Lady Layton’s Measures [? Almain]

One musical setting, entitled The Lady Laitons Almane and ascribed to John Dowland is printed from the lute tablature, with a list of concordances, by Andrew Sabol. Indeed, the dance may well have had the original Almain Doubles later replaced by ordinary ones, the music retaining the original title of Almain, a process which certainly applied to the later versions of the Black Almain. Perhaps the scribe omitted to add some Almain Doubles which, in three of the almains in Source A, are used to conclude each of those dances. The choreography seems at first sight to be incomplete, as the text breaks off leaving sufficient space for other two- and-a-half lines of text. The fact that the extant choreography does not specify Almain Doubles does not, of course, rule out the possibility that these were originally used in practice, a possibility that is made more real by the music's title.