Skilled musicians, both amateur and professional, would improvise over a repeated chord progression (the 'ground'), or play variations on a popular tune of the day, often with astonishing inventiveness and virtuosity.

This recording explores some of the many composed, and therefore surviving, examples of this art. Lute solos alongside divisions played on treble, tenor and bass viols with improvised lute accompaniments make for a rich palette of aural colours and a vibrant and virtuosic recreation of sixteenth and seventeenth-century music making in England.

Division-Musick is also available as a physical CD for purchase.

1. Scotch Tune (Solomon Eccles junior (1649-1710))
2. John Come Kiss Me Now (Davis Mell (1604-1662))
3. Division (Gottfried Keller (d 1704))
4. Division (Gottfried Finger (c1655-1730))
5. Green Garters (Anon (c1590))
6. Paul's Steeple (Anon (published 1684))
7. Division (Gottfried Finger)
8. Will You Walk The Woods So Wild (William Byrd (1539-1623) arr Francis Cutting)
9. Italian Ground (Giovanni Battista Draghi (d 1708))
10. Division To A Ground (Solomon Eccles junior)
11. The Leaves Be Green (John Johnson (fl 1579-94))
12. A New Division To A Ground (Solomon Eccles junior)
13. Robin Is To The Greenwood Gone (John Dowland (1563-1626))
14. Go From My Window (Anon (c 1610))
15. Barafostus' Dream (Anon (c 1630))
16. Greensleeves (Anon (c 1590))
17. A Ground (Edward Collard (fl c 1600))
18. Division (Christopher Simpson (d 1669))

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 6/10/2012
Pellingmans' Saraband lives in Richmond England

Tagged as: Classical, Renaissance, Instrumental, Composer: Christopher Simpson, Composer: John Dowland, Composer: John Johnson, Composer: William Byrd, Lute, Viola da Gamba

1. Lenten is come by Briddes Roune: 13th century medieval English songs
2. Le 9 sonate per violoncello solo e continuo by Vito Paternoster: cellist extraordinaire
3. Ciaconna by Ernst Stolz: Renaissance and Baroque beautiful music revealed by Dutch gambist and multi-instrumentalist
4. The Siena Manuscript on steel string guitar by Paul Berget: renaissance lute, modernized.
5. Big Dipper by Drop Trio: groove-oriented organ-based funk jazz trio
6. Meditative Guitar by Jeff Wahl: acoustic new age and jazz guitar.
7. Farewell II by Poeticall Musicke: Late Renaissance and Early Baroque music, historically performed
8. JS Bach - Book 1 CD2 Well-Tempered Clavier by Daniel Ben Pienaar: virtuoso pianist playing Bach's 48
9. A Celebration of Robert Burns by Shira Kammen: early folk and celtic music.
10. Seven Waves of Knowing by Sambodhi Prem: reflections of the moon in music
11. Trances-Drones CD1 by Robert Rich: groundbreaking ambient and dark-ambient
12. Lautenschmaus by Daniel Shoskes: A feast of Baroque lute
13. Allemande by Edward Martin: vihuela, renaissance and baroque lute
14. Art of the Lute in Renaissance France by Edward Martin: vihuela, renaissance and baroque lute
15. Black Cow by Jacob Heringman: renaissance lute
16. Alonso Mudarra songs and solos by Jacob Heringman and Catherine King: renaissance songs
17. Le Souvenir de Vous me Tue by Asteria: late-medieval vocal and instrumental music
18. German music for Viols and Harpsichord by Les Filles de Sainte Colombe: viol & harpsichord music
19. In a Garden So Green, Lute Music of Scotland by Voices of Music: Lilting Renaissance & Baroque vocal interpretations
20. Confluentes by Ralph Rousseau Meulenbroeks: virtuoso viola da gamba

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