In Tudor and Stuart times, gifts were given at New Year rather than at Christmas.
Here is a musical New Year's Gift. It's an anonymous 17th Century dance of that name from Thomas Middleton's Inner Temple Masque, or Masque of Heroes, 1619.
From BL Add. 10444
Alison Kinder: bass viol
Tamsin Lewis: violin
Inside a 250-year-old French Violin by Augustin Chappuy.
This violin was just brought to New Zealand and is about to be restored - so I thought I'd do this 'before' photo, and you can all check back in in about a year's time once it's been through the hands of Le Violon Rouge luthiers!
Photographed with a Medical Endoscope and a Lumix G9ii
I...I think I've finally finished it :blobfox_surprised:
I put a (very) rough draft of this up a while ago, hoping to get a final draft out within a week or two, but I think it's taken me at least a month :psyduck_sweat:
Still, it's done! :shiba_excited: A quartet version of Kokiri Forest! :furret_excited: Weeeeee :zerotwo_excited: