Ian Harwood

Ian Harwood (29 August 1931 – 28 July 2011) was a lutenist, musical instrument maker and teacher.

Early life

Harwood was born in Petersfield, Hampshire and attended The Pilgrims' School while a chorister at Winchester Cathedral.

Career

As a conscientious objector he completed his National Service operating a synchrotron at Addenbrooke's Hospital, as the machine broke down frequently he used his spare time in the workshop to construct his first lute. In 1956 he co-founded the lute society, and then became an alto lay clerk in the Choir of New College, Oxford where he began a career playing and making lutes near Oxford.

In 1960 he took up a position as a lay clerk at Ely Cathedral, where he built lutes for ten years. In 1964 he received the Tovey Prize for research into the sources of English lute music. He performed and recorded lute music with consorts such as the Campian Consort which he founded in 1967.

Harwood's research identified Mathew Holmes as the author of a collection of Elizabethan lute books, described as being more important than the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.

Harwood was elected president of the Lute Society in 1999 and appointed MBE in 2008.

Publications

• Harwood, Ian, "The Origins of the Cambridge Lute Manuscripts", Lute Society Journal vol. 5 pp. 32–48 (1963).
• Harwood, Ian, "The Origins of the Cambridge Lute Manuscripts: A Postscript", Lute Society Journal vol. 6 p. 29 (1964).
• Harwood, Ian; Prynne, Michael (1975). A brief history of the lute. Richmond: Lute Society. ISBN 978-0-905655-00-0. OCLC 2965786.
• Harwood, Ian, "A Lecture in Musick, with the Practice thereof by Instrument in the Common Schooles, Mathew Holmes and Music at Oxford University c.1588-1627", Lute Society Journal vol. 45 pp. 1–70 (2005)
• Harwood, Ian, John H. Robinson and Stewart McCoy (eds), The Mathew Holmes Manuscripts I: Cambridge University Library MS Dd.2.11 (Albury: Lute Society, 2010).
• Harwood, Ian (2012). Sweet Broken Music: the Elizabethan and Jacobean Consort Lesson. Ashgate Publishing, Limited. ISBN 9780754600923.