Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era

Music Sample (B 120) Music Sample (B 121) Music Sample (B122) Music Sample B122)

Part 1: Solo Songs

Lawes’s autograph songbook, Lbl Add. MS 31,432 (1639-41), is the most complete source of his vocal music. Most of Lawes’s solo songs can be referred to as court songs, or cavalier songs. Several are theatre songs; indeed, more theater songs by Lawes survive than by any other composer of this period.

English songs composed during the reign of Charles I have a distinct character, a unique amalgam of English tunefulness, Italian declamation, and French lyricism. This blend is quite unlike the more sophisticated gentility of the earlier English lute song, exemplified in the songs and ayres of John Dowland and John Danyel. Cavalier songs are more direct, more robust, less contrapuntal, and simpler in harmonic design. Lawes’s solo songs may be divided into three main types: declamatory songs, tuneful airs, and dance songs. To these may be added declamatory-ballad forms and theatre songs.

Contents:

Songs from the Autograph Songbook (Lbl Add. MS 31,432)

1. Now in the sad declension of thy time
2. Virgins as I advise forbear
3. Dost see how unregarded now
4. If you a wrinkle on the sea have seen [fragment]
5. Ask me no more where Jove bestows
6. Oh, think not Phoebe
7. Up ladies up
8. Faith, be no longer coy
9. Cupid’s weary of the court
10. It is her voice
11. Where did you borrow that last sigh
12. Why should great beauty
13. Pleasures, beauty, youth attend thee
14. Whiles I this standing lake
15. To whom shall I complain
16. Had you but heard her sing
17. Farewell fair saint
18. Love’s a child
19. Early in the morn
20. Thou that excellest
21. Perfect and endless circles are
22. Can beauty’s spring
23. Tell me no more
24. God of winds
25. I would the god of love would die
26. Ah, cruel love
27. He that will not love. Persuasions not to love
28. I burn, I burn. To the dews
29. White though ye be. On the lilies
30a. Gather ye rosebuds
30b. Gather ye rosebuds [triple meter variant]
31. I’m sick of love. To the sycamore
32. Lovers, rejoice
33. That flame is born of earthly fire
34. Dearest, all fair
35. Be not proud, pretty one
36. Love, I obey
37a. Oh, draw your curtains and appear
37b. Oh, draw your curtains and appear
38. O Love, are all those arrows gone
39. Ye Fiends and Furies
40. Hence flatt’ring hopes
41. Stay, Phoebus, stay
42. Cloris, I wish that Envy were as just
43. Doris, see the am’rous flame
44. Those lovers only happy are
45. Amarilis tear thy hair

46. Why so pale and wan
47. No, no, fair heretic
48. Come, shepherds, come
49. Fair as unshaded light
50. Hark, hark how in ev’ry grove
51. I can for an hour. Be not proud, pretty one
52. I keep my horse, I keep my whore. The cutpurse song
53a. O my Clarissa
53b. O my Clarissa
54. Somnus, the ’umble god
55. Still to be neat, still to be dressed
56. Sullen Care, why dost thou keep
57. We show no monstrous crocodile
58. When I by thy fair shape

Part 2: Dialogues, Partsongs, and Catches

Lawes’s music for more than one solo voice includes dialogues, partsongs (some with a solo section), and catches. Dialogues are settings of a short incident involving two or more characters, usually ending with a chorus. The partsongs include contrapuntal multi-voiced pieces, similar to solo declamatory songs, but with more voices. Several are for the theater. Some are harmonized airs, tuneful airs with extra voice parts, including dance songs. Several are energetic drinking songs.

Lawes was a prolific writer of catches. Catches, mainly used as drinking songs, generally have a humorous content, often bawdy, and often involving play on words. Four of Lawes’s catches, all drinking songs, were composed for the theatre.

