It's difficult to tell from the cover of this disc what you're getting inside, for it is neither a disc entirely by the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble nor a survey of music in London between 1580 and 1620. Actually, it's somewhere in between, and that makes it noteworthy. It's a sampling of music from the age of Elizabeth and James, tilted toward the music that might have been played by "waits," or civic musicians. As director and annotator William Lyons (who also arranged several of the pieces for this presentation) ...
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It's difficult to tell from the cover of this disc what you're getting inside, for it is neither a disc entirely by the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble nor a survey of music in London between 1580 and 1620. Actually, it's somewhere in between, and that makes it noteworthy. It's a sampling of music from the age of Elizabeth and James, tilted toward the music that might have been played by "waits," or civic musicians. As director and annotator William Lyons (who also arranged several of the pieces for this presentation) points out in the booklet, that encompasses quite a bit of music. There is no sacred polyphony here, and no madrigals sung in the usual multivoice way. But the waits could perform instrumental polyphony (presumably in open air), could accompany the singer of a madrigal or popular ballad, and could provide theater music. Those genres make up the bulk of the program, with keyboard pieces (including Byrd's charming The Bells) offering pauses from the brass sound. It's an odd but quite...
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Add this copy of Flower of Cities All: Music in London 1580-1620 to cart. $30.57, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2008 by Deux-Elles.
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