My Lady Careys Dompe

A "dompe" can refer to a dance, a dirge, a lament, or a melancholic love song. This Renaissance dompe appears only in a single source, a manuscript, currently held by the British Museum, dating to about 1530. It is unknown who composed it, though it is sometimes attributed to Hugh Aston. Also unknown is the identity of Lady Carey. The piece may have been written for the death of William Carey, a courtier of Henry VIII, who died on 22 June 1528. If so, Lady Carey may refer to his wife Mary Boleyn, the sister of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.

I am using only the 4' strings, which gives the piece an overall higher pitch. Because of this, I decided to play the left hand D phrase one octave lower than notated. This also enables me to minimise some of the overlapping notes I would otherwise encounter since I'm playing this on a single manual. But I think this works well given that I'm using only the 4' strings.

The tuning I used is meantone 1/5 comma, which I understand would have been common at around the time this piece appears to have been composed.

Played on the sample set for the most excellent Christian Zell single-manual harpsichord built in 1737. Christian Zell (1683 - 1763) was a German harpsichord maker and possibly a student of harpsichord maker Michael Mietke. This harpsichord now resides in the Museu de la Música de Barcelona. It is one of only three surviving harpsichords made by Zell.

To see and hear a performance on the real harpsichord, visit:    • Les barricades mystérieuses, François...  

Sample set by Pere Casulleras.