Daily Classical Music Post

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/EX5fzwkMBCQ Anthony Holborne (c. 1545–1602) is known for his compositions for lute, cittern, and consorts, and most particularly for his dance music: in 1599 he published Pavans, Galliards, Almains and other short Aeirs, both grave and light, in five parts, for Viols, Violins, or other Musicall Winde Instruments , which contains 65 of his compositions. There isn’t a great deal known about Holborne, although we do know that he enjoyed the patronage of Sir Robert Cecil, Mary Sidney, and Elizabeth I. John Dowland dedicated his lute song “I saw my Lady weepe” “to the most famous, Anthony Holborne,” so Holborne must have been well known and respected in his lifetime. One of my favourite pieces in Pavans, Galliards, Almains . . . is the galliard “Muy Linda” (No. 34). Johan van Veen says, “ The fact that almost all the pieces in this collection are dances doesn...

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/Ke_KR2xopFI The English composer and poet (and physician) Thomas Campion ( 1567–1620) also trained as a lawyer but was never called to the bar. He was a true Renaissance man, in all senses of the phrase. Campion composed masques, lute songs, and ayres. He wrote his own words and set them to music himself, which was unusual at the time. Campion also wrote a work on counterpoint, A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counterpoint By a Most Familiar and Infallible Rule , which was published in 1615.  Campion’s “It fell on a summer’s day” was published in Rosseter’s Book of Ayres in 1601. The article on “Poetry” in the Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine says, that “It fell on a summer’s day” is “among the miniature glories of English poetry and music. . . . The major preoccupation of poets in the Elizabethan age was amorous; . . . Campion excelled a...

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/c_ixwO-AZnM John Wilbye ( 1574–1638) is mostly known for his madrigals, although he did compose some religious music as well as at least one piece for virginals. He never married, but his madrigals are full of stories of love and longing. Wilbye’s main influence was Thomas Morley. Edmund Fellowes once said of Wilbye (in 1915), “[I]n his two published Sets alone, Wilbye produced as many as sixty-four madrigals, scarcely any of which fall below the very highest standard of excellent, characterized, as they are, by a polished style, a keen sense of imagination, and a seriousness of purpose, showing also that their composer had a rare skill in all the musical devices known at the period in which he lived.” “Oft have I vowed” is in Wilbye’s Second Set of Madrigals for 3-6 voices, published in 1598. It is one of the darker madrigals; this is not a happy love s...

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/vuf6rCX7D-E William Byrd wrote a set of six variations for virginals on a well-known tune, "All in a Garden Green." It was included in the collection My Lady Nevell's Book (1591), although most people believe that it was written much earlier than that. The words of the popular song on which this was based went something like this: All in a garden green, two lovers sat at ease, As they could scarce be seen above the leafy trees. They lovèd lofty full, and no wronger than truly, In the time of the year cam betwixt May and July. It was very common in the 16th and 17th centuries to write variations on a tune that people would instantly identify. Byrd was a master at this, and this early work shows that. My classical music post for today is William Byrd's "All in a Garden Green."

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/SfF3dXVezYs https://youtu.be/9sovW4pqhWQ   Thomas Morley (yes, him again) published A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke in 1597. He included some vocal compositions in this book (interestingly, in “table-book” format, so the singers could stand around a table and share the same book).   Tim Eggington says, “In A Plaine and Easie Introduction Morley explained and promoted all the Italian musical forms along with their underlying aesthetic premises. The treatise is divided into three sections, with the more complex matters consigned to Annotations at the end. A remarkable feature of the work is the degree to which Morley was able to display his immense learning throughout, without seriously detracting from his instructive purpose. This was to train the average and ignorant music lover to the point where he could compose a madriga...

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/QfcvlnDBX7k John Bull ( 1562/1563–1628) was known particularly for his music for the virginals, a small type of harpsichord common in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. He was known for his skill as a keyboard performer as well as a composer, but also for his less-than-abstemious lifestyle. Apparently, the then Archbishop of Canterbury said of Bull, “the man hath more music than honesty and is as famous for marring of virginity as he is for fingering of organs and virginals.” That pretty much says it all. Although according to contemporary accounts Bull was prolific as a composer, a good deal of his music was lost when he left England. He most likely left before being charged with adultery, although he later claimed that he was trying to avoid religious persecution. David Schulenberg says, “In the case of Bull we have a composer whose biography ...

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/YSI9nU5occ0 Not a great deal is known about William Corkine (fl. 1610 –1617) other than he published a couple of books of ayres for voice, lute, and viol, the first in 1610 and the second in 1612. Jessica Buck says, “In the Renaissance, patronage was essential for the production of literary works as well as art and music. William Corkine dedicated many of his books, and individual compositions, to a number of patrons and patronesses.” The lyra viol is very interesting. It was primarily an English 17th-century instrument, as was known as the “smallest of the bass viols.” It most often had six strings, although there is evidence of lyra viols with anywhere from four to seven strings. It made an important contribution to self-accompaniment and the development of polyphony throughout the 17th century. “Come Live With Me and Be My Love,” from Corkine’s Second...