Welcome to Corda Music Publications

Please note our new phone number:  (+44)  0 7535 463 936

We publish nearly 500 varied performing editions for guitar, for early music instruments and modern strings; also, a number of books concerning historical research and performance.
All our editions are presented by category for easy and fast on-line browsing - just click on the appropriate catalogue or title listed below.

 We do our best to stay cheerful in these distracted and inflationary times. New prices are set from September 1st 2023

Please see the various CATALOGUES below (Guitar, Early Music, Strings) for details of our editions and see our:   List of Prices  

  Guitar Music   Early Music  String Music               

Contact us by Email with your order:  orders

Postage. The UK Post Office increases prices substantially each year, sometimes more than once in the same year. We will try to find alternative methods of delivery to make it less expensive for you whenever possible – this mainly applies to larger and heavier orders. Please contact us for a shipping quote on your order.     How To Contact Us




Check with our main catalogues (above), but here are some recent publications:

 GUITAR MUSIC

19th Century Guitar Songs — An Idiosyncratic Survey. ISBN 978-0-9528220-7-3. £20.00  This book has 264 pages, including 50 pages of music examples.  The volume is a general survey of the many thousands of guitar songs currently  held by the British Library which were published in the period c.1770 - 1900. A number of other collections are also mentioned. The book includes full reference to the publications, extensive notes about the myriad composers and arrangers featured, also much detail from writers and other sources of the period, as well as information from more recent research. Additions and updates will be added online, as and when they become available. See 19th Century Guitar Songs

Guitar Music from the 16th to the 18th Century - A History and Introduction. This is a reprint of 19 articles published in GUITAR Magazine during the 1980s. It covers many aspects of the four- and five-course guitars, their development, their repertoire and the dilemmas of transcribing re-entrant tunings for the modern classical guitar. Catalogue number GTR-2.

Kennst du das Land?  —  five 19th century settings of Goethe's famous lyric from Wilhelm Meister,  four by Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) and one by Ludwig Abeille (1761-1838) for voice & guitar.  CMP180  £9.50

The Streitwolf Songbook  for Voice & Guitar, with optional flute accompaniment. 12 songs by J.H.G. Streitwolf (1779-1837)    £12.50     See CMP 178   19th Century Guitar Songs
 with English and German words, and an extensive historical introduction about the life and works of this important musician, composer and instrument maker.  Score & parts.

17  Songs by J.H.G. Streitwolf  for Voice & Guitar, some with flute accompaniment. German only lyrics   £11.00    See CMP 179  19th Century Guitar Songs
 This edition completes the entire oeuvre of  29 guitar songs by this intriguing 19th century composer. Score & separate parts.

Genteel Waltz  for Solo Guitar. Melodious whimsey in ternary form, a floating delight.  Duration approx 7 minutes.  £4.00    See CMP 43  in  Guitar Solos

Soliloquy  for Solo Guitar. Meditation provoked by the sad distracted times of Covid and Lockdown.  Duration approx 8 minutes.  £3.50    See CMP 46  in  Guitar Solos

Three Ravens  for Solo Guitar. A profound reflection in music on a famous Jacobean ballad.  Duration approx 7 minutes.  £5.00    See CMP 42  in  Guitar Solos

Ojos Azules  for Guitar Quartet or Large Ensemble. Andean folksong with variations and tambora effects, ambiance of the Altiplano   £6.50
(can be heard on mp3 file, click:  Recordings )    Scroll to  CMP 247  in  Guitar Ensembles

Songs of Many Shades  for Medium Voice & Guitar. 13 songs drawn from sources of folksong, stage songs & traditional airs, with CD. CMP176    £10.00  See 19th Century Guitar Songs

A Bouquet of Songs  for Medium Voice & Guitar. 15 original guitar songs from early 19th century, with CD.  CMP 177    £10.00  See 19th Century Guitar Songs

The Rowan Tree  a CD of traditional, folk and art songs with guitar, harp, harpsichord & violin accompaniments.  CCD 019    £8.00  See 19th Century Guitar Songs

