William Shakespeare: Ages of Song

William Shakespeare: Ages of Song
Martin Best
EMI Records (UK) Catalogue no. unknown
Moss Music Group 118 (LP)

Contents

    Side One

  1. (a) Jog On (from Playford's Catch as Catch Can, 1667)
    (b) Carman's Whistle (16th century, mixed sources)
  2. (a) The Fryar and the Nun (from Playford's Dancing Master, 1651)
    (b) New Nothing (from Playford's Dancing Master, 1651)
  3. O Mistress Mine (from Thomas Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599)
  4. Almaine (anon.)
  5. (a) Bonny Sweet Robin (from Thomas Robinson's School of Musicke, 1603)
    (b) Robin Hood and the Tanner (trad.)
  6. (a) Night Peece (from Playford's Dancing Master, 1651)
    (b) Kemp's Jegge or Jig (from the Dancing Master, 1686)
  7. The Willow Song (anon.)
  8. Farewell, Dear Love (from Robert Jones' First Book of Songs and Ayres, 1600)
  9. When Daffodils Begin to Peere (adapted to Anthony Holborne's The Fairy Round)

    Side Two

    PART I
  1. Where the Bee Sucks (Thomas Arne, 1746)
  2. Fife Tune and Last Ballett (Charles Dibdin, 1769)
  3. Come Away, Death (Thomas Arne, 1741)
  4. When That I Was a Little Tiny Boy (Joseph Vernon, 1772)
    5. PART II
  5. Sounds and Sweet Ayres (Guy Woolfenden, 1978)
    (a) Come Unto These Yellow Sands
    (b) Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
    (c) You Spotted Snakes

Martin Best (voice, lute, baroque and classical guitar)
with (side one)
The Broadside Band: Jeremy Barlow (recorders), Rosemary Thorndycraft (treble, bass, division viols), George Weigand (cittern, orpharion, mandora, division lute), Alastair McLachlan (violin, rebec)
and (side two, bands 1-4)
The Barlow Baroque Players: Jeremy Barlow (baroque flute), Alastair McLachlan and John Trussler (baroque violins), Marilyn Sansom (baroque cello), Michael Steer (harpsichord)
and (side two, band 5)
William Bennett (flute), Simon Standage (violin), Eric Hill (guitar), Marilyn Sansom (cello), Daryl Runswick (bass), Stephen Henderson (percussion), Guy Woolfenden (conductor)

Released 1979

Out of print, not reissued on CD.

Imaginative settings of songs from Shakespeare's plays and some traditional pieces, from the 16th century through the later work of Arne and Vernon at the Garrick Jubilee, Drury Lane and Vauxhall Gardens. The Guy Woolfenden 'free fantasia' was commissioned by Martin Best. Always an interesting recording, though lacking the intensity of Martin's finest work.

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Rob Smyth