Good Night and Good Rest — A Lute Lullaby from the English Renaissance, performed by lute virtuoso Andreas Martin.

The setting of the Elizabethan Ballad Tune “Good Night and Good Rest” is one of many pieces of the vast collection of compositions for the lute solo kept at Cambridge University Library and originally copied probably by Mathew Holmes between 1588 and 1592. Of calm and peaceful character, this short piece is of uncertain ascription but most likely written by the lutenist John Johnson (1545 – 1594).

The “Holmes Lute Books” are the first English sources to abandon the predominant influence of Italian musicians on the earlier Tudor court in favour of the characteristic forms of English pavans, galliards, almaines and sets of variations on popular ballad tunes, and so collectively preserve the flowering of the Golden Age of English lute music.

Drift back to Elizabethan England with this tender lute miniature, a timeless farewell once played in candlelit chambers. Good Night and Good Rest is a delicate ground—its gentle, repeating bass line and graceful melody weaving a tapestry of calm and reflection.

With every plucked string, the lute whispers a soft benediction: peace, rest, and the quiet beauty of nightfall.