In England, music for viol consort spanned the Renaissance and Baroque periods, from a time before the Elizabethan composer John Dowland to the end of the 17th century, when the works of Henry Purcell were among the last written for it. In the middle of this period, Matthew Locke stood out as something of a maverick, composing suites of the usual order of fantasies, courantes, airs, and sarabands, yet injecting unpredictable expressive elements and innovations that flew in the face of convention. The peculiarities of Locke ...
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In England, music for viol consort spanned the Renaissance and Baroque periods, from a time before the Elizabethan composer John Dowland to the end of the 17th century, when the works of Henry Purcell were among the last written for it. In the middle of this period, Matthew Locke stood out as something of a maverick, composing suites of the usual order of fantasies, courantes, airs, and sarabands, yet injecting unpredictable expressive elements and innovations that flew in the face of convention. The peculiarities of Locke's compositions are evident in this extremely lucid recording by the Anglo-American consort Phantasm, which has previously explored repertoire by William Lawes, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins, Christopher Tye, and Purcell, and plans an ongoing series of Locke's works for Linn Records. This album offers eight suites and two canons, which establish a context in which Locke's eccentricities may be undersood as a neverending quest for variety and originality, instead of a...
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