The Eglantine Table at Hardwick Hall
Historian and singer Ellie Chan visits Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, in search of a fascinating relic of Tudor musical culture
The Eglantine Table is a beautifully inlaid table depicting the aftermath of an evening of music and revelry. All kinds of musical instruments are strewn next to board games, playing cards and floral arrangements, rendered in delicate wooden mosaic. But most significantly, the table depicts a scroll of music containing the notation for a piece by the Elizabethan composer Thomas Tallis, 'O Lord, In Thee Is All My Trust'. It's so detailed that the table is one of the major sources for the text of the piece as we have it today.
The table is housed at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, seat of Bess of Hardwick, one of the most powerful women in Elizabethan England. New Generation Thinker Ellie Chan visits Hardwick with researcher Dr Katie Banks and National Trust curator Liz Waring to look at the Eglantine Table and piece together the Elizabethan music culture it depicts.
'O Lord In Thee Is All My Trust' is performed by Cantus Thuringia.
Producer: Luke Mulhall
New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to share academic research on radio.
On radio
Broadcast
- Sun 1 Feb 202619:45BBC Radio 3
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