Hilton: Ayres, or Fa La's for Three Voyces

The Ayres, or Fa La's for Three Voyces (1627) by John Hilton "the Younger" (1599–1657) brought the so-called English madrigal school of composition to a close. The Ayres belong to the Italian balletto form, although the form had lost its earlier association with dancing by the time of its importation into England.

 

Although this collection has not hitherto been published in a critical edition, the quality of the compositions has long been recognized. The eighteenth-century music historian Sir John Hawkins lavished high praise on them, considering them to surpass in quality similar works by Thomas Morley. Ernest Walker, too, described the pieces as "worthy of a place beside Morley's ballets," while Ian Spink observes that they are undeserving of their neglect "since many are attractive pieces, different rather than inferior to Morley's."

 

The pieces are suitable for unaccompanied performance by soloists or small choir (SST). Also included in the edition are three four-voice madrigals that may also be by the younger John Hilton.

1. To Sport Our Merry Meeting

2–3. My Mistress Frowns / You Lovers That Have Loves Astray

4. Phoebe Tells Me When I Woo

5. Coelia's Wound and Mine Were One

6. Dear, May Some Other, Since Not I

7. Though Me You Do Disdain to View

8. Love Wounded Me

9. The Woodbine, Flora, Doth Decay

10. I Heard a Withered Maid Complain

11. Leave Off, Sad Philomel

12. O Had Not Venus Been Beguiled

13. Tell Me, Dear, Fain Would I Know

14. Faint Not, Lovers, for Denials

15. Gifts of Feature and of Mind

16. As Flora Slept, and I Lay Waking

17. When Flora Frowns I Hope for Peace

18. Love Laid His Yoke upon Me

19. Now is the Summer Springing

20. Come, Sprightly Mirth

21. Come, Let's Crown This Famous Night

22–23. Hero, Kiss Me or I Die / Quickly Send It Then unto Me

24. If It Be Love to Sit and Mourn

25. Fly, Philomel, to Deserts Fly

26. Who Master Is in Music's Art

 

1. Crowned with Flowers

2. When As I Glance on My Lovely Phyllis

3. O Sacred Tree

Thomas Elias, Early Music, May 2006.
Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, 11/1, 2005.