Composer of the Week: England's Golden Age

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: England's Golden Age: James I's Chapel Royal and the short life of Orlando Gibbons

James I's Chapel Royal and the short life of Orlando Gibbons

England's Golden Age

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, England's Golden Age, James I's Chapel Royal and the short life of Orlando Gibbons

Donald Macleod explores the Chapel Royal under James I.

Donald Macleod explores the Chapel Royal and the increasing importance of Orlando Gibbons in James I’s court.

The composers of 16th-century England flourished under the rule of Elizabeth I, rapidly developing a diverse musical culture unparalleled anywhere on the continent, a truly Golden Age for English music. In this week of programmes Donald Macleod explores six composers who were key to this ascent - Thomas Morley, John Bull, Peter Philips, Thomas Weelkes, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Tomkins. These composers were all active at around the same time as the “Father of British Musick” William Byrd and John Dowland, and all either studied or worked with Byrd, but they don’t often receive the same attention as those more famous names. The Chapel Royal played an important role in musical life under James I. In Thursday’s programme, Donald explores the Chapel Royal and the increasing importance of Orlando Gibbons in James I’s court.

Bull: Coranto - Alarm
The Canadian Brass

Weelkes: O Lord, Grand the King a Long Life
The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Fretwork
David Skinner, conductor

Gibbons: Fantasia No 5 in G minor
Robert Wooley, organ

Gibbons: O Clap your hands
The Clerkes of Oxenford
David Wulstan, conductor

Gibbons: Lord Salisbury’s Pavan and Galliard from Parthenia
Alina Rotaru, virginals

Bull: Pavan & Galliard “St Thomas Wake”
Alina Rotaru, virginals

Gibbons: Nay Let me weep (Part 1)
The Consort of Musicke
Anthony Rooley, conductor

Tomkins: Know You Not
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor

Gibbons: O Lord in thy Wrath, Rebuke me Not
Oxford Camerata
Jeremy Summerly, conductor


Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC Wales

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod surveys the music of composers who flourished under the rule of Elizabeth I

Donald Macleod surveys the music of six English composers who flourished under the rule of Elizabeth I.

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England's Golden Age

James I's Chapel Royal and the short life of Orlando Gibbons

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