Tomkins: Consort Music For Viols And Voices

Soloists

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8550602

Release Date: 01 January 2000

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099560221

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: TOMKINS

Description
Thomas Tomkins (1572 - 1656)Music for ViolsIn some ways Thomas Tomkins was a manborn just too late. As a composer drawn to the contrapuntal forms and stylesestablished by Byrd and Gibbons he suffered the indignation of watching thedemise of church organs and the rich choral tradition under the Puritans, andin his last years withdrew from public life to study the music of hispredecessors and write largely unfashionable keyboard music. Tomkins was bornin 1572 in St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, where his father was vicar-choral in thecathedral, later moving to Gloucester. He was appointed 'instructorchoristarum' at Worcester cathedral in 1596, but may have worked in Londonprior to this, as he referred to William Byrd as 'my ancient, & muchreverenced Master'. By the 1620s he was combining his duties at Worcester withmembership of the Chapel Royal, and was involved with the musical ceremoniesfor the coronation of Charles I. But the final decade before his death in 1656must have been a period of frustration, with few opportunities for performanceof his music, and little inclination to write in the new lighter stylesemanating from the continent. Tomkins' reputation until the rediscovery of hiskeyboard and consort works largely rested on the magnificent edition of hischurch music published in 1668 under the title Musica Deo Sacra.By 1600 the viols, hitherto largely thedomain of professional instrumentalists at court, were being cultivated bywealthy amateurs, and Tomkins' fantasias. In Nomines and dances were copied andcirculated by such connoisseurs. The most significant form available to aconsort composer, and the one most highly represented in Tomkins' output, wasthe fantasia, in which a number of musical phrases were treated to contrapuntaldevelopment: contrast was an important feature, with each section havingcharacteristic melodic or harmonic ideas. This is clearly heard in the six-partfantasia [13] which opens with a distinctive chromatic twist before moving ontoa more dance-like episode with dotted rhythms, which is followed in turn by aclimactic final section built from tumbling downward scales. In a series ofthree-part fantasias, Tomkins explored the various combinations of sizes ofviol. No. XIV [5] is a spacious piece for treble, tenor and bass, withlong singing melodic lines. In contrast No. I [6] features a moremodern-sounding texture, like the Italian trio sonata, of two trebles and bass,and has a more competitive feeling with each instrument trying to outdo theothers in its flamboyant patterning of notes. English composers had frequentlyhighlighted the bass viol as the most soloistic member of the family, and FantasiaN. XII [10] exemplifies this with a different scoring again: this is fortwo basses and one treble, and opens with 'stalking' bass lines reminiscient ofcontemporary Italian grounds. However the rich interplay between the threeinstruments is thoroughly English and shows Tomkins' innate understanding ofthe sonorities of the viols.The o
Tracklisting