Monsieurs Almaine (William Byrd)

[Martin Jonas]

William Byrd (1540-1623): "Munsers Almaine", or "Mounsiers Almaine"
Originally for keyboard or virginals from "My Ladye Nevells Booke" (c. 1590)
Consort setting by Thomas Morley, from "Morley's Consort Lessons" (1599)

This is a widely copied late Tudor dance tune with somewhat murky authorship. Byrd appears the most likely composer, as he is credited with having written all 42 tunes in "My Ladye Nevells Booke". Most recorded versions use the spelling "Monsieurs Almaine" and are credited to lutenist Daniel Bacheler (1572 - 1619), although as far as I can tell he just wrote a set of lute variations to Byrd's earlier tune.

Either way, my arrangement is adapted from a 5-part broken consort setting by Thomas Morley, via a transcription by Steve Hendricks, at:

https://sca.uwaterloo.ca/sca/Hendric...y/mounsie2.pdf

I've dropped the chordal treble part down an octave and played it on tenor guitar. Other parts on two mandolins, octave mandolin and mandocello.

Vintage Viaten tenor guitar
Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello


https://youtu.be/xNqFR_eZ8vk

Martin