A "hidden" instrument in the classical music world, the mandolin's repertoire of original music remains largely unknown. This book examines the lives and works of the mandolin's great composers and, together with Sparks's earlier The Early Mandolin (Oxford 1989), provides the first comprehensive survey of the instrument's history. The book also explores aspects of technique and looks at present-day orchestras and soloists.

A "hidden" instrument in the classical music world, the mandolin's repertoire of original music remains largely unknown. This book examines the lives and works of the mandolin's great composers and, together with Sparks's earlier The Early Mandolin (Oxford 1989), provides the first comprehensive survey of the instrument's history. The book also explores aspects of technique and looks at present-day orchestras and soloists.

Following James Tyler's earlier introduction to the history, repertory, and playing techniques of the four- and five-course guitar, The Early Guitar (OUP, 1980), this new book, written in collaboration with Paul Sparks and incorportating the latest ideas and research, is an authoritative guide to the history and repertory of the guitar from the Renaissance to the dawn of the Classical era.

Everyday life is often times not experienced as very relational anymore. The church has been co-opted by services and meetings detached from a relational expression within a particular place or parish in everyday life. We need to create the context to reimagine the body of Christ in everyday life as embodied through its proximity and shared life together. Without the value of inhabiting and listening to the place where we live, we will have very little expression of faith together in everyday life. There needs to be an embodied expression for our ecclesiology to make sense. If we do not have...