In person workshop with Parthenia

In our first full length workshop since winter of 2020, the VdGS-NE is pleased to welcome the New York-based consort Parthenia to teach a workshop called Continental Connections: European Influences and Cross-cultural Exchange in English Viol Consort Music. The directors are Lisa Terry and Lawrence Lipnik with Rosamund Morley and Beverly Au as assisting faculty. Carol Lewis will teach a class for beginners.

Register and pay online

The English viol consort music that we know and love so much was influenced by many continental musical fashions that haven’t been as closely explored as the Jacobean fantasy repertoire itself. Throughout the 16th and early 17th century, court composers and musicians, traveling in the entourage of their respective courts, interacted with their foreign counterparts.  Some English and European composers traveled to look for work abroad to escape religious persecution at home.  In this workshop we will explore the musical connections that flowed in both directions—from European countries to England and back again. These explorations will include Franco-Flemish music in England at the court of Henry VIII,  Spanish influences at Mary Tudor’s court, the love of Italian music in Elizabethan England, and Danish and German connections with England when Anne of Denmark, the wife of James I, was the Queen.

Register by March 1 to reserve a spot! Late registrants will be accepted only if space is available.

Register and pay online though our webstore or register on paper and send a check using the form in the flyer. 

In a break from past practice, there is no need to select specific classes! Together we’ll travel chronologically from Henry VIII’s reign to the English expats of the 17th century. Registrants will be grouped into varying consorts by level for each class session.

Class 1: International Musicians and Music at the Court of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary Tudor

Between about 1515 when the viol might have been introduced to England and Henry VIII’s Music Book was compiled, and 1558 when Elizabeth I ascended to the throne,  many continental musicians settled in England or visited in the entourages of royalty and diplomats. Music known in England included Franco-Flemish compositions by Isaac, Busnois, van Ghizeghem, van Wilder, and Spanish music introduced by Mary’s Spanish mother and Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain such as works by Morales, Victoria, and Gombert. 

Class 2: The “Golden Age” of English Consort Music and the fashion for the Italian Madrigal

Included in the Dow Part Books, copied around 1580, and interspersed among pieces by Tallis, Byrd, and Parsons, are instrumental and vocal pieces by Lassus, Verdelot, Ruffo and Ferrabosco.  In the Huntington Library, Tenbury and Ellesmere part books, many more Italians are represented – Marenzio, Pallavicino, Croce and madrigals from Monteverdi’s Third Book, as well as music by Coprario, Weelkes, Ferrabosco and Lupo.

Class 3: The Emigration to the Continent: Self-exiled Composers and English Catholic Refugees in Germany, Flanders and Denmark

Dowland famously pined for England while working alongside native composers such as Borchgrevinck, Pedersøn, and Greebe at the Danish Court. Publications by Fullsack & Hildebrand in Hamburg, include music of Brade, Holborne and other Englishmen. Peter Philips, John Bull, and Richard Dering all left England for Catholic countries, eventually ending up in Belgium. 

As always, complete information on the workshop is available in the flyer linked at the top of the page.