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

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