Lady Maggie's Lilt
Music from the Lute Book of Lady Margaret Wemyss 1629-1648
Martin Eastwell (Lute)
Eastwell is a thoughtful, unfussy guide, and the intimacy of his playing is captured in a recording sound that leaves the listener feeling like a favoured eavesdropper.
Lady Maggie's Lilt
Music from the Lute Book of Lady Margaret Wemyss 1629-1648
Martin Eastwell (Lute)
Purchase product
Eastwell is a thoughtful, unfussy guide, and the intimacy of his playing is captured in a recording sound that leaves the listener feeling like a favoured eavesdropper.
About
The lute held a central position in the musical life of the Scottish court in the 15th and 16th centuries. Frequent payments to lutenists appear in the Royal accounts. Both James IV and James V were accomplished players, and a French courtier, Pierre de Brantôme, describes Mary Queen of Scots as “blending her voice with the lute which she touched so daintily with a fair white hand”. Despite this, no significant body of specifically Scottish lute music survives from before 1600, by which time Scotland no longer had a court or a monarch in residence. Lady Margaret was born in 1629 at Falkland Palace in Fife, the eighth child of David, second Earl of Wemyss, and died in 1648 aged 19. Lady Margaret’s Lute Book was rediscovered in the early 1980’s among the papers of the Sutherland family, deposited on loan to the National Library of Scotland.
Contents and tracklist
- Martin Eastwell
- Martin Eastwell
- Martin Eastwell
- Martin Eastwell
- Martin Eastwell
- Martin Eastwell
Awards and reviews
July 2013
Eastwell is a thoughtful, unfussy guide, and the intimacy of his playing is captured in a recording sound that leaves the listener feeling like a favoured eavesdropper.
3rd May 2013
the general impression is of attractive, often deeply moving music that is beautifully played. I can recommend this CD to all enthusiasts of early music.
Early Music Today May 2015
The lute’s sound is excellent, and Martin Eastwell’s editing of pieces not always correctly notated by their teenage scribe is convincing
The Classical Reviewer
There are so many finely played pieces on this disc that it has
been difficult to pick out those that are particularly attractive. Martin
Eastwell plays all these works with such style, panache and sensitivity.
