These four pavans come from Melchior Franck s Newer Pavanen Galliarden unnd Intraden, auff allerley Instrumenten zu musicieren, mit vier fünff und sechs Stimmen gesetzt, Coburg, 1603. Unfortunately, as is the case with so many Franck collections, the only surviving copy of this print was lost in the 1939-45 war, so I have had to follow Franz Bölsche s apparently reliable transcription in Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst, Erste Folge, XVI: Melchior Franck und Valentin Haussmann, Ausgewählte Instrumentalwerke, 1904, in which the original note values were retained.
In these pieces Franck does not preserve a single solemn mood throughout, but instead presents a series of strongly-contrasting sections, as he does indeed in his wonderful six-part intradas (see LPM TM40 and TM54).
The composer probably had stringed instruments mainly in mind as his first choice, but these rich and colourful works can also sound very fine on consorts of wind instruments such as cornetts, curtals and sackbuts, as well as recorders or flutes.