In the main guitar catalogue, out of more than 250 editions, we have some 30 books for solo guitar, ranging from collections of easy pieces for beginner and intermediate students up to advanced works for concert performance. There are also tutor books widely used for school teaching. We have more than 150 ensemble pieces for guitar trio, quartet, quintet, sextet and octet, covering every ability from beginner to professional. Featured composers include Andrew York, Alfonso Montes, Carlos Bonell, Raymond Burley, John Duarte, Nikita Koshkin, Derek Hasted and many others. In addition, you will find more than 25 guitar duets, an intriguing selection of chamber music for guitar with other instruments and some delightful volumes of guitar songs from the 19th century. To hear some sample recordings from our various editions, click:  Recordings


 EARLY MUSIC

Solo and ensemble music from the mid 16th century up to the early 1800s. Principally for string players and singers, but including some flute music and consort music apt for recorders and other melody instruments. The scholarly editions are based on careful study of the original sources and we are proud to list several eminent musicologists amongst our editors. Of special importance are the books by Judy Tarling: Baroque String Playing, BSP-1 which is now in its third edition, and The Weapons of Rhetoric, WOR-1. See also Alison Crum's new book The Viol Rules which is also available in a French translation, and for Carin Zwilling's book on The Original Songs in Shakespeare's Plays: click Shakespeare .  Another interesting new edition is  Concertos  of the Classical Viennese School, c.1780-1810,  by Richard Maunder. The most recent additions to the catalogue are trios, duets and viol solos arranged from publcations by John and Henry Playford (17th century). See CMP 439, 455 and 498 as well as 19th century guitar songs by Johann Strettwolf (CMP 178 & 179) from the early music catalogue EARLY MUSIC. 
To hear a few sample recordings of other works from our editions, click: Recordings

Mr Leonard's Miscellany.  27 Tunes from all manner of rare sources, arranged for unaccompanied bass viol     £7.00

Music in standard bass viol tuning, edited and arranged by Ian Gammie.  Scroll down to CMP 499  in  EARLY MUSIC  

Playford Duets. Arrangements for 2 viols or melody instruments     £10.50     

56 duets drawn from various Playford publications, arranged to be playable on 2 basses, or tenor & bass, or treble and bass — viols, recorders or other melody instruments.
Parts provided in bass, alto and treble clef.  Scroll down to CMP 455  in  EARLY MUSIC

41 Trios arranged from Playford's Dancing Master (1651 -1728)  edited and arranged by Ian Gammie.  £12.00 score and parts

These trios for viols, recorders or other melody instruments are supplied with alternative treble & alto clefs for the middle part to make the music readily accessible to string and wind players. An ad lib continuo part can be extemporised from the score.  Scroll down to CMP 439  in  EARLY MUSIC  

 The Original Songs in Shakespeare's Plays  by Carin Zwilling ISBN978 0 9528 220 6 6      £15.99      See Shakespeare

The pages of the three main catalogues above will give you a short description of each piece of music, with prices and details of extra sets of parts, etc. Feel free to contact us if you need to ask for more information. If you only want a plain list of prices without detail of the music's content, click on the link below. This includes a few works which do not come under the headings of the three main catalogues, for example a couple of works for wind instruments by Minna Keal, and some saxophone arrangements made for the Paragon Saxophone Quartet. For ordering music, see the link at the foot of this page.

 STRING EDITIONS

Suite for 3 Violas by Kenneth Harding (1980)  £13.00

The viola player Kenneth Harding (1903 -1992) wrote a wide range of works for viola ensembles, ranging from trios to his noted Idyll for twelve violas (see CMP 659). This trio is a lengthy and substantial work, the five movements being: Rigaudon & Interlude, Tempo di Sarabande, Gavotte, Swallow Falls (Sound Picture) and Gigue. The work was composed in 1980 as an act of gratitude for three violists, Harry Danks, John White and Eric Sargon, who had organised a concert of Harding's works at the Royal College of Music in London. The present edition has been edited by Ian Gammie from the composer's manuscript. Score & set of parts.