Contents:

Dialogues

1. When death shall snatch us from these kids. Dialogue: Thirsis & Clorinda
2. A health to the northern lass
3. The cats
4. Come, heavy heart. Dialogue
5. ’Tis not boy, thy amorous look. Dialogue (Treble & Soprano)
6. Charon! O gentle Charon! Dialogue: Charon, and the Nightingale
7. Orpheus, O Orpheus, gently touch thy Lesbian lyre. Trialogue
8a. Come, my Daphne, come away. A Dialogue
8b. Come, my Daphne, come away. A Dialogue. Between Strephon, & Daphne.
9. Charon, O Charon! A Dialogue: Charon and Amintor (Treble & Bass)
10. Haste you nymphs. A Dialogue: Nymph and Shepherd (Treble & Bass)
11. Sacred love whose virtuous power
12. The lark
13. Vulcan, O Vulcan, my love
14a. What if I die for love of thee?
14b. What if I die for love of thee? A Dialogue.

1. A hall, a hall
2. When each line’s a faithful drinker
3. What ho, we come to be merry
4. Music, the master of thy art is dead
5. All these lie howling
6. Come, lovely Cloris
7. Gather your rosebuds [arr. John Playford]
8a. Good morrow unto her
8b. Good morrow unto her
9a. Love is lost
9b. Love is lost. A 2 voc.
10a. O my Clarissa
10b. O my Clarissa 

1. Come, take a carouse
2. Beliza, shade your shining eyes
3. On, on compassion shall never enter here
4. Come, Adonis, come again
5. Fill, fill the bowl. for 2 voyces
6. There can be no glad man
7. ’Tis no shame to yield to beauty
8. What should my mistress do

1. Some drink, boy. a 3:
2. Hark, jolly lads. a. 3.
3. Call for the ale. a 4.
4. Let’s cast away care. a. 3.
5. Stand still and listen. a. 3.
6. If we shall drink canary. a 3.
7. I do confess. a. 3.
8. Whither go ye. a. 3.
9. Come, my lads. For 3. 4. or 6 pts in One.
10. Tom, Ned, and Jack. a. 3.
11. Never let a man. a: 3.
12. Though I am not Bacchus’ priest. a:. 3:
13. Brisk claret and sherry. a 3.
14. Wars are our delight. a. 6.
15. A knot of good fellows. a. 3. Voc. A Catch made on a true Story of a Frenchman.
16. A pox on our jailer. a. 4. Voc. A Catch sung in the Play called The Royal Slave.
17. A round, a round, a round, boys. a. 3. Voc.
18. Bess, black as a charcoal. a. 3. Voc.
19. Come, Amarillis, now let us be merry. a. 4. Voc.
20. Come, follow me brave hearts
21. Come, let us cast the dice. a. 3. Voc.
22. Come, let us have a merry heart. a. 3. Voc.
23. Come, quaff apace this brisk canary wine. a. 3. Voc.
24. Dainty fine aniseed water fine. a. 3. Voc.
25. Drink tonight of the moonshine bright. a. 3. Voc.
26. Goose lawed with Goose. a. 3. Voc.
27. Hang sorrow and cast away care. a. 3. Voc.
28. Hie we to the other world. a. 4. Voc.
29. I’ll tell you of a matter. a. 3. Voc.
30. It is folly to be jolly. a. 3. Voc.
31. See how Cawood’s dragon looks. a. 3. Voc.
32. See how in gathering of their May. a. 3. Voc.
33. The pot, the pipe, the quart, the can. a. 4. Voc.
34. The wise men were but seven. a. 3. voc.

