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Track(s) taken from CDH55241

Can she excuse my wrongs?

composer
1597; The First Booke of Songs or Ayres
author of text
probably by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex

James Bowman (countertenor), David Miller (lute), The King's Consort
Recording details: February 1990
Tudeley Church, Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
Produced by Robert King & Ben Turner
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: March 1991
Total duration: 3 minutes 1 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Thomas Dunford (lute)
Grace Davidson (soprano), David Miller (lute)

Reviews

‘James Bowman’s usual ease of tone is in full evidence here. He gives us meltingly sweet, gorgeous, resonant high notes, and fluidity of vocal line. Meanwhile, David Miller’s lute playing is sensitive and agile. Whether pleading for God’s redemption or wooing a lover, both singer and lutenist capture the word painting which is such a feature and strength of these songs. This is one to savour’ (bbc.co.uk)
The gloriously passionate Can she excuse my wrongs?, a hit in its day, is another galliard, but it overcomes a potential limitation of the dance-form song—that the tune can become a metrical straitjacket—by quickening the rhythm as the song progresses. The words seem to be by the Earl of Essex, framed as a love song, but expressing his tempestuous relationship with the Queen, and the accompaniment of the last strain incorporates a popular song, Shall I go walk the woods so wild?, alluding to the Earl wandering the woods of his estate at Wanstead during an exile from Court. In fact the tune was only publicly named The Earl of Essex’s Galliard after both the Earl (executed for a madcap coup attempt in 1600) and the Queen herself had died.

from notes by Christopher Goodwin © 2018

Other albums featuring this work

Dowland: First Booke of Songs or Ayres
Studio Master: SIGCD553Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Dowland: The Art of Melancholy
Studio Master: CDA68007Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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