Mere claptrap jumble? Music and Tudor cheap print

Abstract

AbstractA Newe Ballade of a Louer Extollinge his Ladye, published in 1568 by William Griffith, is unusual because it contains a printed melody, ‘Damon and Pithias’. For many years it was seen as the epitome of printers’ incompetence when it came to publishing music. This article suggests that the melody has much in common with other vernacular song tunes of the time, including metrical psalms and thanksgiving songs. It provides possible alternative explanations for the incorrectly rendered musical notation, including the suggestion that the mistake was not necessarily made by the printer himself. It surveys other musical anomalies of the period, to argue that the presence of music on the broadside indicates that Griffith was willing to experiment with new genres. These combined aspects of the most popular vernacular songs of the day in order to appeal to a new market of musically‐literate amateurs.