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The Holborne Suite:
The Fruit of Love / The Choise / The Honie-Suckle

[Anthony Holborne arr. Brass Monkey]

Brass Monkey played these three dances in 2001 on their fourth album Going and Staying. The album’s sleeve notes said:

Hardly anything is known of the life of Anthony Holborne, the composer of these tunes—the first documented date being his marriage on 14 June 1584. From the title page of Pavans, Galliards, Almains, and other short Aeirs both grave, and light, in five parts, or Viols, Violins and other Musicall Winde Instruments, consisting of 65 different compositions from which these dances were taken, it is learned that he was in the service of Queen Elizabeth I. Seventy-five percent of his output consists of dances. It is gradually being discovered that the whimsical titles refer to specific poetry or prose— Edmund Spencer’s The Shepheards Calendar of 1579 being one such connection.