Renaissance: Anonymous
Mr. Anonymous was by far the most famous composer from the Renaissance. Despite extensive research of musicologists, we have little to no information about the biography of the lord or lady in question. Fortunately, a lot of this music has been handed down via publications and collections of others.
Click the title for playback and sheet music:
An anonymous sixteenth century duet for two lutes which sounds very well on the guitar. This was one of the pieces -played by some friends from high school- that caused my love for the guitar. The piece imitates the church bells of London.
An anonymous sixteenth century duet for two lutes. It imitates two nightingales, what you can hear by the mordents in the piece which sound as bird song. The challenges are the thrills with the fourth finger while you have to hold the barre.
An anonymous sixteenth century duet for two lutes which sounds very well on the guitar. This was one of the pieces -played by some friends from high school in the cellar of Hans Dekker at the Jacob Obrechtstraat in Amsterdam- that caused my love for the guitar.
A joyful piece which doubtlessly would have been a perfect commercial tune for a sixteenth century brewery. Ensembles like the Romeros have played this tune enthusiastically, including the dance-like percussion effects.
The song appears a humorous Renaissance song with a quite weird opinion concerning plying innocent ladies with liquor. The at times ambiguous lyrics makes you question the true nature of the song. Especially considering the fact that the lady falls ill with Watkins Ale... after nine months. A period that has something familiar, I guess…
