Rocking in the Renaissance

One of my favorite composer from the past 450 years(!) is Anthony Holborne, who was born sometime around 1562 and died 29 November, 1602. Not much is actually known about his life. One detail is that he was one of the composers in the service of England's Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). The music that has come down to us was written for lute, cittern (a guitar/mandolin like instrument), chittara (similar to the modern acoustic guitar) and instrumental consort. Holborne sometimes arranged his lute/chittara/cittern pieces for a consort of viola da gambas or strings and winds. And lastly, his works consist mainly of Pavans, Galliards, Almains, Airs, and Fantasias, the slower works exuding a melancholy that was highly prized in the English court of the time.

Here are some of my favorite Holborne works:

Muy Linda (Very Pretty) - performed by L'Achéron

. . . and the same piece performed by lutenist Michal Gondko

 

The Night Watch - performed by the Chelys Consort

Countess Of Pembrokes' Paradise - Noam Kanter (guitar)
. . . by the way, Holborne's patron was the Countess of Pembroke, Mary Sidney

The titles of some of Holborne's pieces seem to refer to literary works of the day. In Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calendar (1579), the shepherds, Perigot and Willye meet and decide to have a singing match (a rustic game immortalized in the Idylls of Theocritus). Each shepherd sings a line, answered by the other. One begins 'As it fell on a holie eve', and the other replies 'Heigh Ho Holiday' and so their contest proceeds . . .

Heigh Ho Holiday - performed by ViolMedium

. . . and the same piece performed by lutenist Julian Bream

Two of the courtly dances of Holborne's time were the Pavane and the Gailliard. The word pavane most probably comes from  "padovana" (old Italian: "from Padua"), though it's origin might also derive from the Spanish word "pavón" meaning peacock. This courtly dance, almost certainly of Italian origin, is often associated with Spain, and the decorous sweep of the pavane very much suited the new more sober Spanish-influenced courtly manners of 16th-century Italy. The Pavane is often joined to a second, faster Gailliard. The galliard was a favorite dance of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and although it is a relatively vigorous dance, in 1589 when the Queen was in her mid-fifties, John Stanhope of the Privy Chamber reported, "the Queen is so well as I assure you, six or seven galliards in a morning, besides music and singing, is her ordinary exercise."

Pavan and Galliard - performed by Thomas C. Boysen (lute)

. . . and here's a demonstration of royalty dancing a Pavane and Galliard

And lastly (if you've made it this far!) one of my all-time favorites - The Fairie Round

The Fairie Round - John Bigelow (lute)

The Fairie Round - performed by The Voices of Music

The Fairie Round - performed by Hespèrion XXI , Jordi Savall director