Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT Guitar Suite recited & played by Francesco d'Amstelredamo
Channel: Frankie Paradiso
Date: 2013-01-18

The Amsterdam minstrel and Royal Court jester Francesco d'Amstelredamo recites his favourite 6 excerpts from William Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night: Or What You Will" (1623) and plays 6 Elizabethan lute pieces on his Spanish guitar to illustrate the passages read out. 6 + 6 = 12!
Dedicated to the fabulous Romanian master of plucked strings, Nicolae "Miki" Szekely, to my former Amsterdam guitar mentor Maestro Carl Brainich von Brainich Felth and to the genial & generous American psychiatrist and lute aficionado Dr Frank "Sarge" Gerbode who has been providing tabulatures for this treasure trove of lute music on his site gerbode.net for ages!
I was so nervous about the lute pieces (far from easy on a Spanish guitar) that I mis-stressed the word "surfeited" in the opening monologue, but who gives a shake, the rest went alright, I hope!
Elizabethan lute pieces played on my Spanish guitar by Juan Orozco:
1. Galliard by Philip Rosseter from Jane Pickering's Lute Book (1616)
2. Playfellow No.1 by Anthony Holborne from John Welde's Lute Book (1605)
3. Come Again by John Dowland (ca. 1600)
4. Go from My Window by Thomas Robinson from his Schoole of Musicke (1603)
5. Lacrimae by John Dowland (ca. 1600)
6. Oh, Mistress Mine (Anon, based on the version by William Byrd in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book)
7. Pavane: The Countess of Pembrook's Paradise by Anthony Holborne, from John Welde's Lute Book (1605)
All lute pieces derived from gerbode.net (tabulatures) kindly provided by Dr Frank "Sarge" Gerbode, who in my humble opinion deserves a Golden Lute Award for his Herculean efforts to make this beautiful music available to all and sundry! Played in dropped Renaissance tuning with a capo at II, so F#BEg#c#f#.