Dear Andrew, It is almost certainly mine, and dates back to the time when I visited California in October - November 2002.
Green's Almain is a setting for solo lute in the Willoughby Lute Book, otherwise known as Don Federico's Almain. It appears in Adriaenssen's _Pratum Musicum_ (1584) and in the Herold Lute Book. (Both those concordances were unknown to the editors of the Boethius Press facsimile of the Willoughby Lute Book.) I noticed another concordance this summer: a four-part setting, in Phalèse, if I remember right. I can check the reference, if you like. Robert Spencer and Jeffrey Alexander, the editors of the Boethius Press facsimile, read the title as "Green's Almain", but I think it could conceivably be "Queen's Almain" too. The writing is not awfully clear. Elsewhere in the manuscript there is a reference to Green's book, presumably another lute book, now lost. The Willoughby Lute Book was owned originally by Francis Willoughby, who had a loyal servant called Green. These three Greens may or may not be the same person. Many years ago I arranged this piece for consort, and you have the cittern part. You will have copied it into Fronimo yourself, because at that time I didn't have Fronimo. Your original copy would have been in my handwriting. I also adapted the same piece for lute trio, and it would have been one of the pieces we played together at the lute workshop in Berkeley organised by Mike Peterson. He had forewarned me that there would be a cittern player present (i.e. you), which is why I made a point of bringing this piece along. I remember that during that workshop you gave a splendid performance of a lute duet from Adrianssen's _Pratum Musicum_ with Sean Smith. If you would like the other five parts of my arrangement of Green's Almain, I would be very happy to send them to you. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hartig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 7:28 PM Subject: [LUTE] Green's Almain? > > Does anyone know of lute or consort setting (or other setting?) of a > "Green's Almain"? > > Yesterday I came across this mysterious piece of cittern tablature in > my music stack. I noticed it was in Fronimo format, so I searched my > computer and also found that I had the file! Either I entered it in > Fronimo at some point or it was sent to me by someone (the file was > last copied in 2002), but I have absolutely no recollection of it, > whatsoever. > > I looked through H.M. Brown, Ward's "Sprightly and Cheerful Musicke," > Julia Craig-McFeely's dissertation on English lute music, and even > Googled the title, but I have found no trace of this title anywhere. > It seems to be of English origin, and the tablature is for 4c. > chromatic cittern in "Italian" tuning (i.e. English cittern). > > The cittern part is chordal and appears to be an accompaniment only. > The piece is quite nice, though. I'd like to find it's companion > parts, if at all possible. I will more than happily share this > tablature with whomever else is interested. > > Thanks in advance, > Andrew To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
