Thomas Mace

Abstract

Age-related hearing loss is perhaps the norm and the problem of maintaining a full musical life in the face of increasing deafness is all too familiar. Up until Beethoven’s well documented life we know relatively little about the response musicians made to deafness. Thomas Mace (c. 1613–1706) lost his hearing in middle age, yet continued his musical life as a player, singer and teacher. In response to his disability he modified his instruments to help him hear, devised an acoustical performing chamber to enhance the sound potential of an enclosed space, and invented new instruments. Mace’s Musick’s Monument (1676) is the most important English source of lute music after 1640 and he was one of the most important music theorists of the period. His discussion of ‘affect’ in music is invaluable. This chapter explores the ways that hearing loss affected his thinking on music and the practical steps he took to continue his musical life. Mace was an inspirational to the author as a fellow deaf lutenist and is still relevant to today’s musicians.