Selected Recordings
Divisions on a Pavan in G Minor
Fantasia for 6 viols
Three dances for lyra viol
Selected Sheet Music
Suite No.6 for 2 Viols and Organ (treble viol)
Source: IMSLP.org
Showcase Piece
Harp Consort No. 8
Notes and Commentary
William Lawes was an English composer and musician. He was apprenticed to the composer John Coprario, which brought him into contact with Charles, Prince of Wales, at an early age. Both William and his elder brother Henry received court appointments after Charles succeeded to the British throne as Charles I. William was appointed “musician in ordinary for lutes and voices” in 1635 but had been writing music for the court prior to this.
Lawes spent all his adult life in Charles’s employ. He composed secular music and songs for court masques, as well as sacred anthems and motets for Charles’s private worship. He is most remembered today for his sublime viol consort suites for between three and six players and his lyra viol music. His use of counterpoint and fugue and his tendency to juxtapose bizarre, spine-tingling themes next to pastoral ones in these works made them disfavoured in the centuries after his death; they have only become widely available in recent years. He lived from April 1602 to September 24, 1645, “casually shot” during the rout of the Royalists at Rowton Heath, near Chester.”—Excerpted from Wikipedia
Books and Music
Selected Books
The Consort Music of William Lawes
Boydell Press, 2010
John Cunningham
$98.83 on Amazon
“A thorough and highly authoritative account, which will no doubt long remain essential reading for anyone interested not only in Lawes but also in his close contemporaries.”—Peter Phillips on Amazon
William Lawes
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1960
Murray Lefkowitz
$20.95 on Amazon
Selected Music
Consort Sets in Five & Six Parts (2002)
The Harp Consorts (2008)
Consort Music (1996)
Complete Works
Note: list is not complete.
Air and Fantasias for 6 Viols
Airs and Fantasia for 4 Viols
Airs and Fantasia for 5 Viols
Airs for 3 Viols
Royal Consort
Set a 5 in C major, (No.5)
Set a 5 in G minor
Set a 6 in C major, Lefkowitz No.2, Pinto VII
Set a 6 in F major, Lefkowitz No.5, Pinto VIII
Suite No.1 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.1 for 3 Viols and Organ
Suite No.2 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.2 for 3 Viols and Organ
Suite No.3 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.3 for 3 Viols and Organ
Suite No.4 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.4 for 3 Viols and Organ
Suite No.5 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.5 for 3 Viols and Organ
Suite No.6 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.6 for 3 Viols and Organ
Suite No.7 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.7 for 3 Viols and Organ
Suite No.8 for 2 Viols and Organ
Suite No.8 for 3 Viols and Organ
On Baroque 
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