The Travelling Swindler

Street performers are a rare sight in Western 21st Century Society. Yet in times gone by, this often exuberant character had an integral role to play in the dissemination of information at ground level.

In late 16th Century London, Italian culture became the pinnacle. Import demand was huge. But it was not serious “court music” that arrived on British shores …

Instead, street level music found its way across the seas to England.

This music was then compiled, leading to a craze in copycat writing in the vernacular English language. Some; fabulous. Others; not so.

Join L’Isola as we explore the English manuscripts containing this Italian and English music to find out what has been hiding in plain sight, and how a musical sleight of hand has continued to fool even the finest musicians for hundreds of years…