Today, parts from two recordings with music from 17th-century England.
No country composed as many songs for vocals and lute in the decades around 1600 as England. One of the characteristics of these songs is that they were often offered in different versions. They could be sung as a 1-part accompanied by a lute or viola da gamba, but often also polyphonically, either a cappella or accompanied by a lute or even a complete gamba consort.
A little-known, but productive song composer was Robert Jones. He published no less than 5 collections of songs, but these were not received with general appreciation. Even now, some musicologist are critical; the commentary in the British music encyclopaedia New Grove is not very flattering. It has not stopped German gambist Friederike Heumann from recording some of his songs on CD. These are set in context with songs and instrumental pieces by contemporaries. Remarkably, Heumann mostly plays the lyra viol here: a variant of the ordinary viola da gamba, constructed in such a way that it can be played polyphonically. In addition, different tunings can be used.
Robert Jones (ca 1577-1617)
1. Love wing’d my hopes
William Corkine (active 1610-1612)
2. Walsingham
Robert Jones
3. O how my thoughts do beat me
Tobias Hume (ca 1569-1645)
4. Fain would I change that Note
John Dowland (1563-1626)
5. Prelude
6. If my complaints
Thomas Ford (ca 15870-1648)
7. Coranto
8. A pill to purge Melancholie
Robert Jones
9. Me thought this other night
John Dowland
10. Come again, sweet love doth now invite
Anna-Lena Elbert, soprano. Friederike Heumann, lyra viol, viola da gamba. Angélique Mauillon, harp. Evangelina Mascardi, lute.
(cd: “Dreames & Imaginations – Poeticall Musicke to be sung to the Lyra viol” -TYXart TXA 21162, 2024)
Besides songs, consort music was also very popular in England. That style actually belonged to the renaissance, but in England it continued to play an important role until the Restauration of the monarchy in 1660. The Ricercar Consort recorded a programme of music created in the first half of the 17th century – a turbulent period, in which a civil war broke out between the monarchy and its supporters, the ‘royalists’, and the supporters of Parliament that ended in 1649 with the execution of King Charles I. Thomas Tomkins responded to it with A sad Paven for these Distracted Tymes, which inspired the title of the CD of the Ricercar Consort.
A key role in the programme is played by William Lawes, who became a victim of the civil war himself when he was killed in a battle on the side of the royalists in 1645. Among others, there are six pieces for three lyra viols on the CD by him. Some lesser-known composers are also featured.
Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)
11. A sad Paven for these Distracted Tymes
William Lawes (1602-1645)
12. Fantasie Second (VdGS 573)
13. Pavin First (VdGS 563)
14. Almaine (VdGS 564)
Charles Coleman (1605-1664)
15. Fantasia (VdGS No. 1)
16. Fantasia (VdGS No. 2)
Ricercar Consort conducted by Philippe Pierlot
(cd: “Distracted Tymes” – Mirare MIR648, 2024)
addition:
William Lawes
17. From Consort Set no. 10: In Nominy
Ricercar Consort conducted by Philippe Pierlot
(cd: see 11-16)
Picture: cover of the CD ‘Dreames & Imaginations’
