Holborne: Pavane The Countess of Pembroke's Paradise

Following the previous post of Holborne's "Countess of Ormonde's Galliard", here's another of his pieces dedicated to the nobility. I imagine that the Countess of Pembroke in the title was Mary Herbert (neé Sydney) (1561 – 1621) who was active in the world of letters at about the time this piece was written (v approx 1600), and in whose circles he was known and respected.

The Countess of Pembroke, painted by Nicholas Hilliard.
From Wikipedia.

This arrangement is made from the digital facsimile of Matthew Holmes Lute Book Dd.9.33 f. 70 at Cambridge University Library. Sarge Gerbode (the Indefatigable) has published a transcription from the Welde Lute Book which is almost identical to this one, but with slightly fewer notes in the lower voice, and with ornaments indicated (which I have shamelessly copied from, using the symbol ⨳). Why these particular notes were chosen for decoration I couldn’t imagine. Perhaps they were used whilst playing the repeats.

This is quite a chirpy little piece, divided into three sections, with the penultimate bar in each using variations of the “riff” that I have associated in this blog with Dowland’s “Solus cum sola”, but which appeared in Le Roy about 50 years earlier. The third section is quite entertainingly syncopated, with the short scale-fragment D-C♯-B-A appearing three times, but not symmetrically.

Available to download free in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Enjoy!