William Lawes (1602-1645): Ayre #1 For Three Viols

[Martin Jonas]

William Lawes (1602-1645): Ayre #1 For Three Viols (VdGS No.320)

This air for two treble viols and one bass viol was written by William Lawes, an English early baroque composer. and the missing link between Byrd and Purcell. Lawes spent his entire adult life as a court musician to Charles I, and was eventually killed during the English Civil War at the battle of Rowton Heath in 1645. On his death, the kind honoured him as "The Father of Musick".

This ayre is from Lawes' suites for a consort of three viols. My recording follows the edition by Albert Folop at IMSLP:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Airs_for_3_Vio...es,_William%29

I have played this tune on two mandolins and a mandocello -- the bass line is very resonant and translates nicely to mandocello.

Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello



Martin

[CES]

Nice...thank you!