Search - William Brade, William [Composer] Byrd, Antony Holborne :: English Consort Music

There's something very appealing about the idea of a consort of instruments: a happy, compatible group of viols or recorders or some combination thereof making agreeable sounds together, be it a dance, a fantasia, or an arrangement of a song. The thing that listeners notice immediately is how well the instruments sound together, and indeed, the timbres of Renaissance strings and winds--thanks to the predominance of resonating wood, gut strings, and the occasional natural reed--create a far more mellow, sweet, and warm sound than we usually hear from modern instruments. This disc features a consort of recorders of all shapes and sizes; the music is by Byrd, Ferrabosco, and several lesser- known composers. There's nothing fancy here, just straightforward, honest, flawless performances of music that, long before television, ordinary people would have played for an evening's entertainment. --David Vernier