As our sweet Cords with Discords mixed be ENGLISH RENAISSANCE CONSORT MUSIC CONSORTIUM5 RECORDER QUINTET RES10155 Jerome Bassano (1559-1635) Edward Blankes (1582-1633) As our sweet Cords with Discords mixed be 1. Galliard [1:08] 13. A phancy [1:35] Alfonso Ferrabosco I (1543-1588) Alfonso Ferrabosco I English Renaissance Consort Music 2. In nomine II [1:42] 14. In nomine I [2:01] William Byrd (c. 1540-1623) William Brade 3. In nomine IV [2:22] 15. Coranto [0:46] William Brade (1560-1630) Christopher Tye Consortium5 4. Coranto [1:18] 16. In nomine IX ‘Re la re’ [1:14] Christopher Tye (c. 1505-1572) Antony Holborne (c. 1545-1602) 5. In nomine ‘Howld fast’ [1:17] 17. [Almaine] ‘The night watch’ [1:35] Emily Bloom 6. In nomine ‘Crye’ [1:36] Kathryn Corrigan William Byrd Osbert Parsley (1511-1585) 18. The leaves be green [3:48] Oonagh Lee 7. In nomine [2:24] Gail Macleod Christopher Tye Alfonso Ferrabosco II (1575-1628) 19. In nomine XI Roselyn Maynard 8. Dovehouse Pavan [3:23] ‘Farewell good one for ever’ [1:56] Christopher Tye Alfonso Ferrabosco II recorders 9. In nomine ‘Seldom sene’ [1:35] 20. Pavan V [3:20] About Consortium5: Robert Parsons (c. 1535-1572) John Dowland (1563-1626) ‘[Consortium5] played 10. In nomine III [1:42] 21. Mrs. Nichols’ Almain [0:56] with superb and consistent musicality’ 22. The Earl of Essex’s Galliard [1:13] Ipswich Star Christopher Tye 23. Captain Digorie Piper’s Galliard [1:17] 11. In nomine X ‘Saye so’ [1:06] ‘Consortium5 has earned all the praise critics Jerome Bassano can muster by reinventing consort music’ John Ward (1571-1638) 24. Fantasia I [3:16] Sequenza21 12. Fantasia III [4:17] Edward Gibbons (1568-c. 1650) 25. In nomine [2:10] Osbert Parsley 26. Parsley’s Clocke [1:22] Jerome Bassano 27. Fantasia III [3:05] John Eglestone (dates unknown) 28. In nomine II [1:48] John Dowland 29. Mr George Whitehead’s Almain [1:32] Antony Holborne 30. Coranto ‘Heigh ho holiday’ [0:46] 31. The Fairie-round [1:10] Giovanni Coperario (c. 1570-1626) 32. Fantasia [3:42] Antony Holborne 33. Pavan ‘The funerals’ [3:40] Thanks to our family and friends, for all their love and support. William Brade Thanks also to Kathy Humphry and 34. Coranta [0:49] Chris Gibbs and to all the supporters who made our Kickstarter campaign a success. We would like to express Total playing time [67:15] our gratitude to the Robin Chapel in Edinburgh, and to the families Macleod and Ferguson who hosted us during our recording sessions in Edinburgh. As our sweet Cords with Discords mixed be: were developed to play polyphonic music, Since instrumental consorts were modelled than another in the late sixteenth century, English Renaissance Consort Music either by themselves or with voices, though on polyphonic vocal ensembles it followed when composers began to exploit their they were not mixed freely together until that most early instrumental music was particular characteristics, particularly in The idea of developing instruments in the late-sixteenth century. Mixed consorts derived from vocal music. The first collections, virtuoso passage-work which up to that time different sizes so that they could be used became fashionable around 1600, but before from around 1500, consist mostly of motets, had been added by the performers as together to play polyphonic music, then the various types of instruments were chansons and other types of vocal music just improvised ornamentation. The norm was mimicking the natural differences mostly played by themselves, used by copied or printed without words. In time for consorts to consist of three sizes of between different voices, seems to professional groups more like items on a new genres developed based loosely on instrument, used respectively to play have developed around 1400 somewhere menu rather than ingredients in a dish. vocal idioms, such as the fantasia, mostly soprano, alto/tenor, and bass parts in in Germany, when the bombard, a tenor Shawms, cornetts, trombones and other derived from the motet and other types of four-part music, with a part added between version of the shawm (the ancestor loud instruments were used outdoors or church music, and the canzona, derived from the tenor and bass in five-part music and of the oboe) was developed. Until then in large halls. Flutes, recorders and other the French chanson. The one type not based an extra soprano in six-part music. the various types of instruments had soft wind consorts were naturally used directly on vocal idioms was dance music. Recorders, like other Renaissance winds, only been made in a single size (or at in more intimate, indoor situations. Mediaeval dance music was rarely written were pitched a fifth apart, usually in g', c' least in uncoordinated different sizes), as Viols were particularly associated with down and therefore must have been largely and f, though it