Elizabethan Pavans It is almost embarrassing to admit that the idea to record this album came to me more than 20 years ago. During my graduate studies days at Duke University under the illustrious Peter Williams, I wrote a term paper entitled ‘The English Pavan: A Vocabulary of Gestures’, in which I mainly discussed pavans included in the present album. At the time, there were no digital facsimiles available online, so I used the Duke microfilms. The copies often turned out grey and barely legible. I remember how Dr. Williams took off his glasses, brought one of my tablatures really close to his eyes, and in his charming accent said: ‘Oleg, can’t you get a better copy?’ Then on my dot–matrix printer I produced a lot of blank tablature paper, and with the help of a soft pencil made my own tablature editions. They were destined to gather dust and become yellowish and frail, until the moment to record this project arrived. What intrigued me then – and keeps intriguing me now – was the special status of the pavan (as a genre) in the English manuscript and printed sources for the lute. Unlike its continental counterpart, the surviving English heritage for the lute is not dominated by intabulations of vocal compositions, but rather by independent pieces – fantasias and especially dances. And among the dances, the pavan occupies a prominent place, offering the composer a way to show his musical skills and imagination. Throughout the 16th century, the genre underwent a major evolution in England. If it started as a straightforward dance, by the end of the century it had become a slow, rhapsodic, fantasy-like composition. In his 1597 Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music, Thomas Morley describes the fantasy as a ‘principall and chiefest kind of musicke,’ and then adds: ‘The next in grauity and goodness vnto this is called a pauane, a kind of straide musicke, ordained for graue dauncing.’ Part of my intentions here is to illustrate the development of this genre, although of course, it is not always possible to arrange the pieces in chronological order. The earliest English pavans (often spelled pavin, pavion, or pavian) appeared during the time of Henry VIII. This monarch imported a number of musicians from the Continent, and thus strongly influenced the development of English music. The first pavan on this recording, Kyng Harry the VIIIth Pavyn [1] is considered the earliest surviving English pavan (from c.1540) and is rather similar to the early Continental pavans. It is the only piece in this album that does not survive in lute tablature form but rather as a composition for an unspecified instrumental ensemble (Royal Appendix 58). I took the liberty of retrofitting this piece to the most common structure of the
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English pavan – AA’ BB’ CC’, by making some slight melodic elaborations on the repeats. This little pavan – together with its ferocious dedicatee – must have stuck in the cultural memory of the English musicians, as many later pavans on this recording will show similar ‘fanfares’ in the third section. The Kinges Pavane [2] comes from one of the earliest English lute sources, Music Ms. 13 (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University), dating from c.1560. This pavan has ornamented repeats on the A and B sections, while the last section repeats intact and offers a trumpet-like motive to remind us of the other ‘royal’ pavan. The Pavan [3] survives in one of the greatest anthologies of English lute music, the Mathew Holmes manuscript Dd. 2.11 at the Cambridge University Library. As the manuscript was compiled from c.1585 to c.1595, this anonymous piece clearly shows its transitional nature – in fact, its every section seems to be written in a different style. Pavans [4, 6, 8] belong to a sub-genre of pavans that makes use of the common harmonic progressions. The first and last of them are built upon the passamezzo moderno, which in English sources is often called ‘Quardo Pavan’ and which gives an impression of a major key to the post-Renaissance ears. Conversely, the anonymous Passamezzo Pavan [6] is related to passamezzo antico and sounds like a piece in a minor key. Anthony Pavan [5] comes from the so-called Willoughby Lute Book that dates from c.1570. The piece may have been written by Anthony de Countie (fl.16th Century), and is an early example of a rhapsodic, however short, English pavan. Set in the same key of F minor, the Pavan by Alfonso Ferrabosco I [7] was included in Robert Downland’s anthology A Variety of Lute Lessons (1611) and