The end of the reign of Charles I, his execution, and the troubled period of the Civil War and Cromwell’s Commonwealth caused tremendous upheavals in the lives of musicians. With the dissolution of the King’s Musick and the Chapel Royal, most of the leading composers and musicians of the period found themselves out of a job. Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666), for whom Charles I had created the post of Master of the King’s Musick in 1626, fled London and took refuge on the Continent. Thus England lost this outstanding figure, a perfect example of the ideal cultivated courtier, who was at once composer, singer, lutenist, violist, poet, etcher, and painter.

Henry Lawes, born in 1595 in the Wiltshire village of Dinton, was probably taught by the great Coperario in person. He joined the King’s Musick in 1626. When the monarchy fell, Lawes stayed in London and, while waiting for better days, took a position as music master in
a leading aristocratic family. He briefly evoked these hard times in the preface to the Ayres and Dialogues of 1653: ‘Now, we live in so sullen an Age, that our Profession it selfe hath lost its Encouragement.’ At this time he appeared regularly in private concerts, events much appreciated by music-lovers, which attracted the finest London society. Sales of his music, which coincided with the expansion of music publishing in England, brought him a healthy
income and a certain fame. Lawes was one of the most productive composers of his period: more than 350 songs have survived, including a considerable number published in the extensive
anthologies of successful ayres issued by John Playford. At the Restoration of Charles II, he rejoined the King’s Musick, as did most of his colleagues.

Despite the popularity he enjoyed in his lifetime, Henry Lawes has been somewhat overshadowed by his hot-headed younger brother William, King Charles I’s favourite musician, who was constantly seeking bold musical innovations. Fighting on the Royalist side during the Civil War, William was cut off in his prime at the battle of Chester on 24 September 1645. His output for lute has probably been lost and the three pieces recorded here (in a version for lute and harpsichord) are all that is left. It is likely that Lawes composed only the second lute parts.

To sing while accompanying oneself on the lute was a common practice, and it is highly probable that Henry Lawes and Nicholas Lanier were experienced exponents of it. From the end of the Elizabethan period new accompanying instruments came into vogue, including the virginal (until then essentially a solo instrument), the harpsichord, the organ, the bass viol, the
theorbo, and the guitar. With the fashion for the ‘lyra viol’, the solo viol, played chordally (‘lyra way’), could sometimes even substitute for the lute, and the violist Tobias Hume does not conceal his taste for accompanying songs in this way (‘to be sung to the Viole, with the Lute or = better, to the Viol alone’: Musicall Humors, 1605). The periods of Charles I and Cromwell were a veritable golden age for the viol: its technique developed considerably, with high positions, chordal playing, and frequent use of scordatura. ‘Divisions’, or variations on ostinato basses called ‘grounds’, often of great technical difficulty, were then very fashionable and form the major part of the repertory along with pieces for solo viol.

Christopher Simpson (c.1605-69) is one of the most inspired and respected composers of
grounds. Daniel Norcombe, who wrote more than thirty divisions, is still little known. He was probably a violist in the service of the Archduke Albert in Brussels between 1602 and 1647. Simpson mentions him as a composer worthy of interest in The Division Violist: ‘I would have you peruse the Divisions which other men have made upon Grounds; as those of Mr Henry Butler, Mr Daniel Norcome, and divers other excellent men of this our Nation . . .’

Francis Withy, probably born around 1650, was the son of the excellent violist John Withy. We know little about him except that he came from Worcester and probably spent his life as a musician in Oxford, another very dynamic musical centre of the Commonwealth years. Withy, who belonged to the last generation of great English violists, was a disciple of Simpson. One also notes in his music the influence of John Jenkins and of chordal playing (lyra way), very evident in the Division in G minor. The arrival of Jacques Gaultier in England in 1617 coincided with the vogue for the French lute. The strong personality of this somewhat boisterous lutenist (to put it mildly) and the craze for playing in the French style that infected the English aristocracy were important factors in the gallicisation of the repertory. Gaultier’s music circulated widely in manuscript, proof of its success, but curiously was never printed. In any case, his playing seems to have made a vivid impression on those who heard him, as is demonstrated by this remark of a contemporary: ‘English Gualtier (sic) was fit to play in a Cabarett because of his thundering way of playing!’

Florence Bolton
Translation: Charles Johnston