SKU: A0.1017679

Lady Hammond’s Alman
(Lady Laiton’s Alman)


I first came across a tune called Lady Hammond’s Alman in a book of country dances. It comprised just a melody. As I played it on mandolin I was adding plenty of double stops, and I wrote these down. I then added a bass line. Later, I discovered the piece to be a composition of the Elizabethan lutenist, John Dowland. Later still, I found the piece under the name, Lady Laiton’s Alman, but I have retained the Lady Hammond title simply because that is how I first encountered it!

An alman (aka almand, almand, allemande etc) is a dance in duple time. Thoinot Arbeau, in his Orchesography of 1589, states that ‘The Alman is a simple, rather sedate dance, familiar to the Germans, and, I believe, one of our oldest since we are descended from them.’ (‘Allemande’ means ‘German’ in French.)