'Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls (in England at least), composed by three famous masters: William Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons' was probably printed in 1613. As the chief counsellor in the last years of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign and the first years of James I’s, Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury was at the centre of a web of political patronage, artistic patronage, and a web of spies that seems to have included musicians. John Edwards and Louise Hung talk about Salisbury’s patronage of the arts, especially the art of music, his musical instrument collection and his collection of musicians. At the end of the chat you’ll hear Louise play William Byrd’s Pavana Earl of Salisbury and Galiardo secundo from Parthenia. Further reading: Patronage, Culture and Power: The Early Cecils ed. Pauline Croft and John Dowland by Diana Poulton.

This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed.