With El arte de fantasía, Andrew Lawrence-King and his Harp Consort have once again put together an album that is attractive to hear even as it introduces audiences to an esoteric repertoire. Any lover of harp music might enjoy the pristine sounds and graceful ornaments of Lawrence-King's Spanish double harp and Renaissance harp. The selections here come from the era of Spain's King Charles V. Lawrence-King is featured on every track, usually accompanied by a small group of string and keyboard instruments. As on other ...
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With El arte de fantasía, Andrew Lawrence-King and his Harp Consort have once again put together an album that is attractive to hear even as it introduces audiences to an esoteric repertoire. Any lover of harp music might enjoy the pristine sounds and graceful ornaments of Lawrence-King's Spanish double harp and Renaissance harp. The selections here come from the era of Spain's King Charles V. Lawrence-King is featured on every track, usually accompanied by a small group of string and keyboard instruments. As on other recordings, Lawrence-King focuses on a single musical entity as an entry point to a complex repertoire, in this case a publication, the Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, arpa & vihuela (Book of New Tablatures for Keyboard, Harp, and Vihuela) of 1557. The music reflects various influences: improvisatory procedures, variation structures that were the ancestors of later ground bass pieces, semi-popular song, and the Flemish polyphony of Josquin and his contemporaries that was the high-art...
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