Come, Cloris, hie we to the bow’r. a 3 voc. [incomplete]
Damon, good morrow [arrangement, incomplete]
Dear leave thy home (1) [fragment?]
Dear leave thy home (2) [fragment]
Dear leave thy home (3) [arrangement, incomplete]
Love throws more dangerous darts [arrangement, incomplete]
When by thy scorn, foul murd’ress [arrangement, incomplete]
Why should fond man [arrangement, incomplete]
Go, bleeding heart [fragment]
Fear not, dear love [fragment]
Now that the spring hath fill’d our veins [incomplete]
Sing his praises that doth keep [arrangement, incomplete]
[Three-part setting in A minor (1)] [fragment]
[Three-part setting in A minor (2)] [fragment]
Here’s a jolly couple [incomplete]
He that a tinker would be. The Tinker. A 2 Voc. Bass and Trebele, John Wilson?
Now, now the sun is fled. A Dialogue
Your love if virtuous will show forth
Your love if virtuous will show forth [variant]

Part 3: Sacred Music

Lawes’s surviving sacred music consists of three verse anthems, one sacred song, twelve verses for psalms with psalm-tune choruses, thirty-two motet psalms, and eleven canons. His "Oxford" Psalms are unlike other English church music of the time, being settings of metrical psalms as a series of declamatory verses for solo voices and thoroughbass, alternating with choruses singing common psalm tunes.
Lawes’s motet psalms, for three voices with thoroughbass, are atypical of English church of the time. This edition includes thirty settings from Choice Psalmes (1648), plus two newly discovered psalms from the Chirk Castle partbooks. Lawes’s canons are from Choice Psalmes, his autograph Ob MS Mus. Sch. b. 2, and his autograph song book Lbl Add. MS 31,432. One sacred song survives, When man for sin thy judgement feels, a highly embellished setting of lyrics based on verses 11 and 12 of Psalm 39.

Contents:

Anthems

1. Let God arise
2a. The Lord is my light
2b. The Lord is my light
3. They that go down to the sea in ships

When man for sin thy judgement feels

1. O Lord, in thee is all my trust
2. All people that on earth do dwell
3. Have mercy on us Lord
4. Lord in thy wrath reprove me not
5. O Lord, consider my distress
6. Cast me not, Lord, out from thy face
7. O God, my strength and fortitude
8. O Lord, of whom I do depend
9. O Lord, turn not away thy face [incomplete]
10. O God, my God
11. O Lord, depart not now from me
12. All ye that fear him praise the Lord

1. Lord, as the hart imbost with heat
2. Let God, the God of battle, rise
3. Out of the horror of the deep
4. Oft from my early youth
5. How like a widow!
6. Judah in exile wanders
7. How hath Jehovah’s wrath
8. Sing to the King of kings
9. Praise the Lord enthroned on high
10. My God! Oh, why hast thou forsook?
11. My God, my rock, regard my cry
12. They, who the Lord their fortress make
13. Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is
14. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song
15. I am weary of my groaning
16. In the substraction of my years
17. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord
18. Lord, thy deserved wrath assuage
19. Thou mover of the rolling spheres
20. To thee I cry; Lord, hear my cries
21. Thou, that art enthroned above
22. Come, sing the great Jehovah’s praise
23. To thee, O God, my God
24. To the God whom we adore
25. Ye nations of the earth
26. Let all in sweet accord clap hands
27. Ne irascaris, Domine
28. Memento, memento, Domine
29. In resurrectione tua, Domine
30. Gloria Patri et Filio
31. O blest estate, blest from above
32. Our Sion strongly is secured

1. Gloria in excelsis Deo. “A Canon of 3. Voc. in the 5th [above] and 4th below.
2. Happy sons of Israel. “Canon of 3. in the 4 and 8
3. Jesus is harmonious. “A Canon of 3. Voc. in the Unison.
4. Lord, thou hast been favourable. “Canon of 3. in the Unison
5. Re Mi Re Ut Sol. “Canon in the 5 and 8th:
6a. Regi, Regis, Regum (1). “Canon a. 4: in the 5. 8. and 5. below:
6b. Regi, Regis, Regum (2). “[Canon] a. 4. in the Unison:
7. She weepeth sore in the night. “A 4.”
8. These salt rivers of mine eyes. “A Canon of 3. Voc. in the 4th [below] and 
8th [below].”
9. ’Tis joy to see. “A. 3. Canon in the Unison and 5th below”
10. Why weep’st thou Mary? “A Canon of 3. Voc. in 4th [below] and 8th [below].”

