IDAGIO | Theatre Of Early Music: Love Bade Me Welcome - Songs and Poetry From the Renaissance 7318590014462

Featuring

Daniel Taylor
Elizabeth Kenny
Frances Kelly
James Bowman
Mark Levy
Ralph Fiennes

Theatre of Early Music
Robert Jones
Miscellaneous
Robert Johnson
John Dowland
Anonymous

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

John Dowland, a celebrated composer of this era, traveled extensively across Europe, assimilating Italian madrigal and French chanson styles into his unique English accompanied singing.

Composer Biography

Robert Johnson, another composer featured, became known for his theatrical compositions, writing songs for Shakespeare's plays like A Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

Composer's Artistic Vision

This period was a 'golden age' of poetry, and composers often used texts of great literary merit, respecting their declamation even to the point of abolishing bar lines.

Compositional Technique

Dowland's famous piece, Lachrimæ, was a 'hit' that he used in three different forms: for solo lute, as a song with lute accompaniment (titled Flow, my tears), and for lute ensemble.

Compositional Technique

Instrumentation in this period was flexible; composers like Campion noted that pieces could be adapted for one voice with lute or viol, or expanded with more parts.

Historical Context

The album explores the 'melancholy variety' of love prevalent in England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a period influenced by the death of Queen Elizabeth I and the Reformation.

Composer Biography

Robert Jones, a composer on this album, sought to be recognized as a serious musician by earning a musical degree, despite lutenists generally not enjoying high social status in the Elizabethan era.