Pastyme with Good Companye: recreating an early music performance pt 2

(portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger)

Preparing My Performance

When I consider performing any music I have not written, my first task is to see how others have approached the piece. I went immediately to YouTube and began looking up various early music groups to see prior interpretations of the song (LuteandTheorbo and Valery Sauvage). I had a different version of "Pastyme" based off the madrigal (not the period lute arrangement) and arranged for ukulele by Tony Mizen, a premier classical guitarist and teacher, which I considered as well for things such as tempo.

Ideally, "Pastyme" would be performed on a lute. Unfortunately, I do not have an authentic lute at my disposal, however, my primary instrument is guitar, which is in the same family (plucked strings) and can be used to mimic the appropriate sound with the judicious use of playing technique. The Lute Society out of London, UK, has a few beginners' lessons available for free off their website that sufficed as a quick introduction to how a lute is played. Upon researching the technique, it appeared that while the hand and arm positions differed (I would presume to say because of the giant bowled back of the lute), many of the results for playing chords -- plucking the notes simultaneously and/or "spreading" the notes with a "rolling" motion -- were similar to classical guitar technique.

Using and understanding the Lute Society's information on how to pluck and spread chords to further the musical effect enhanced my performance; the guitar almost seems to tell the story itself!

The most obvious concession in terms of technique was my decision to play the guitar with the fleshy tips of the fingers, not the fingernails, as is currently the custom with classical guitar. According to McGee, lutes were either plucked with a pick -- or plectrum -- before 1450 for monophonic music, or plucked with the fingers after that time for polyphonic songs (79).

Initially, the hand positions for some of the chording felt extremely difficult, much more so than I expected. I then remembered reading in a reprinted edition of John Dowland's Lute Songs, that "it is often necessary to lower the 3rd string by one half-step, from G down to F- sharp" (Nadal ix) for the music to lie nicely on the modern instrument. It also has the added bonus of reproducing the pitch spacing of a Renaissance lute -- strings tuned in intervals of fourths with a third in the middle. As soon as I adjusted the tuning of my guitar, the difficulty of hand position eased and I found it much more comfortable to practice and not strain the fingers or wrist.

The other concession I made was to simplify a few of the rhythms in measures 5 and 31 in the interests of clarity. My particular guitar was losing the eighth note G on the treble staff, so I opted to drop it to a bass G to give it a bit of pop.
I also began to practice ornamentation, as stipulated in McGee's guide to performance:

"For musicians living in the Middle Ages and Renaissance era there was a tradition which would have been learned as soon as instruction began and would have continued to develop throughout a career... in spite of the difficulties, modern performers are encouraged to attempt ornamentation and improvisation which, when finally mastered, will add greatly to the authentic re-creation of the early repertory" (149-150).

After I felt fairly comfortable with the hand positions, fingerings, and plucking of the music, I began to experiment with ornamentation and ad lib improvisation, especially in part B of the music. There are several sections where the melody soars above a simple bass accompaniment, and I played with changing the rhythm and/or adding grace notes to the existing rhythmic scheme. Its benefit was twofold: it gives the ear a bit of variety, especially if the first time through is played verbatim, and it enabled me to honor the practice of ornamentation as found during this time in musical history.

Conclusion: Pulling It All Together

While it is unlikely that my historical performance persona Emma, a merchant's wife, would have been strictly a court musician by trade, it is highly likely that she would have been proficient enough to be a source of entertainment in her household. A woman's role in music was typically limited to the scope of the religious sector, or within a private home (Brown 270). Her husband is a well-to-do merchant, and they would often have guests over for dinner -- who would then enjoy entertainment after the meal.

Throughout my research, I came upon painting after painting of women playing music, both for themselves as well as for others. For Emma, it would be a very appropriate task to pull out the lute (in my case, guitar!) and play music for her husband's guests after dinner.

The more I researched, the more I began to realize that musicians in the Renaissance were not that much different than musicians today. There is nothing I enjoy more than playing music for guests or people I may meet, if the opportunity presents itself.

My performance of "Pastyme" is intended to evoke that beautifully simple, down-to- earth enjoyment of music that is timeless.

Works Cited

—British Library Online. "Pastime with Good Company." http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/henryviii/musspowor/pastime/index.html. Accessed 30 Dec 2013.
—Brown, Meg Lota and McBride, Kari Boyd, Eds. Women's Roles in the Renaissance. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing, 2005.
—Craig-McFeeley, Julia. "On Royal Appendix 58." http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/julia/ap1/RA58.htm. Accessed 2 Jan 2014.
—Crouch, Eric. Arr. "Pastyme." 2006. http://www.guitarloot.org.uk/page61/page24/page24.html. Accessed 4 Jan 2014.
—Luminarium.org "Pastyme With Good Companye," Henry VIII orginial manuscript. http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/pastime.htm. Accessed 2 Jan 2014.
—LuteandTheorbo. "Pastime With Good Company." YouTube, 2010. http://youtu.be/EmR2boa2pcQ. Accessed 30 Dec 2013.
—Lute Society of London. "Beginners' Lessons." http://www.lutesociety.org/pages/beginners. Accessed 27 Dec 2013.
—Machlis, Joseph and Forney, Kristine, eds. “Renaissance Sacred Music” The Enjoyment of Music, Ninth. 9th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2003.
—McGee, Timothy J. Medieval and Renaissance Music: A Performer's Guide. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1985.
—Mizen, Tony. Ed. "Pastime With Good Company," From Lute to Uke: Early Music for Ukulele. Wisconsin: Hal-Leonard, 2011.
—Nadal, David. Ed. Lute Songs of John Dowland: The Original First and Second Books Including Dowland's Original Lute Tablature. New York: Dover Publications, 1997 Reese, Gustave. Music in the Renaissance. New York: Norton & Company, 1959.
—Sauvage, Valery. "Pastyme: from RA 58." YouTube, 2008. http://youtu.be/3HepGq-O0Qs. Accessed 5 Jan 2014.
—Stephens, Denys. "[LUTE] Re: Pastime With Good Company." 2006. https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg14778.html. Accessed 2 Jan 2014. [email protected].
—Waldron, Jason. Progressive Classical Guitar Method: Book 1. South Australia: Koala Publications, 2000.
—Williams, Neville. Henry VIII and His Court. New York: Macmillan, 1971.