William Lawes (1602-1645): Selected Harpsichord Pieces

The following pieces by William Lawes appear in a volume entitled “Musick’s Hand-Maid”, published by John Playford in 1663. The numbers below in parentheses refer to the number of the piece in that collection.
1 (7): An Ayre: 00:00 2 (8): Corant: 1:21 3 (9):Saraband: 2:17
4 (45): Golden Grove: 3:39 5 (46): Corant: 4:44 6 (47): Saraband: 5:26
7 (48): Symphony: 7:43 8 (49): Saraband: 8:50
William Lawes was the son of a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, and the younger brother of a then well-known composer of songs, Henry Lawes. William had an aristocratic patron – Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, who apprenticed the young lad to the composer John Coprario, who in turn introduced William to Charles, the Prince of Wales. With contacts such as these, it is little wonder that William and Henry, both being of obvious talent, were given golden opportunities. When Prince Charles ascended to the throne as King Charles I, he appointed William as “musician in ordinary for lutes and voices”. William remained in the employ of the king for the rest of his adult life. Charles’s dispute with Parliament led famously to the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, whereupon William Lawes joined the Royalist army. On September 24, 1645, he was shot by a Parliamentarian, and died of his wounds. The King mourned him, and honored him with the tile of “Father of Musick”. As can be heard in the selection of pieces presented here, Lawes was indeed an excellent composer, and may be seen as a predecessor of the renowned Henry Purcell.
David Bolton, “The Digital Harpsichordist”
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