All sources are Wikipedia, except where noted.
Adrian Le Roy (c.1520–1598) became an accomplished musician and entered the service of, first, Claude de Clermont, then, Jacques II (Baron de Semblançay and Viscount of Tours), both members of the aristocracy who had influence at court. Le Roy and his cousin Robert Ballard founded the printing firm “Le Roy & Ballard”, and in August 1551 obtained a royal privilege from Henry II to print music. Royal patronage was a major factor in the company’s success since it ensured both a ready supply of new music from the court musicians and a market for its publications. Over the following two decades other rival companies dropped out of the market and from the 1570s onwards Le Roy & Ballard enjoyed a virtual monopoly in music publishing. Le Roy achieved renown as a composer and arranger of songs and instrumentals, his published work including at least six books of tablature for the lute, five volumes for the guitar and arrangements for the cittern. Le Roy’s book L’Instruction pour la mandore gives modern historians hints as to the instrument’s origins and design,
Le Roy’s five books of Renaissance Guitar music and one “tutor” were published from 1551 to 1554. While the five books of music survived, the “tutor” was lost and no copies of it have been found.
James Rowbotham printed a gittern method book in 1568/9. This was probably a translated version of the “tutor” of Adrian Le Roy. Only a few pages of this book survive. [Source: The Guitar in Tudor England: A Social and Musical History (Cambridge 2015) by Christopher Page).
Pierre Phalèse (see later notes) published Selectissima Elegantissimaque Guiterna Carmina in 1570 for Renaissance Guitar. Most of the pieces in this book are from Le Roy’s surviving five volumes. However, 32 of the pieces are from elsewhere. Pierre did not attribute the pieces to a composer, but it is highly likely the pieces are by Le Roy and are from the lost book, known as the “tutor”. [Source: Introduction by Micheal Fink in the TREE Edition (2007) of the Selectissima].
This book arranges all 32 of those pieces. Based on this knowledge, all of these pieces have been attributed, although not yet proven, to Adrian Le Roy. The works are mostly dances, as follows:
Pavanes and Gaillardes
The pavane is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century. The decorous sweep of the pavane suited the new more sober Spanish-influenced courtly manners of 16th century Italy. It appears in dance manuals in England, France, and Italy. It has a slow duple metre with two strains of eight, twelve, or sixteen bars each. The pavane’s popularity was from roughly 1530 to 1676. As a musical form, the pavane survived long after the dance itself was abandoned, and well into the Baroque period.
The gaillarde or galliard was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. It is an athletic dance, characterised by leaps, jumps, hops and other similar figures in a series of choreographed patterns of steps. After the dance fell out of popular use and, in musical compositions, the galliard often filled the role of an after dance written in 6, which followed and mimicked another piece (sometimes a pavane) written in 4.
Almandes
An allemande (almande or other various spellings) is a Renaissance and Baroque dance. The allemande originated in the 16th century as a duple metre dance of moderate tempo, already considered very old. The dance form flourished in the Baroque era as one of the most popular instrumental dance styles and was often part of a suite of dances.
Branles
The name branle (or bransle) derives from the French verb branler (to shake, wave, sway, wag, wobble) and is a type of French dance popular from the early 16th century to the present. The term also refers to the music and the characteristic step of the dance. The branle was danced by a chain of dancers, usually in couples, with linked arms or holding hands. The dance alternated a number of larger sideways steps to the left (often four) with the same number of smaller steps to the right so that the chain moved gradually to the left.
Peeter van der Phaliesen, Latinised as Petrus Phalesius, French versions of name Pierre Phalèse and Pierre de Phaleys (c. 1510 – 1575) was a Flemish bookseller, printer and publisher. Aside from a number of literary and scientific works, his printing press is mainly known for its publications of music. Phalesius was the principal publisher of music active in the sixteenth-century Low Countries.
His instrumental pieces are obviously borrowed from the Parisian publishers Le Roy and Ballard. Notable among these is Selectissima… in guiterna ludenda carmina (Leuven, 1570), a collection containing instructions (in Latin) for amateurs wishing to play the guitar, together with 115 pieces for that instrument.