The music of Thomas Lupo (1571-1627), an early figure in the development of English viol consort music, has not been played much but is of interest in several ways. He seems to have been Jewish, for one thing, a member of a Venetian family originally brought to England by Henry VIII, and a court composer to Charles I. The present music will intrigue lovers of the viol consort. It does not have the sharp thematic profiles of the consort music of his contemporary Gibbons, but one can hear the genre taking shape here in its ...
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The music of Thomas Lupo (1571-1627), an early figure in the development of English viol consort music, has not been played much but is of interest in several ways. He seems to have been Jewish, for one thing, a member of a Venetian family originally brought to England by Henry VIII, and a court composer to Charles I. The present music will intrigue lovers of the viol consort. It does not have the sharp thematic profiles of the consort music of his contemporary Gibbons, but one can hear the genre taking shape here in its early years. The notes praise the five- and six-part pieces, which are like instrumental madrigals, patterned specifically on the music of the Italian madrigalist Luca Marenzio. These are contrapuntally accomplished, but to these ears, the most interesting pieces are those in three parts, for which Lupo did not have vocal models available; consider the sole Pavan (all the rest of the pieces are Fantasias). It is a beautifully balanced early exemplar of the sober viol consort style. The...
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