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Edward Charles Novels in History |
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Some Tudor Music |
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My interest in Elizabethan music began at the age of fifteen, when I graduated from Lonnie Donegan to Julian Bream, who played the lute and also transposed English lute music for the guitar. Bream and John Williams held centre stage for me for many years, despite the efforts of Robert Brown, a school classmate, who would wind up our Economics teacher by writing “Tallis Lives on” in large letters on the class blackboard before lessons. Many years later I rediscovered Thomas Tallis when researching In the Shadow of Lady Jane and through him, William Byrd and John Taverner, all three masters of church music, often on a grand scale. Some of it I find rather highbrow and specialized, some even hard going, but if you have ever enjoyed Christmas Carols from Kings College Cambridge, then try the two Decca double CD recordings referred to below. After that, it’s up to you. On a smaller scale, although nobody swings it on the English lute (or to my mind, on the classical guitar) like Julian Bream, I have recently discovered the lute playing of Jakob Lindberg. His playing of John Dowland’s music is splendid, but the most memorable for me is his playing of Sonatas by Silvius Leopold Weiss on his 1590 Sixtus Rauwolf lute; sheer magic. Weiss (1687—1750) is well outside the Tudor period, but who cares? |
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William Byrd 3 Masses—Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis John Taverner Mass– ‘The Western Wind’ King’s College Choir, Cambridge Decca 452 170-2 |
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William Byrd Consort Songs Emma Kirkby + Fretwork
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907 383 |
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Thomas Tallis
Spem in Allium and Lamentations of Jeremiah
King’s College Choir St John’s College Choir
Decca 455 02902
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Thomas Tallis The Complete Works—Vol 1-6 Chapelle du Roi - Alistair Dixon Signum Records
SIG CD 022 (Vol 6) |
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Julian Bream The Golden Age of English Lute Music Dowland, Cutting and others
Julian Bream Edition 09026615842 |
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Julian Bream The Ultimate Guitar Collection Includes lute music by Dowland and Francis Cutting
RCA Victor 74321 33705 2 |
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John Dowland Selected Lute Music Jakob Lindberg
BIS CD 824 |
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WEISS / LINDBERG
Sonatas played on the unique 1590 Sixtus Rauwolf lute
Jakob Lindberg
BIS CD 1524 |