Life
Anthony Holborne was an English composer of music for lute, cittern, and instrumental consort active during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Little is documented of his early life, though he may be the Anthony Holburne who entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1562. He married Elisabeth Marten in 1584, served the Countess of Pembroke, Mary Sidney, and later entered the service of Sir Robert Cecil. He died of a cold in November 1602. Holborne published the Cittharn Schoole in 1597 and, in 1599, Pavans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, the largest surviving collection of five-part consort dances from the period. Anthony Holborne was highly esteemed by his contemporaries, including John Dowland, who dedicated a song to him.
Impact
Anthony Holborne’s 1599 collection of consort dances stands as a landmark of English instrumental chamber music, rivaled only by Dowland’s Lachrimae, and his lute and cittern works display a refined melodic and harmonic style admired throughout Elizabethan London. His piece “The Fairie Round” achieved lasting fame as one of the Voyager Golden Record’s musical selections, carrying his music beyond Earth as an emblem of human artistic achievement.
Repertoire
The Fairie Round, 1599
A sprightly galliard from Pavans, Galliards, Almains, later famously included on the Voyager Golden Record.
The Fairie Round — Performed by OneManRenBand
The Fairie Round by Anthony Holborne | Sarah Jeffery, Recorder — Performed by Sarah Jeffery
Pavan: The Image of Melancholy, 1599
A stately paduana from the 1599 collection, its enigmatic title evoking a mood of elevated melancholy.
Anthony Holborne · The Image of Melancholly · Private Musicke — Performed by Private Musicke
Anthony Holborne: Pavan & Galliard for the Lute — Performed by Thomas C. Boysen