We specialise in viola music, but our editions also include works for violin, viola, cello and double bass, ranging from baroque and early classical repertoire to modern times. Many of these are now in print for the first time. There are also pieces suitable for school ensembles. Our Viola section features works by William Alwyn, Gordon Jacob, Arnold Bax, Watson Forbes, Kenneth Harding, Minna Keal, Adam Gorb, Brian Chapple, John Webb and other contemporary composers. In addition to solo viola music there are ensembles for 3, 4, 5 and 6 violas, and even a piece for 12 violas.  See VIOLA MUSIC for the separate viola catalogue. To hear some sample recordings from our editions, click: Recordings

List of Prices

OTHER CORDA PROJECTS

  GOETHE and the Guitar

This project throws a revealing light on the popularity of the guitar in Germany around 1800. Many poems by Goethe and Schiller were used by composers before the famous settings by Schubert, and large numbers of these songs were accompanied by guitar. A selection of 24 songs is available on a CD, and there are four books of songs published so far. In addaition, there are the complete guitar songs of Johann Streitwolf (1779-1837) which include a number of settings of poems by Schiller & Goethe (see CMP178 & 179). Also of interest is the new edition Kennst du das Land? (CMP180) —  five 19th century settings of Goethe's famous lyric from Wilhelm Meister by Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) and Ludwig Abeille (1761-1838) for voice and guitar..


JANE AUSTEN'S MUSIC

A special project by Ian Gammie and Dr Derek McCulloch, developed from their published catalogue of the music collection held by the Jane Austen Trust at Chawton in Hampshire. The project will encompass the publication and recording of domestic chamber music and songs by composers whose works were copied by Jane Austen into her own manuscript books. For performances of this music by ensembles The Windsor Box & Fir Company and Café Mozart. see: Concerts


 The CD " Endearing Young Charms " The Guitar Songs of Tom Moore (1779 - 1852)

A fascinating insight into the musical life of the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852) He was the most famous singer of his generation and an erstwhile guitarist. Check out two books of his songs with guitar accompaniment, (including The Minstrel Boy, The Last Rose of Summer, The Meeting of the Waters, The Harp that once, etc) plus a CD recording and a mine of information about early 19th century guitar songs.


 CDs  and recordings  Recordings  

A range of guitar solos, guitar ensembles and early music items can be heard from the Recordings page. We can also send mp3 files for a selection of other recordings from our catalogue. Email us for a list. We have a number of CDs featuring music from our printed editions, or featuring artists who have close associations with Corda Music. See also the websites for two music groups who perform our music on a regular basis. www.galliarda.org.uk and www.cafemozart.org


Ordering from Corda Music

  How To Order From Us Direct

The quickest ways to order Corda Music editions is by email, but you can print an order form and send it in the snail mail if you prefer. Our fax machine is now kaput, and we regret we can no longer receive faxes

Email is:  orders@cordamusic.co.uk.

  Printable Order Form

Simply complete it, print it and put your order in the post! You don't need to use this if contacting us by email. Just send an ordinary email with a list of whatever editions you are interested in.

  Shops Which Stock Corda Music

Shops in many countries across the globe where you can buy or order Corda Music editions.

Mail Order all over the world is a Corda speciality.
Prices on this Website are in UK Pounds Sterling.


More About Corda

  Who we are

More about Corda, a small business based in St Albans, U.K.

  Our Software

More about how Corda produces high quality legible music offering excellent value for money.

  Email:  orders     How To Contact Us

By post, phone and email - see below.


Webpages originally set up by Derek Hasted.
Mucked about and Maintained (sporadically) by Ian Gammie (when I've got time),
Corda Music Publications,
183 Beech Road,  St Albans, Herts AL3 5AN. UK
Tel: (+44) 0  7535 463 936
Email:  orders    orders@cordamusic.co.uk
 
Last updated  1st September  2023


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Corda Music Publications reserve the right to change publications and prices without prior notice. No liability is accepted for any errors or omissions in the pages on this Website.