I wrote this piece for Queen Adelhait just before the end of Her reign as Queen of Atlantia.  Queen Adelhait was the third Atlantian Queen during my tenure as Royal Bard, and She was a great patron of the performing arts in Atlantia.  While Royal Bard, I wrote a song for Queen Adelhait titled "Fairest Jewel of Atlantia" which I performed for Her at Atlantian Twelfth Night on the day I stepped down as Royal Bard.  The melody for Queen Adelhait's Pavan is derived from that song.  In keeping with the tradition of John Dowland, who often composed dance pieces for the notables of his time, I used the melody of one of my songs as a basis for a dance piece (as was done by Dowland, for example the Dowland lutesong "Flow My Tears" shares its melody with Dowland's famous "Lachrimae Pavan").  I felt our own Queen Adelhait deserved to be honored in the same manner as one of my favorite Period Monarchs, Queen Elizabeth, who was the namesake of Dowland's "Queen Elizabeth's Galliard."  I composed the piece for the four-course ("Renaissance") guitar, and used stylistic elements common to the French guitar composers of the mid-1500s.  The piece is written in an AABB form with 8 measures per section, which is fairly common in the late period renaissance guitar literature (sections of 12 and 16 measures are also common).  The piece maintains a steady rhythm, as I intended the piece to be danced to, if there was interest in doing so by the dance community.  I also used semi-polyphonic style elements, common to the late period guitar literature, while maintaining the melody of "Fairest Jewel of Atlantia" throughout the piece (with some additional decoration).  I was fortunate to work with Lady Sophia the Orange, who choreographed dance steps to my renaissance guitar piece.  Lady Sophia's choreography is derived from instructions presented in Arbeau's dance treatise of the late 1500s.  See below for a link to download the dance choreography and a video of a dance class where I assisted Lady Sophia in teaching Queen Adelhait's Pavan at Atlantia Summer University in 2016.  This piece is also included on my guitar CD (click the music player above to hear it on Bandcamp, or check out one of the videos below).

Musicians playing in the video linked above (right) are Lord Watkyn of Kent on mandolin and Lord Gawain on cello, with me playing the guitar.  This video was recorded at Atlantian Summer University (2016), where Lady Sophia the Orange and I co-taught a class on Queen Adelhait's Pavan (Lady Sophia also taught a couple of other SCA choreographies in the class).  

If you are interested in dancing Queen Adelhait's Pavan, you can download Lady Sophia's dance choreography here.

Queen Adelhait's Pavan staff notation and modern guitar tablature.  By Johann von Solothurn

Queen Adelhait's Pavan staff notation.  By Johann von Solothurn