“Pastime with good company…”: Tudor social music: excerpts

An immediate problem which faces musical historians wishing to apply generalisations to the secular music that existed in England during the 120 years between the battle of Bosworth and the death of Elizabeth I is that in reality there are two distinct musical cultures present, one at either end of the period. After Henry VIII’s death, there occurred a mark change in the function and performance of social music: the clear dividing line which had hitherto existed between court music performed by professionals and a mainly aural tradition of songs and dances performed by minstrals became blurred.

This lunchtime performance included selected excerpts from the full performance on 8 Feb 1987.

Download poster for this performance (JPEG image, 127 Kb)
Download programme notes for this performance (Microsoft Word document, 22 Kb)

Programme

Pastime with good company: Henry VIII
Alone, alone: Anon
When griping griefs: Richard Edwards
Like as the doleful dove: Thomas Tallis

It was a lover and his lass: Thomas Morley
Come ye heavy states of night: John Dowland
Fine knacks for ladies: John Dowland

Too much I once lamented: Thomas Tomkins
Sleep, fleshly birth: Robert Ramsey
Hard by a crystal fountain: Thomas Morley

12.10pm-1pm, Thursday 12 February 1987
Town Hall, Wellington

dir. Simon Ravens

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