Christopher Howard PageFBAFSA (born 8 April 1952)[1] is an English expert onmedieval music, instruments and performance practice, together with the social and musical history of the guitar in England from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. He has written numerous books regarding medieval music. He is currently aFellow ofSidney Sussex College, Cambridge and Emeritus Professor of Medieval Music and Literature in theFaculty of English, University of Cambridge.
Page is the founder and director ofGothic Voices, an early music vocal ensemble, which has recorded 25 discs forHyperion Records,[4] many winning awards. The ensemble has performed in many countries, including, France, Germany, Portugal and Finland. London dates included twice-yearly sell-out concerts at London's Wigmore Hall. The ensemble gave its first Promenade Concert in 1989. The group's work has been chronicled most recently inDaniel Leech-Wilkinson,The Modern Invention of Medieval Music (CUP, 2007) andRichard Taruskin,Text and Act (OUP, 2006).[3] Page's work has consistently been praised for its elegant and approachable prose.
Between 1989 and 1997, he was presenter ofBBC Radio 3's Early Music programme,Spirit of the Age, and a presenter of theRadio 4 arts magazineKaleidoscope.[5] He has been chairman of the National Early Music Association and of thePlainsong and Medieval Music Society (founded 1889).[5] He serves on the editorial boards of the journalsEarly Music (OUP) andPlainsong and Medieval Music (CUP).[5]
He plays historical guitars, principally the four-course renaissance guitar and the early Romantic guitar.[5]
In 2020, afestschrift in his honour appeared,Music and Instruments of the Middle Ages. Essays in Honour of Christopher Page, edited by Tess Knighton andDavid Skinner (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press).
Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages. Instrumental Practice and Songs in France, 1100–1300 (London: Dent, 1987)[8]
The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France 1100-1300 (London: Dent, 1989)[9]
The Summa Musice: A Thirteenth-Century Manual for Singers (1991)[10]
Discarding Images. Reflections on Music and Culture in Medieval France (Oxford: Clarendon Press & New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)[11]
Latin Poetry and Conductus Rhythm in Medieval France (London: Royal Musical Association, 1996)[12]
Music and Instruments of the Middle Ages. Studies on Texts and Performance (Aldershot: Variorum, 1997)[13]
The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010)[14]
The Guitar in Tudor England. A Social and Musical History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)[15]
The Guitar in Stuart England. A Social and Musical History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)[16]
The Guitar in Georgian England. A Social and Musical History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2020)[17]
ed., with Michael Fleming:Music and Instruments of the Elizabethan Age. The Eglantine Table (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2021)
ed., with Paul Sparks and James Westbrook:The Great Vogue for the Guitar in Western Europe, 1800–1840 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2023)
Of Page's 2010 study,The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years,Eamon Duffy wrote: "But once or twice in a generation a book comes along which crosses disciplinary boundaries to make unexpected connections, open up new imaginative vistas, and refocus what had seemed familiar historical landscapes. Page’s musician’s-eye view of the evolution of western Christendom is one of those books".[18]
