First issued by Argo in 1969 under the title ‘Elizabethan Words and Music’, this anthology of madrigals, poetry and pieces for lute is a further reissue by Eloquence from the Purcell Consort of Voices. ‘Metaphysical Tobacco’ (480 7740) is another reissue as part of ‘The Tudors’, an Eloquence series which focuses on the composers who made […]
It was common from medieval times to think of the Arts as female; in most European languages the words for them are feminine, and in pictures too they were represented as heavenly ladies, each carrying some appropriate object, and often attended by the male figures of her most famous earthly servants. The frontispiece chosen by […]
Precursor to the Baroque era, the Renaissance period in music is generally placed around 1430-1600. This collection brings together both ‘learned’ as well as ‘dance’ music and interspersing the two forms on this compilation encapsulates the spirit of this rich period, stretching from anonymous compositions to the late works of William Byrd with their close […]
Antony Rooley writes: ‘Since 1963 I had been spending many hours in the British Library studying the sixteenth-century English lute manuscripts … what a unique collection! The “Jane Pickering Lute Book”, “The John Sturt Lute Book”, “The Mynshall Lute Book” – all collections of one individual’s personal choice of repertoire, each with unique information on […]
Anthony Rooley writes: ‘In the mid-1970s this humble lute-player had theatrical pretensions! I realised quite early on in my performing career that audiences generally needed more help to “get inside” the beautiful obscure music I was discovering and if their appetite was to be fostered, a new dimension in the manner of presentation had to […]
‘Wales is rich in folk songs and the art of singing these songs is very much alive today,’ writes Osian Ellis in the original note (reprinted in the CD booklet) accompanying this L’Oiseau-Lyre LP. Renowned for his harpistry and to many through his recordings of music by Benjamin Britten (with whom he worked closely), this […]
A collection of songs and dances by Dowland, East and Holborne performed by two of the most eminent of British early-music groups in the late-1960s: Musica Reservata and the Purcell Consort of Voices. The performance of contrapuntal vocal music with viols doubling the voices, stems from a long European tradition and in several of the […]
