A Tudor Christmas Carol
As I outrode this enderes night.
From the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, one of the Coventry Mystery Plays.
[The better known 'Coventry Carol', "lully lulla, thou little tiny child" comes from the same source.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39AA6kFmpWY&ab_channel=Passamezzo
Christmas Cheer - from The Dancing Master, Henry Playford, 1703
Chestnut - from The English Dancing Master, John Playford, 1651
Comfort and Joy - named after the chorus of the ballad 'On Christmas Day', first printed c1700/1, and better known to us now as the carol 'God rest you merry gentlemen'.
Thomas Campion - Now Winter Nights Enlarge: an evocative description of Winter pastimes in #earlymodern England
Eleanor Cramer: soprano
Christopher Goodwin: lute
Alison Kinder: bass viol
Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
And cups o’erflow with wine,
Let well-turned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love
While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights
Sleep’s leaden spells remove.
This time doth well dispense
With lovers’ long discourse;
Much speech hath some defense,
Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well;
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys,
And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,
They shorten tedious nights.
1 November is All Saints' Day, so here's our lockdown recording of Psalm 133 from La Scala Santa, 1670, described as being suitable for St George's Day or All Saints' Day.
Eleanor Cramer: soprano
Robin Jeffrey: lute
Alison Kinder: viols
In #earlymodern London, 29 October (the day after the feast of Saints Simon and Jude) was the day of the Lord Mayor's Triumph.
Late as I walked through Cheapside, an early #17thCentury ballad from Ms Drexel 4257 describes the sights and sounds of the day.
Details include the Lord Mayor's procession through the streets of London, accompanied by civic dignitaries, liverymen, whifflers, and more; horses, wild men and noisy fireworks; and pageants with boy and girl actors.
From the Gamble Commonplace Book, Ms Drexel 4257
Richard de Winter: tenor
Robin Jeffrey: lute
Alison Kinder: bass viol
Tamsin Lewis: violin
One day late for International Coffee Day...
The Coffee House or Newsmongers Hall
A broadside ballad from 1672 describing events at a London coffee house.
Richard de Winter: tenor
Robin Jeffrey: theorbo
Alison Kinder: bass viol, recorders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD51drQLQRQ&ab_channel=Passamezzo
Sung before the King at New-market:
A 17th Century broadside ballad by Thomas D'Urfey, describing the sights and sounds of Newmarket during the racing season.
Richard de Winter: tenor
Robin Jeffrey: baroque guitar
Alison Kinder: bass viol
Today's video was one of the last things that we did before lockdown in March 2020... It was filmed in the Great Watching Chamber at Hampton Court Palace, while preparing a section on Elizabethan music for Historic Royal Palace's Futurelearn course on Tudor entertainment.
Augustine Bassano: Pavan
From Egerton MS 3665
Robin Jeffrey: lute
Tamsin Lewis: renaissance violin