Piece of the Month - January 2009

Any suggestions, corrections or other comments will be most welcome: just email martin@luteshop.co.uk.  Downloadable files are provided in Fronimo, Tab and PDF.  To hear my own recording of one or more of the pieces just click on the MP3 files.

Pavan by Francis Cutting
Francis Cutting (d.1596) is one of the most unjustly neglected composers of the Elizabethan age.  He left us about 50 solos for lute, orpharion and bandora.   Very little is known of his life.  A surprisingly large proportion of the pieces published by William Barley in his New Booke of Tabliture (1596) are by him, and it is possible that he helped to edit the book, in which case the versions therein (errors notwithstanding) might be regarded as being at least close to the composer.  I have used Barley as the primary source for this Pavan, while correcting the obvious errors.  Versions of this piece also appear in Dd.2.11, Hirsch, and Dd.5.78 (which also includes a Galliard based on the same material).  In the scores, the # ornament sign is reproduced as closely as possible as it appears in Barley, but I find it very unconvincing and in my own performance I have done my own thing.

For an excellent complete edition see Jan Burgers, Francis Cutting: Collected Lute Music, Tree Edition, Lübeck, 2002).

Downloads:

Pavan:  09011.ft3; 09011.tab; 09011.pdf; 09011.mp3

To download the latest version of Fronimo go to the Fronimo Users Group site

Back to home page