Will Kemp was an Elizabethan actor, comedian, and song-and-dance man, immortalized for having created comic roles in Shakespeare, such as Dogberry, the addle-headed constable in Much Ado about Nothing. Kemp specialized in a type of popular dance number, called a jig, that was regularly presented in Elizabethan theaters after the main play. He accompanied himself with pipe (a type of simple flute, blown like a recorder) and tabor (a snare drum).

“Kemp’s Jig” is a lively — perhaps perky is the right word — and very simple dance tune in a a b form. Both a and b end with the same cadence. The tune is played several times on our recording, first by a recorder and then by a viol, an early stringed instrument in the cello range; ornaments are piled on, first to the repeated phrase a and then to all the repetitions. A lute accompanies.