The specialist par excellence of Elizabethan lute music is a Swede: Jakob Lindberg selected the best solo works by John Dowland, Daniel Bacheler and their peers with a view to exploring the intimate repertoire that must have been enjoyed by Elizabeth in her private rooms.
In the Tudor era de rich middle class engineered for music to start a new and exceedingly rich chapter outside the domains of church, court and nobility: well-to-do commoners were eager to raise their visibility and to indulge in musical entertainment! In this context the lute with its soft, melancholy timbre and its handy size, was strongly favoured. Small wonder that from the mid-16th century numerous lute tablatures circulated, both in manuscript and in print.
Henry VIII invited the greatest Flemish and Italian lutenists at his court, and had the instrument taught to his own children to boot, which with many other amateurs emulating them, resulted  in a solid anchoring of lute-playing at the heart of English music culture. This proved the ideal seed-bed for the matchless lute compositions of John Dowland, Robert Johnson, Daniel Bacheler and Francis Cutting. Their entablatures, dances, series of variations and fantasias explore conventions of form and style far beyond the boundaries of the genres, reaching the threshold of an idiomatic lute repertoire: sophisticated and perfectly attuned to the possibilities of the instrument, and food for music lovers from all times through its subtle, tactile expressiveness.
 

The frequently laureled vocal ensemble Stile Antico presents well-assorted psalms and motets as a hymn to the musical friendship between Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.
In the reformed English church translations of the Psalter were sung, both at services and at home. Some melodies were used for centuries and centuries, offering a unique view of the inside of the English music tradition! In addition to the authoritative translations by John Hopkins and Thomas Sternhold, the congregation could also take advantage of other versions, such as archbishop Parker’s.
Parker’s Whole Psalter translated into English Metre was initially meant for private use, but in 1567 it was published with nine psalm settings composed by Thomas Tallis. The songs were to play a special role in the transmission of Tallis’s musical legacy: the famous Tallis’s Canon belongs to psalm 67, included in this volume, and one of the other settings was the starting-point for Ralph Vaughan-Williams’s Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. William Byrd, too, was inspired by Tallis, his teacher, friend and confidant. Together they published a volume dedicated to Elizabeth I with motets that were most probably performed at the Chapel Royal. A splendid musical tandem, reunited by the re-invigorating team of Stile Antico!
 

For three evenings Jan Decleir immerses himself in the rich oeuvre of Shakespeare, declaiming  selections  from his dramas and poetry. In the intimacy of Rubens’s painter’s studio he enjoys the company of Kris Verhelst, who will take care of English keyboard repertoire from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.
During the reign of Elizabeth I English literature flourished as never before, with Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare dominating the scene. Therefore this edition of Laus Polyphoniae would not be complete without Shakespeare. His dramas and poems are still a source of inspiration as of today. For three evenings Jan Decleir plunges into Shakespeare’s inexhaustible oeuvre, emerging with pearls from his plays and poetry. In the intimacy of Rubens’s painter’s studio he will enjoy the musical company of Kris Verhelst, who will perform English keyboard repertoire from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. A perfect finale for a summery festival day.

Jan Decleir, actor | Kris Verhelst, harpsichord

With viol virtuoso Laurence Dreyfus at the helm the renowned Phantasm consort plunges into the late Renaissance repertoire for three viols.
From William Byrd and Thomas Tomkins to Orlando Gibbons and Matthew Locke: Phantasm will let almost a hundred years of music resound for you in a tribute to the velvet sound of the viol consort: the musical symbol par excellence for concord, consonance and harmony. A bird’s eye view of the repertoire of the Elizabethan age, the Jacobean era and the Cromwell republic reveals an exceedingly refined repertoire which seems to be perfectly attuned to the possibilities and characteristics of the instrument.
Again William Byrd comes to the fore: one of the tenors of Elizabethan music life and already as a teenager intrigued by composing for consort. Tomkins’s output for viol consort is relatively small in comparison with that of contemporaries, circulating only in a handful of manuscripts  — perhaps this music was intended for private use among his friends and colleagues at Worcester Cathedral and the Chapel Royal. Tomkins plays with instrumentation, counterpoint and thematic affinities, alluding to the works of colleagues. Thus he refers explicitly to Orlando Gibbons’s Fantasias! Finally, a suite is selected from the oeuvre of Matthew Locke: showpiece of Charles II’s Private Music and until well into the Restoration era England’s most influential composer.  
 

A musical homage to Elizabeth I necessarily includes The Triumphes of Oriana: a genuine aubade sung to the Virgin Queen by the cream of the crop of the Tudor composers!
Under supervision of the composer Thomas Morley a very special music collection was published in 1603: The Triumphes of Oriana – a collection of madrigals on English texts, for five or six parts, always ending with the line “Long live fair Oriana”! Although the volume was published posthumously, it was allegedly composed for the May Day festivities of 1601 to pay homage to Elizabeth I, who in the guise of Oriana is eulogized by a pleiad of composers.
Next to Thomas Morley other Tudor icons are also represented in this collection, such as Thomas Weelkes, Daniel Norcome, John Milton and Robert Jones. As a group counting altogether 23 composers, they established with The Triumphes of Oriana a landmark in the history of the English madrigal: subtle in expression, gracious in harmony, detailed in the construction of counterpoint. The recorders of Mezzaluna and the voices of the laureled vocal collective Vox Luminis combine their forces for a generous selection from this splendid collection.
 

For three evenings Jan Decleir immerses himself in the rich oeuvre of Shakespeare, declaiming  selections  from his dramas and poetry. In the intimacy of Rubens’s painter’s studio he enjoys the company of Kris Verhelst, who will take care of English keyboard repertoire from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.
During the reign of Elizabeth I English literature flourished as never before, with Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare dominating the scene. Therefore this edition of Laus Polyphoniae would not be complete without Shakespeare. His dramas and poems are still a source of inspiration as of today. For three evenings Jan Decleir plunges into Shakespeare’s inexhaustible oeuvre, emerging with pearls from his plays and poetry. In the intimacy of Rubens’s painter’s studio he will enjoy the musical company of Kris Verhelst, who will perform English keyboard repertoire from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. A perfect finale for a summery festival day.

Jan Decleir, actor | Kris Verhelst, harpsichord