All you ever wanted to know about performing early music, but were afraid to ask. Well, fear no more.

Subtitled . . . for ingenious learners . . . . this is a landmark publication that sets out in meticulous detail the many varied skills required for playing string music from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It will be required reading for amateurs and professionals alike.

In a lucid and practical style, Judy Tarling has distilled 30 years of experience in playing chamber and orchestral music of the period, and her brilliantly researched book sets out all the finest points with copious quotations from dozens of historical sources. All bowed string instruments are dealt with; there is extensive information about playing basso continuo and a host of other important topics. Included in the book is a CD with recorded examples to illustrate the finer points of interpretation.

Subjects discussed in the book: Affect, articulation, bow vibrato, bow-hold, bowings, buying Baroque equipment, the 'cello, chords, consort style, continuo instrument choice, dance, dissonance, divisions, dotted notes, double bass, double stopping, dynamics, editions, ensembles, facsimiles, figured bass, fingering choice, harmony, holding the instrument, identifying French & Italian style, inequality, intervals, messa di voce, ornamentation, pitch, position changing, publishers, range, recitative, repeats, rhetoric, rhythm, rubato, rules, scordatura, signs, slurs, speed, staccato, strings, temperament, tempo, time signatures, treatises, tuning, the viola, vibrato, violone.

Musical examples by: L'Abbé le fils - Bach - Biber - Bonporti - Caccini - Castello - Cima - Corelli - Corrette - Couperin - Feuillet - Geminiani - Gibbons - Handel - Leclair - Locke - Lully - Marais - Mattheson - Matteis - Mealli - L. Mozart - Muffat - Ortiz - Piani - Playford - Purcell - Quantz - Rameau - Schmelzer - Simpson - Tartini - Walther - Westhoff - Veracini - Vivaldi - Zanetti.