Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Oct. 15

Sir Philip Sidney was a flourescent courtier who, in his short career, touched all the bases of Elizabethan courtiership: fighter of the Spanish, poet and lover and outspoken opinion-haver on Elizabeth’s marriage. Actor Tracy Ryan reads poems and prose by and about Sidney and his untimely death, with lute pieces dedicated to him, his brother Robert, Viscount Lisle and sister, Mary, the Countess of Pembroke.

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Music (Dump Philli): Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Lutenist John Edwards plays Dump Philli from the Marsh Lutebook. Pieces called 'Dump' are often memorial pieces and are often built on ground basses of as few as two notes, as is this one.

Episode 8: Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Tracy Ryan reads 'With how sad steps, O Moon, Sonnet 31 from Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, in original pronunciation of the time of Shakespeare and Sidney.

Music (Anthony Holborne): Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Lutenist John Edwards plays Anthony Holborne's sombre pavan 'The Countiss of pembruth fineralle' as it is called in Jane Pickeringe's Lutebook, from which this highly decorated version is taken. The Countess of Pembroke is Lady Mary Sidney, whose father and brother died the same year.

Episode 7: Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Tracy Ryan reads part of a lament by Lady Mary Sidney, on the death of her brother Sir Philip Sidney, author of Astrophel and Stella and The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia in original pronunciation from the time of Sidney and Shakespeare.

Music (Sir Phillip Sidney): Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Lutenist John Edwards plays Sir Phillip Sidneys Lamentacion from Matthew Holmes' Lute Book.

Episode 6: Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Tracy Ryan reads a description of the death of Phillip Sidney at Battle of Zutphen from Elizabethan historian John Stow's The Annals of England to 1603 in original pronunciation from the time of Sidney and Shakespeare.

Music (John Dowland): Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Lutenist John Edwards plays John Dowland's The Battell Galyerd, also known as The King of Denmark's Galliard, in a version from Jane Pickeringe's Lute Book.

Episode 5: Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Tracy Ryan reads a description of the Battle of Zutphen from Elizabethan historian John Stow's The Annals of England to 1603 in original pronunciation from the time of Sidney and Shakespeare.

Music (John Dowland): Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Lutenist John Edwards plays The Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Lisle his Galliard composed by John Dowland, based on Orlando di Lasso's Susanne un jour. Viscount Lisle is Robert Sidney, younger brother to Sir Philip and Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke.

Episode 4: Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

Tracy Ryan reads a sonnet by Robert Sidney, the Viscount Lisle, found in manuscript, in original pronunciation from the time of Sidney and Shakespeare.

Michael Lane

Pleasure Might Make Her Read - Poems and Music for the Sidneys

John Milton’s Comus

Masques and Theatre Music