“Being a Windham Hill fan, it certainly takes me back to those days, where a simple guitar album, played with endearing quality and attention to detail, has become a delight”.
MICK WORDLEY
FINGERSTYLE GUITARIST
RafaelArden
Renaissance lutenist
RAFAEL ARDEN – RENAISSANCE LUTENIST
Rafael Arden
THE ROWALLAN MANUSCRIPT
The Rowallan Manuscript is the oldest surviving collection of Scottish lute music in existence. Dating from 1612, it was discovered in the ancestral home of Sir William Mure of Rowallan.
Featuring numerous Scottish dance tunes, but also pieces with a decidedly French influence. The Scottish tunes contain delightful lilting melodies, so typically Scottish, as well as hauntingly beautiful pieces, calling listeners from across the glens.
Rafael brings decades of musical knowledge to this offering, drawing beauty and warmth from these ancient melodies, bringing them back to life with a contemporary twist!
‘One of the finest musicians to be heard anywhere’
MULTICULTURAL ARTS FORUM
ABOUT RAFAEL
Rafael Arden grew up in the entertainment industry and was on stage performing from a very young age.
He has spent fifty years studying music from the 10th to the 21st Century, and from a wide range of genres, including rock, jazz, blues, country, classical, Celtic and pop.
Rafael has worked as a performer, composer, session musician, teacher and producer. He studied classical guitar in his early twenties and was invited by the Multicultural Arts Forum, to represent Australia at the Spanish Guitar Festival. He went on to become a featured artist, and regular guest, performing at the Arts Forum throughout the 1990s.
As a guitarist, Rafael appeared as the featured artist in magazines and newspapers, on radio and television, and worked in the theatre as both an onstage actor and musician in the orchestra. He has also worked as a music teacher at various schools of music including the Sydney School of Music, Adelaide’s Yamaha School of Music, and the Contemporary School of the Arts in Canberra.
While studying the classical guitar, Rafael was introduced to the lute and the music of the Renaissance, and so began his lifelong exploration of music written for the lute. He has performed extensively as a lutenist – as an accompanist in a duet playing English lute songs, as an ensemble player in a broken consort performing the songs of John Dowland, and also as a soloist.
Rafael is currently recording two albums of Scottish music for solo lute, featuring music from The Rowallan and Straloch Manuscripts, with his current teacher Elizabeth Pallett.