is a mature, passionate representative of the genre. Because of his Catholic faith and later priesthood, one of the most prolific English musicians of his time, Peter Philips (c.1560–1628), spent most of his life in exile in Low Countries. Once on the way from Amsterdam to Antwerp, Philips was suspected in complicity in a plot against the Queen Elizabeth and was imprisoned. The accusations bore no fruit and the composer was acquitted, but it was during his imprisonment in Den Haag (!) that he wrote his Pavana Cromatica [9]. Philips was a keyboard virtuoso, and both Pavana Cromatica and Philips Pavan [11] must be contemporary transcriptions for the lute. Compositions entitled ‘Spanish Pavan’ [10 by John Johnson, 14 by Thomas Robinson] belong to a sub-genre of pavans that usually are variation sets rather than sectional dances. Mason Pavan by
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Mathias Mason [12] and the anonymous Sims Pavan [16] are ‘sweet’ compositions in major keys. Sims Pavan comes from the Cambridge MS Nn. 6.36, which was compiled 1610–5, i.e. later than other manuscripts in the pen of Mathew Holmes. The ornamented repeats in this piece are also in a later style, the English attempt at stile brisé, which by that time was quite popular on the Continent. The Lachrimae Pavan [13] is among the most celebrated compositions of late 16th century, founded the fame of its author, the divine lutenist John Dowland, and became his signature piece. It can be found in numerous English and European sources, and it also inspired many composers to start their pavans with the four descending notes exactly in Dowland’s rhythmical pattern. The pun in the title Semper Dowland semper dolens [15] refers to the lutenist’s fundamental dissatisfaction with life – the best Elizabethan lutenist, he never secured a position at the Queen’s court. The anonymous Pavan [17] comes from the so-called Cozens Lute Book (Cambridge University Library, Add. 3056). It is straightforward and transparent, offering a unique feature, too: an unmarked section in triple metre that opens the last strain. Daniel Bacheler and John Daniel were often confused by the early-17th-century scribes, and today, in the 21st century, we can see why. These late English lutenists represented a very similar eccentric, somewhat decadent style, which makes an accurate attribution almost impossible. In my mind, these two brought the art of the English pavan to its highest degree of sophistication, as can be seen in Bacheler’s Pavan [18] and Daniel’s Rosamund [19]. 훿 Oleg Timofeyev, Iowa City
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Oleg Timofeyev Lutenist, guitarist, musicologist, and documentary film director, Oleg Timofeyev was born to a musical family that gave the world several generations of professional musicians. He received his first music lessons from his mother, an excellent cello player. Later he studied classical guitar with the famous Muscovite teacher Kamil Frautschi. In 1989, Oleg Timofeyev was invited to the University of Iowa to direct the Collegium Musicum. A few years later he earned his MA in Early Music Performance from USC, under the guidance of the famous lutenist James Tyler. In 1999, Timofeyev defended his PhD dissertation ‘The Golden Age of the Russian Guitar: Repertoire, Performance Practice, and Social Function of the Russian Seven-String Guitar, 1800–50’ at Duke University under the supervision of Peter Williams. As a lutenist and guitarist, Dr. Timofeyev has recorded more than a dozen solo and ensemble albums to great worldwide critical acclaim. He has taught at universities and conservatories in the US, Russia, Germany and Ukraine. I am grateful to Dr. Peter Williams for his encouraging and formative ideas, to Hopkinson Smith for his inspiring insights on lute music, to Markus Bartholomé, John H. Robinson, Sarge Gerbode, and Eric Crouch for their help with the sources, to the excellent lutenists Paul Beier, Miguel Yisrael, Stewart McCoy, and John Schneiderman, who probably do not even remember how they encouraged this project. Last but not least, I am grateful to my wife Sabine Gölz who tolerated my many hours of practicing in the kitchen.
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To the sweet memory of Pat O’Brien, whose pencil marks are still helping me to get around these pieces
Recorded: 27 May–12 June 2014, St Bridget’s Church, Johnson County, Iowa, USA Recording producer, engineer & editor: Peter Nothnagle | www.peternothnagle.com & 훿 2016 Brilliant Classics
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