A title like Instrumental Music of the 16th and seventeenth century may seem to encompass subject matter far too broad to be done justice on a single album. However, the German-based early music ensemble Capella de la Torre does not attempt to provide an all-inclusive representation of the genre. Rather, the selected works, along with their concise, informative liner notes, give listeners a glimpse of the evolution of instrumental music. Instrumentalists began as nothing more than mere accompanists for vocal ensembles; the ...
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A title like Instrumental Music of the 16th and seventeenth century may seem to encompass subject matter far too broad to be done justice on a single album. However, the German-based early music ensemble Capella de la Torre does not attempt to provide an all-inclusive representation of the genre. Rather, the selected works, along with their concise, informative liner notes, give listeners a glimpse of the evolution of instrumental music. Instrumentalists began as nothing more than mere accompanists for vocal ensembles; the earliest works on this album have a very clear vocal quality to them. But as instrument makers became more accessible and even middle-class citizens began to show an interest in making music in their own homes, purely instrumental music began to eclipse vocal music, although it was a very slow and gradual process. The aim of Capella de la Torre is not to focus on the larger-scale, "popular" works of this time period, but rather to demonstrate how different subgenres of music in the...
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