At last, an easy piece ...
My recent posts have been of John Dowland's lute solos, which can be quite challenging. In a search for easier pieces I have been mining the entertaining 58 Very Easy Pieces for Renaissance Lute (1999) published by The Lute Society, from which I made this adaptation.
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| I imagine that the lost "lyberty" of the song was not so extreme as this poor bloke's. |
The original is in the William Ballet Lute Book, 1595 – 1610, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, MS 408/2. Ballet was an amateur player, and his lute book was written by several hands. It is the second most searched for item in Trinity College Library, after the Book of Kells! (I have not been able to find a facsimile of the original, as the digital library is under reorganisation.)
This simple piece consists of one strain of 15 bars, repeated in variation. Although largely, an exercise on the chord of D major, it takes some unexpected turns in melody, harmony and rhythm. It is fascinating to see what can be done with such simple materials.
The (unusual) chord sequence is:
I | I | I |
I | I | I |
II | II | I |
bIV | bIV | bIV |
I | V | I || × 2
Available for free download in the following formats:
