Online Recital:
Musicke in the Ayre – Continuo songs published by the Playford dynasty on Fleet Street during the Restoration period.

The Programme

Carmel Edwards, Jane Hunt, Gwen Martin, Gillian Wormley – sopranos; Sophia Brumfitt – mezzo-soprano; Din Ghani – lute, Baroque guitar

from ‘Select Musicall Ayres & Dialogues’ (J Playford, 1653)
Gather ye rosebuds

from ‘Select Musicall Ayres & Dialogues’ (J Playford, 1653)
Among the myrtles

from ‘The Treasury of Music’ (J Playford, 1669)
Like hermit poor

from ‘Select Ayres and Dialogues’ (J Playford, 1669)
Mark how the blushful morn
No more shall meads

from ‘Psalms and Hymns’ (J Playford, 1671)
A broken altar

from ‘Choice Songs, Ayres & Dialogues’
Cupid, once when weary

from ‘The Theatre of Music’ Bk 3 (H Playford, 1686)
Oh that I had but a fine man

from ‘The Theatre of Music’ Bk 4 (H Playford, 1687)
When first Amintas sue’d for a kiss

from ‘Orpheus Britannicus’ Bk 1 (H Playford, 1698)
Ah, Belinda
I attempt from love’s sickness
Fairest isle
She loves, and she confesses too
If music be the food of love

The Artists

Din Ghani formed Musicke in the Ayre a decade ago to explore and perform the extensive 16/17th century repertoire for one or more solo voices accompanied on early plucked strings supplemented occasionally by bass viol. This recital uses live recordings from 10 concerts given between 2014 and 2019, together with two tracks (‘Amongst the myrtles’ and ‘No more shall meads’) from a video made for Brighton Early Music Festival 2020 titled ‘Sweet Ayres of Arcadia’ (included here with BREMF’s permission).