A timely revival of marvellous music by a late 16th-century English composer too often neglected, this collection of eighteen dances for wind and string ensembles comes from from a rich collection of instrumental pieces published in 1599. The reissue – making its first international appearance on CD – contains the fascinating original L’Oiseau-Lyre booklet notes […]
With a career as Attorney in the Exchequer in the service of Sir Henry Fanshawe, John Ward’s profession was only incidentally (or at least not primarily) that of a musician. From all accounts Fanshawe himself had musical enthusiasms and his household apparently included ‘many gentlemen that were perfectly well qualified both in that [music] and […]
To mark the reissue of this important Consort of Musicke recording, Anthony Rooley writes: ‘Of all the English Lute-Song Books of the Elizabethan/Jacobean Era none has been more misunderstood, nor wilfully maligned as John Maynard’s unique creation. Highly individual, full of rare humour, amazing invention – and at times quite exquisite poignancy – it deserves […]
This set of three CDs contains the complete ‘Chansonnier Cordiforme’, perhaps the most beautiful of all surviving music manuscripts whose first owner was Jean de Montchenu (d. 1497). It was compiled during the 1470s and contains 43 songs from the preceding 30 years by Dufay, Binchois, Ockeghem, Busnoys and other composers of the time. This […]
Anthony Rooley writes: ‘Even in 1926 when Peter Warlock published his brief essay on the English Lute Songs, John Danyel was singled out as being perhaps the finest lute-song composer (John Dowland not excepted) by perceptive Warlock. Nobody believed him then and not much has changed now – but I agree with Warlock. John Danyel […]
John Coprario is not yet a household name (unless the house be one with devoted viol consort aficionados!) but his name should resound in any dwelling where people with a love of English music dwell – for he is firmly of the line of inspiration that leads directly to Henry Purcell two generations later (Coprario […]
King James was paranoid, neurotic, suspicious and an immensely jealous man. Anyone at Court who had individuality, a certain ‘swagger’ and self-assuredness was a sure target of his unsure outlook. Such a one was the Earl of Devonshire, Charles Blount along with his beautiful Penelope – a very striking pair but who became the brunt […]
Renaissance secular music between 1480 and 1620 is large in quantity, high in quality, rich in colour, diverse in form and very different in content from a similar time-span of any later period with which we may be more familiar. This set of four compact discs provides a comprehensive survey of sixteenth-century secular music. Composers […]
Anthony Rooley writes: ‘“Amorous Dialogues” perfectly describes this unusual repertoire – although the variations on the theme of erotic love familiar to all of us tells the basic story of amatory exploits, desires and dreams in fresh ways. For example, can we be expected to believe that “He” doesn’t know what a kiss is and […]