Part 4: Masques

Most of Lawes’s surviving music for masques and entertainments exists in his autographs, Ob MS Mus. Sch. b. 2 and Lbl Add. MS 31,432. This edition contains all of Lawes’s surviving music for Ben Jonson’s The King’s Entertainment at Welbeck (1633), three court masques (with symphonies for the vocal pieces: Shirley, The Triumph of Peace [1634], Davenant, The Triumphs of the Prince d’Amour [1636], and Davenant, Britannia Triumphans [1638]), and a school masque, Shirley, The Triumph of Beauty (ca. 1640-44). Music for the entertainment and masques includes solo songs (most are declamatory songs with chorus), dialogues, partsongs, one brief duet, two trios, and choruses.

Several masque items have instrumental symphonies, probably for strings and thoroughbass. The symphonies are brief, light preludes in binary form. All are tuneful and rhythmically active. They have little thematic relationship with the vocal music.

Contents:

The King’s Entertainment at Welbeck (1633), Ben Jonson

What softer sounds are these. Dialogue

1. First Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque
Sinfony: The howres descending
Song (Irene): Hence, hence, ye profane
Chorus: Hence, hence, ye profane

2. [Second Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Sinfony
Song (Irene): Wherefore do my sisters stay?
Chorus (3 Voices from the Chorus): See where she shines

3. [Third Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Sinfony
Dialogue (Eunomia, Irene): Think not I could absent myself this night
Chorus: Irene enters like a perfumed spring

4. [Seventh Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Trio (Soprano 1 and 2, [Tenor? or Bass?]): Why do you dwell so long in clouds. [arrangement, incomplete]

5. [Eighth Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Song (Amphiluca): In envy of the night

6. [Ninth Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Chorus: Come away, away, away, see the dawning of the day [fragment]

1. [First Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Symphony [variant]

2. [Second Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Symphony [variant]

3. [Third Song: Of the Inns of Court Masque]
Symphony [variant]

4. Part of the Prince d’Amour His Masque at the Middle Temple
Sinfony
Dialogue (Priests of Apollo): Behold, how this conjunction thrives!
Chorus: Come, strew this ground

5. The Last Song or Valediction
Sinfony
Song (Tenor): The angry steed, the fife and drum
Chorus: Till you as glorious shall become
Sinfony
Dialogue (Priests of Venus): The balm’s rich sweat
Chorus: The balm’s rich sweat
Sinfony
Song (Priests of Apollo): And may your language be of force
Chorus: So full of wonder you discourse
Sinfony
Grand Chorus: May our three gods so long conjoin

6. Additional Symphony

1. Full Song: a 5. Part of the King’s Masque
Chorus: Britanocles, the great and good, appears
Song (Fame): Why move these princes
Ciacona (Arts, Science, Fame): ’Tis fit you mix that wonder with delight
Quartet: Move then in such a noble order
Full Chorus: Oh, with what joy you’ll measure out the time!

2. [Song of Galatea]
Sinfony
Song (Galatea): So well Britanocles o’er seas doth reign
Chorus: On ever moving waves
Song (Galatea): But now for their majestic welcome
Chorus: When he shall lead with harmony

3. Valediction
Simphony
Dialogue (Alto or Tenor, Bass): Wise nature, that dew of sleep prepares
Trio (Alto or Tenor, Tenor, Bass): Were but to tempt old nature
Grand Chorus: To bed, to bed!
Ayre

1a. [Trio] (Alto or Tenor, Tenor, Bass): Cease warring thoughts
1b. [Trio] (Soprano 1 and 2, [Bass]): Cease warring thoughts