Robert Ballard was a prominent French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 lutenist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. His father, Robert Ballard Senior (ca. 1527-1588) was the head of the well-known music publishers, "Le Roy and Ballard", founded in 1551 with cousin Adrian Le Roy

Adrian Le Roy

Adrian Le Roy was an influential French music publisher, lutenist, guitarist, composer and music educator.-Life:Le Roy was born in the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer in northern France to a wealthy family...

 (a notable virtuoso lutenist and composer of the period).

From 1612 he entered the service of the French Regent, Maria de Medici, and was tutor to the young King Louis XIII, becoming a lutenist and composer (musicien ordinaire du roi) at the royal court in 1618. He published two books of lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

works - Premier Livre de tablature de luth (1611) and Diverses Pièces mises sur le luth (1614).

External links

• Lute Tablature Wayne Cripps archive.
• Lute Tablature Sarge Gerbode archive.

Performance Links

• Courante (Lute)
• Courante (Guitar)
• Bransles de Village (Lute)