AYRE

also spelled Air, genre of solo song with lute accompaniment that flourished in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The outstanding composers in the genre were the lutanist John Dowland, whose Flow, my teares (Lachrimae) became so popular that a large number of continental and English instrumental pieces were based on its melody, and the poet and composer Thomas Campion. Other leading composers included John Danyel, Robert Jones, and Michael Cavendish. Generally, ayres are graceful, elegant, polished, often strophic songs (i.e., songs having the same music for each stanza), typically dealing with amorous subjects. But many are lively and animated, full of rhythmic subtleties, and others are deeply emotional songs that gain much of their effect from bold, expressive harmonies and striking melodic lines. The ayre developed during a European trend toward accompanied solo song (in place of songs for several voices). Chansons, madrigals, and other polyphonic songs were frequently published in versions for voice and lute, and books of ayres often provided for optional performance by several singers, by having, opposite the solo and lute version, the three additional voice parts printed so that they could be read from three sides of a table. See also air de cour.