Provenance

About the Book

A lute of exquisite workmanship and beauty is crafted in Italy in the dark age of the mid 15th century by a master luthier, Francesco Ippolito da Cremona the Renaissance musician fated to play it to great acclaim, the bulk of his musical legacy composed upon it. But this lute is more than mere musical instrument; it is a memorial to love lost in a brutal tragedy. By the passion invested in it by its maker, and its embodiment of the relics of tormented love, it is imbued with the power to enchant, its enchantment released by the hands of its destined player.
    Against the evidence of history, the lute survives to the present day and along with a rare manuscript of Francesco Ippolito lute tablature, falls into the hands of Bob Roberts, an incurably romantic middle-class professional whose escape from a deeply unromantic life is to immerse himself in the lute music of the Renaissance. The lute is an unexceptional wreck when Bob acquires it, but he commissions its restoration and gradually its provenance is unveiled, the final revelation astonishing.
    The lute and Ippolito’s music exert a powerful influence upon Bob’s life that hints of deep unrest and a vague connection with lives long gone, as if lute and tablature combine in a conduit through which spiritual energy moves from past to present. 
    This is a story of music across the ages, of obsession and betrayal, of destiny and, above all, of true love.

About the Author

In the mid 1970s, Robert S Field discovered the joy of the lute and its music. About three years earlier, his endless journey as a student of the classical guitar had begun, introducing him to the world of 'early music' and particularly music composed for the lute. At the time, early music was enjoying a surge of popularity, its influence even finding a way into the rock/fusion repertoire. He became captivated by the instrument and found to his very great delight that vast quantities of its music had been transcribed for the classical guitar. Robert's affair with the lute had begun. Along the way he discovered the music of the Italian lutenist composer Francesco Canova da Milano - a prodigious composer and, according to surviving accounts of the time, nothing short of miraculous as a player of the instrument - and swallowed the romance of the Renaissance whenever it was served-up. In 1982 Robert took delivery of his very own lute and discovered just how different an instrument the lute is from the guitar, and how temperamental. The experience of playing the instrument, the knack the music has of stirring sensations of another era, the sheer pleasure to be had from music's evocation of an uncertain history to haunt the present, all spiced-up the affair. And so the story that would be nurtured in Robert's imagination for well over twenty years, eventually to surface as 'Provenance', was born. Robert was a professional in the construction industry until late in 2007, when he took the decision to begin a sabbatical from employment to bring 'Provenance' to fruition. He lives near Birmingham, England, with his partner, those of her children who have yet to fly the nest, and a cat. He has two children of his own, both grown-up and long flown.