The booklet for this German release, with an impressive 13 footnotes, presents English composer John Jenkins as a transitional figure between Renaissance and Baroque, an idea borne out by the "Fantasy Suite" title of several of the works here. They are indeed hybrids of the Elizabethan-era polyphonic fantasia with the smaller Baroque dance movements that British composers of the seventeenth century's second quarter were beginning to import and observe in continental models: in four of the compositions here Jenkins simply ...
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The booklet for this German release, with an impressive 13 footnotes, presents English composer John Jenkins as a transitional figure between Renaissance and Baroque, an idea borne out by the "Fantasy Suite" title of several of the works here. They are indeed hybrids of the Elizabethan-era polyphonic fantasia with the smaller Baroque dance movements that British composers of the seventeenth century's second quarter were beginning to import and observe in continental models: in four of the compositions here Jenkins simply adds suite movements to an opening fantasy. It's an effective combination, resolving the learned and serious fantasy, which in Jenkins' hands still involved a good deal of chromatic invention, into simpler dances. The texture anticipates the trio sonata, with most of the music written for violin (these were among the first British violin compositions), viola da gamba, and a written-out continuo part taken by an organ, or in one case a theorbo. The booklet (in German, French, and...
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