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. Music of Fernando Sor by Daniel Estrem: colorful classical guitar
2. Lenten is come by Briddes Roune: 13th century medieval English songs
3. Le 9 sonate per violoncello solo e continuo by Vito Paternoster: cellist extraordinaire
4. Bootstrap Physics by Timothy Vajda: viola da gamba in a contemporary context
5. Beginning of a Journey by Yumi Kurosawa: melodic and mixed world tunes on Japanese Koto
6. A Spagna in the Works by Alison Crum and Roy Marks: Ethereal, enigmatic and exhilarating renaissance miniature masterpieces for viol and lute
7. Ciaconna by Ernst Stolz: Renaissance and Baroque beautiful music revealed by Dutch gambist and multi-instrumentalist
8. The Siena Manuscript on steel string guitar by Paul Berget: renaissance lute, modernized.
9. Dreaming by Emma Wallace: angst-free modern ragtime
10. Let's Hibernate by Emma Wallace: angst-free modern ragtime
11. Temptation_ by Emma Wallace: angst-free modern ragtime
12. Each of Us by Ya Elah: women's vocal music based in the Jewish tradition
13. Deux Grands Maitres de l'Ecriture pour le Luth Baroque et le Theorbe by Mauricio Buraglia: a marvelous classical spiral of lute sounds
14. 5 and 6 part Fantasies of William Lawes by Oberlin Consort of Viols: renaissance viol music
15. Dolci Miei Sospiri by Ensemble Carpe Diem: Early music featuring Italian affetti from Switzerland
16. Just You and Me by Suchitra Lata: Swirling Chillout, Ambient, World, Progressive Pop, Indian classical veena and much more in between
17. In thy Dormition thou didst not forsake the World, (O Theotokos) by Putinki Church Choir: clear calm voices of spiritual music
18. Canarios III by Poeticall Musicke: Late Renaissance and Early Baroque music, historically performed
19. Contemplations by Ireen Thomas: Lute sonatas from Mozart's time
20. Voyages by Logic Gate: dreamy ambient old school electronica

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