er­al pages of the orig­i­nal are also given. A pref­ace explores the nature of the vihuela, explains tab­la­ture, and dis­cuss­es the rhyth­mic intri­ca­cies of Narvaez’s music. 45 pages.

Price: $10.95

Quan­ti­ty:  

Luys Milán — Six Pavans & Three Fantasies

Orig­i­nal­ly for Vihuela in num­bered tab­la­ture, they are pre­sent­ed here in French-Eng­lish tab­la­ture and also given in a tran­scrip­tion for modern guitar. Milan’s orig­i­nal instruc­tions of 1536 are given plus an intro­duc­tion explain­ing tab­la­ture and the nature of the music.

Price: $8.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

The Mean­ing & Per­for­mance of Orna­ment Signs in Eng­lish Lute Tablatures

This mono­graph by Stan Buetens final­ly solves the mys­tery of the use of orna­ments in Eliz­a­bethan times. The solu­tion is both simple and com­plex because one of the signs has two mean­ings and dif­fer­ent man­u­scripts employed dif­fer­ent signs to rep­re­sent the same orna­ments. This is all explained with simple lan­guage and can be easily fol­lowed by all lutenists. Back in stock! New cover! Com­plete­ly redesigned but with all of the same con­tent! Can also be pur­chased at Amazon.com.

Price: $13.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Method for the Renais­sance Lute — Stan­ley Buetens

Sev­en­ty-five graded exer­cis­es toward the devel­op­ment of a lute tech­nique based upon his­tor­i­cal prin­ci­ples. Sec­tions on tab­la­ture, tuning, orna­men­ta­tion, play­ing from a score and many more. Eng­lish-French tab­la­ture. One of our best­sellers! Orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in 1969. This is the 5TH Edi­tion.

Price: $10.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Lassus: Bicini­um Revis­it­ed, Vol. 1

In the early 17^th Cen­tu­ry an anony­mous com­pos­er added a third (and higher) part to this excel­lent col­lec­tion of 12 duets by the master Roland de Lassus and a few years later in 1622 a lower part was added by anoth­er anony­mous gen­tle­man in the style of the early baroque. The music can thus be per­formed in dif­fer­ent ways: The orig­i­nal duet, the trio (with added des­cant) or as a trio (with added bass). The bass line can be played on a melod­ic instru­ment alone or on a key­board instru­ment or both togeth­er. They will not work as quar­tets since the two addi­tive gen­tle­men were unaware of each other. Each volume con­tains two of the 12 duets so 6 edi­tions of this music are envi­sioned. Score and sep­a­rate parts are includ­ed with an extra part in tenor clef for the tenor recorder. Two copies avail­able (please note that they are dam­aged but read­able).

Avail­able Qty: 2

Price: $5.00

Quan­ti­ty:  

Sonata For Guitar And Flute (or Tenor Recorder) — E. G. Baron

A charm­ing Baroque sonata in G orig­i­nal­ly for lute and flute. The orig­i­nal key is main­tained so it can be played on the lute as well as the guitar. About 7 min­utes. PLEASE E‑MAIL TO CHECK ON AVAILABILITY OF THIS TITLE.

Price: $5.00

Study of the Lute — Ernst Got­tlich Baron

BACK IN PRINT! New soft­cov­er version! 

E. G. Baron’s Study of the Lute (Unter­suchung des Instru­ments der Lauten) pub­lished in 1727, is one of the most com­pre­hen­sive and impor­tant lute trea­tis­es in the 300 year his­to­ry of the instru­ment. It con­tains much infor­ma­tion that is unique to it, and deals with sub­jects that can be found in no other source. It is a mine of infor­ma­tion con­cern­ing the his­to­ry of the instru­ment, lute makers, com­posers, play­ers, tech­nique and per­for­mance prac­tices of the day. 

At last, this work has been trans­lat­ed into delight­ful Eng­lish by Dou­glas A. Smith, retain­ing much of the flam­boy­ant flavor of the orig­i­nal. A long pref­ace gives the back­ground of the work, its era, and the life of Baron. The present edi­tion improves the value of the orig­i­nal, since explana­to­ry foot­notes, appen­dices, and an index have been added. Also, the volu­mi­nous Latin and Greek pas­sages have been trans­lat­ed. The book is both delight­ful and infor­ma­tive. Over 200 pages. Our best seller! 

*PLEASE NOTE* New paperback/softcover ver­sion now avail­able. There are NO hard­cov­er books avail­able. Buy the paper­back here or on Amazon.com.

Price: $12.75

Quan­ti­ty:  

The Bagel Book

OK, as you might have guessed, this book has noth­ing to do with music or the lute! Full title: The Bagel Book: How to make great pro­fes­sion­al bagels at home using Stan’s Orig­i­nal Bagel Maker Kit. Though cre­at­ed to be part of a kit, this book easily stands on it’s own as a guide to making great bagels. Spiral-bound. Now includes addi­tion­al page explaining/updating ingre­di­ents and where to get them.

Price: $4.00

Quan­ti­ty: