Elizabethan Lute Songs
Various ArtistsCD1
- O mistress mine
- Take, O take those lips away
- Gray’s Inn Masque
- Wilson’s Wild
- The Willow Song
- Melancholy Galliard
- Full fathom five
- Where the bee sucks
- Care-charming sleep
- Eliza is the fairest queen
- The noble famous queen
- Gaiarda la Royne d’Escosse
- The Queen’s Galliard
- Miserere my Maker
- Away with these self-loving lads
- Lasso vita mia
- Mr George Whitehead his Almand
- Now, O now I needs must part
- In darkness let me dwell
- Se l’aura spira
- Morto son io
- Fantasia for lute
- Tortorella
- So ben mi ch’a bon tempo
CD2
- Symphony: Largo – Allegro – Adagio
- Come ye Sons of Art
- Sound the trumpet
- Come ye Sons of Art
- Strike the viol 4:50 Countertenor II
- The day that such a blessing gave
- Bid the Virtues
- These are the sacred charms
- See Nature, rejoicing
- Symphony
- Love’s goddess sure
- Those eyes, that form
- Sweetness of Nature
- Long may she reign
- May her blest example chase
- Many such days
- May she to Heaven
- As much as we below shall mourn
Countertenor James Bowman (b.1941) enjoyed a long association with early English song, an interest which bore fruit with this 1972 recording of Elizabethan lute songs, here making its first appearance on CD. Together with the lutenist Robert Spencer, Bowman arranged the programme to reflect the repertory of the theatre and court and the career of John Dowland, with a final homage to Italy, the cradle of early song. The recordings of Purcell’s Birthday Odes date from 1975. Between 1689 and 1694, Henry Purcell produced an annual ode for the celebration of Queen Mary’s birthday. The last and best known is Come, Ye Sons of Art, which drew on the composer’s recent successes in the theatre by employing a larger orchestra than usual (with trumpets, oboes and recorders) and giving the chorus a more prominent role.