English Airs and Dances: 16 Easy to Intermediate Pieces from 18th-Century England Violin (Flute or Oboe) and Keyboard (Baroque Around the World Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)A master class in playing 18th-century English music

Jeremy Barlow is a superb performer and scholar of early music.He has been making excellent recordings under the name of The Broadside Band since the 1980s.

Barlow and others have collaborated on a series of music books with CDs called "Baroque Around the World."Barlow edited the volume "English Airs & Dances," playing (digital) harpsichord on the CD, accompanying violinist Sharon Lindo, flautist Jinnifer Stinton, and cellist Nick Stringfellow.

The book is described as "16 Easy to Intermediate Pieces for Violin (Flute or Oboe) and Keyboard, and optional Cello (Bassoon)."In fact, the lead lines of most of the tunes can be played by any instrument with a 2-octave range (D next to middle C, and up), including recorders in C, mandolin, and clarinet.

Five of the tunes have high notes that may challenge beginning and amateur violinists and recorder players.Numbers 9 and 11 have high Ds, numbers 10 and 14 have high Es, and number 16, which is in the key of E-flat, has high E-flats.Most of the tunes are in the keys of C, G, and D (and relative minors), keys which are comfortable on violin, flute, and soprano and tenor recorders.

The selections are lovely, interesting, and rare.Many are dance tunes from Playford and Walsh collections.There are a few sonata movements, as well.John Dowland is the only well-known composer represented.Next best-known is Thomas Arne, hardly a household name.

The editing, typesetting, and layout are clear and precise (the only error I've found is the placement of the endings of number 13 in the full score).No fingerings or bowing marks are included, nor are there any instructions on interpreting the ornaments.The keyboard parts are given in standard modern layout of treble-and-bass clefs, with no figured bass.The keyboard realizations are generally quite simple and direct -- effective and entirely musical.Part books for lead instrument and cello are included.Three selections include parts for a second instrument, mostly playing lower harmonies.Two selections include notation for the octave shifts required, depending upon whether the lead instrument is violin or flute.

The performances on the CDs are clear, charming, and stylish.Ornaments are played fairly simply and comprehensibly.Small, stylistically correct melodic variations are introduced.Each tune is played just once, with repeats.

The CD includes complete performances of all the tunes, with violin and/or flute accompanied by harpsichord and cello, and a complete second set of tracks with harpsichord only.One might wish the second set of tracks had included the cello, so that someone playing the lead part could have the full sound of the accompaniment.

Most professional players of early music tune to a lower pitch than the modern standard of A=440 when performing music of the 18th century, making it impossible for musicians whose recorders are tuned to modern pitch to play along.The recordings for this collection were made to modern pitch.

Barlow and the publisher chose to leave discussions of stylistic matters such as ornamentation, variation, phrasing, and bowing for the student to seek out elsewhere.It would have been helpful to include a few suggested sources for that kind of information.A great deal of that kind of information is conveyed aurally through the recorded performances.

I am a professional pianist and my work is mostly in American popular music styles.I have played recorders and studied early music as a dedicated amateur since I was a child.I am quite used to learning music "by ear."I have thoroughly enjoyed playing the 11 selections (the ones without the highest notes) on tenor recorder along with the CD.Because I am studying the phrasing, ornamentation, and variations, I have played along only with the complete tracks, and have not yet tried playing with the solo harpsichord tracks.I find that the tempi on the recordings tend to be just brisk enough to challenge me, but not impossibly fast.I can well imagine that less-skilled players might wish for slower recordings.I recommend to them the shareware program called The Amazing Slowdowner.

"English Airs & Dances" is beautifully conceived and executed.I look forward to the other volumes in the "Baroque Around the World" series. -- Hoyle Osborne

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Product Description:
The collection includes country dances, Cheshire rounds, hornpipes, and pantomime tunes, plus examples of the march, minuet, siciliana, gavotte, and jig. Featured composers include Arne, Earl of Abingdon, Hebden, Holcombe, Linley, Roseingrave, Stanley, Thackray.

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The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland Review

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(More customer reviews)THE AUTHORS

The late Diana Poulton (1903-95) was the first Professor of Lute at the Royal College of Music, and in her lifetime was the recognized authority on Dowland.With Ian Harwood she also founded the British Lute Society, the first of its kind in the World.

Together with the biography John Dowland, this book represents the culmination of her life's work.According to an article by Donna Curry ("Diana Poulton: An Appreciation of Her Life"): "[R]esearch was not an easy proposition before microfilm, photocopies, and reference books citing locations of MSS and first editions.Existence and location of music had to be found in library catalogs when obtainable. Copying had to be by hand in pencil. If music abroad were needed, it meant traveling there, ordering expensive photographs, or finding a local friend who would copy it.Diana's hand copied music, books, documents, etc., filled stacks of notebooks."

Basil Lam (a guiding spirit behind the early days of the BBC Third Programme) was a noted Early Music scholar who died in 1984, and was here responsible for the transcription into staff notation.

CONTENTS

This book comprises all lute works by Dowland that were known at the time of its publication*.They are classified as follows:

Fantasies (7)
Pavans (11)
Galliards (28)
Almaines (8)
Jigs (5)
Song arrangements (1)
Settings of Ballad Tunes (10)
Pieces of uncertain ascription (17)
Other versions (16)

plus

Calendar of dates in the life of John Dowland
Biographical Notes
List of Sources
Editorial Notes
Index of Titles

Some pieces are presented in multiple versions.The numbering system used is now standard for these works.The published versions are the result of a great deal of cross-checking of sources, since misprints were very common.

FORMAT

The pieces are presented in staff notation (bass and treble clefs), with French lute tablature below.