was possible to use smaller they still are in the traditional music of contrapuntal music and with accompanying improvised, and when polyphonic dance or larger instruments to produce high- the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The voices. Violins were thought to be the best music developed during the fifteenth century or low-pitched consorts. consort principle, as we might call it, instruments for accompanying courtly it initially consisted of improvisations around was applied in the course of the fifteenth dance music, and so on. Most employers, a given plainsong-like cantus firmus, often In England consort music was largely century to other wind instruments, such such as town councils (who employed derived from popular songs. Around 1500 dependent on Continental imports and as the flute and the recorder (the instrument groups of municipal musicians, called changing fashion led to new types of dance models until the middle of the sixteenth featured on this album), followed around ‘waits’ in England) or the smaller courts music. It was now composed rather than century, when a distinctive repertory of 1500 by bowed instruments – viols, violins in Italy and German-speaking areas of improvised, in three or four parts, with the contrapuntal music developed. Much of it and rebecs. The fashion for the consort Europe, could only afford a single versatile tune in the top part rather than the tenor. was written by composers associated with principle in the sixteenth century meant group, though the largest courts had a Also, the new dances, such as the pavan the court, such as Christopher Tye (who that Medieval instruments with a built-in number of separate groups. At the English and galliard, consisted of two, three or seems to have been Edward VI’s music drone, such as the bagpipe and the court during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, for more short repeated sections rather than tutor), Alfonso Ferrabosco I (a lutenist from hurdy-gurdy, dropped out of art music, instance, there were consorts specialising a continuous cantus firmus. Bologna who worked at Elizabeth's court remaining in use in popular music; their in loud winds (principally shawms and in the 1560s and 70s), and Robert Parsons drones made them unsuitable trombones), flutes, recorders, violins, Early consort music was usually written in and William Byrd (both members of the for polyphonic music. viols and lutes – by then even the lute a neutral manner so that it could be played Chapel Royal). Much of it was probably had been developed in three sizes. by most types of instrument. It only began written for and played by court musicians, The various types of instrumental consorts to be written specifically for one type rather and the three pieces (nos. 1, 24 and 27) by Jerome or Jeronimo Bassano may have fanfares, and in ‘Re la re’ (no. 16) the 1599 collection also illustrates the fashion Blankes (no. 13), a London wait, makes been written specifically for recorders, since counterpoint features those three notes – for lighter, more modern dances, including its effect more by quirky changes of he was a member of the court recorder d-a-d or g-d-g. Composers also subjected almains such as ‘The night watch’ (no. 17) rhythmic direction and by rich, dissonant consort from 1578 until his death in 1635. other melodies or patterns of notes to the and corantos, such as ‘Heigh ho holiday’ harmony. Music of this sort illustrates the The Bassano family, from Bassano della cantus firmus technique. In ‘Parsley’s Clocke’ (no. 30). Similarly, John Dowland’s Lachrimae richness of the English consort tradition: it Grappa near Venice, settled in London in (no. 26), also known as ‘The song upon the (1604) is famous for its sequence of seven draws on European traditions of vocal and the reign of Henry VIII and its members dial’, the Norwich composer Osbert Parsley Lachrimae pavans, which are essentially instrumental music and yet can only have served successive monarchs, mostly as represented the chiming of the clock by six string music, though the lighter galliards been written by an Englishman. recorder players and instrument makers, rising and falling notes in the tenor part. and almains in the collection (including until the Civil War and beyond. In general, In Byrd’s superb ‘The leaves be green’ (no. nos. 21-23) also work well on recorders. © 2015 Peter Holman this Elizabethan repertory is mostly thought 18) the given material (also known as The three corantos by William Brade (nos. of today as music for viols, though much ‘Browning’) is a popular tune rather than 4, 15 and 34) exemplify the fashion for of it is equally suitable for wind instruments, a cantus firmus, which migrates continually English consort music abroad: he left and may even have been sung on occasion from part to part.