For guitarists, it's easy to read the pieces for 6-course lute straight from the tablature.I also had no trouble copying the various voices from the staff notation into different layers of a single 8vb treble clef in Finale, and transposing the result down a minor third to produce guitar notation (3rd string to F#, of course).

Pieces for more than six courses present a problem, obviously.One solution is to make duets of them, in the manner of Presti/Lagoya or the Abreu Brothers.

PRESENTATION

The book is printed on very good quality paper, and is approximately 9" x 12".It weighs nearly 3.5 lb.

SUMMARY

This is THE definitive edition of Dowland's lute music.Accept no other!

*The Fantasia P.71 is now known to be by Rosseter.

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This is a comprehensive and exhaustive collection of Dowland's compositions for the Lute, with critical commentaries, lists of sources and biographical notes, as thoroughly compiled and edited by Diana Poulton and Basil Lam. The music is presented in both

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Early Music For Recorder De-Smet Review

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(More customer reviews)The back cover description of this booklet, an "outstanding collection of recorder solos" really gets it right. It is an outstanding collection of early music for the soprano recorder, by far the best I've seen in fact.

It is excellent value for your money. It consists of 47 clearly printed tunes, one of which is arranged as a duet (Edi Beo) and one as a 4-part round (Sumer is icumen in). It also includes guitar chords for about 40 of these. The selections range from the 10th to the 17th century, by such composers as Machaut, Dowland, Byrd, Susato, Schop, Campion, Cornish, Gervaise, Neithart von Reuenthal and Holborne, to name a few, plus lots of anon.

The complete list of pieces included is: All in the Garden Green, Belle Qui Tiens Ma Vie, Bergamasca, Blame Not my Lute, Blow Thy Horn Hunter, Branle de l'official, Branle No.1, Branle No. 2, Branle de Bourgogne, The Carman's Whistle, Courante, Douce Dame Jolie, Danse Royale, The Earl of Salisbury's Pavan, Edi Beo, Fortune my Foe, Greensleeves, Green Groweth the Holly, How Should I your true love know?, The Honie-Suckle, If My Complaints, The King of Denmark Galliard, Matona mia cara, Minuet (x3), Move Now with Measured Sound, Never Weather-Beaten Sail, Now is the Month of Maying, Now, oh now my needs must part, Narrenaufzug, O Admirabile Veneris Ydolum, The Oil of Barley, Pastime with Good Company, Parson's Farewell, Quant je suis mis, Ronde, Saltarello, The Sick Tune, The Silver Swan, Sumer is icumen in, Tourdion, Tristan's Lament, When Phoebus first did Daphne Love, When That I was and a Little Tiny Boy, The Willow Song, Winder Wie Ist.

The back cover describes them as "easy to play" and certainly they all seem to be in the range of diligent advanced beginners, once they've mastered most of the notes on a descant/soprano recorder. For me, several of the pieces only came alive once I heard them played by some professional musicians. I think it is possible a beginner might overlook the potential of some of the pieces in this book if he were working through this book on his own. And "easy to play" should be qualified by "provided you are patient, ready to deal with some unusual time signatures (3/2) and prepared to practice lots, particularly some pretty hairy-looking 16th note runs in such songs as "Tristan's Lament"".

The book lacks an introduction and contains virtually nothing about the songs, and no words to them either.
The book is somewhat progressive in form, starting with 3 and 4 liners of mostly quarter and eighth notes, but progressing to full pagers and more of 16th notes by the end. It doesn't waste space, but doesn't crowd either.

There is not much overlap between this book and other recorder collections. Perhaps about a half dozen or so of its songs (for example Greensleeves, Pastime with Good company, Sumer is icumen in) can be found in other widely available recorder collections.

I've had this book for about 10 years and it continues to surprise and impress. There are several great Dowland pieces, several early music classics (Greensleeves, Sumer is icumen in, Pastime with Good Company, Now is the Month of Maying, The Parson's Farewell and a rocking duet version of Edi Beo), and many less well-known but beautiful pieces such as Blow Thy Horn Hunter, Fortune my Foe, How Should I Your True Love Know, Never Weather-Beaten Sail, The Sick Tune, When That I was and a Little Tiny Boy, The Willow Song, Winder Wie ist, The Oil of Barley, Tristan's Lament, and Narrenaufzug). It is clearly the product of a lot of careful selection by someone with a vast knowledge of the early music repertoire, a great ear for great tunes, and a real gift for arranging them in a beginner-friendly form.

The only hazard to this book is that some of the pieces sound so nice an advanced beginner might start thinking he's better than he really is.And if you ever get a chance to play these pieces with some professional or semi-professional musicians, go for it, as in the right hands a couple of guitars, a cello, and a couple of violins can do incredible things with this book.

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This outstanding collection of recorder solos spans the years from the 10th to the 16th century. Contains 47 famous airs and dances including The King Of Denmark Galliard and The Willow Song. They are easy to play and are suitable for class use as well as home enjoyment.

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Lute Songs of John Dowland: The Original First and Second Books Including Dowland's Original Lute Tablature Review

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(More customer reviews)It took me awhile to get used to the traditional lute tab notation as I am coming from a regular guitar background (read standard notation & "modern" tablature).This is a good book if you can find it.Ifyou also like steel-string acoustic guitar playing, check out therecordings and transcriptions by John Renbourne.There is another bookthat may be hard to find but worth it called "Complete Anthology forMedieval and Renaissance Guitar" that has some great transcriptionsusing alternate tunings by Renbourne.

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Transcribed for Voice and Guitar by David Nadal.The preeminent lute virtuoso and composer of the early 17th century, John Dowland wrote numerous songs, both gay and melancholy, that dazzled the courts of England and Europe. This rare compilation features 43 of these splendid works in transcriptions for voice and guitar, plus two dances for solo guitar. Original lute tablature and complete song texts included.

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