Alfonso Ferrabosco

Details:
The CD contains first recordings of pieces by both Alfonso Ferrabosco I and his son Alfonso II. Professor Bryan selected the
repertoire, produced newly corrected performing editions, directed the ensemble and wrote the liner notes (1,800 words).

Portfolio:
1)The Rose Consort has given four performances of this repertoire, at the National Centre for Early Music, York; York Early
Music Festival; Dartington International Summer School; Lancaster International Concert Series, Lancaster University; and it
has been broadcast on WDR Köln.
2)Copies of programmes.

Context:
This CD results from research into the relationship between voices and viols in the performance of Elizabethan and Jacobean
repertory undertaken with the Rose Consort of Viols. The specific research questions posed here concern the relationship of the
musical styles of the two Ferraboscos: by including settings of madrigals, motets and chansons by Alfonso I, moving through his
vocally orientated In Nomines, to the more abstract chromatically developed harmonic idiom of Alfonso II’s fantasias and the
more obviously ‘instrumental’ outlook of his dances, the CD investigates how the vocal origins of viol consort music were
transformed within two generations. To do so, the Consort developed a convincing way, based on Professor Bryan’s research,
of capturing the essence of, and articulating, unvoiced texts, which was achieved through an intimate understanding of the
capabilities of the elements of attack and sustain possible with the bows and instruments. The project also required critical
consideration of the texts to be performed: in particular, the Ferraboscos’ music was newly edited from primary sources,
including the ‘Tregian’ scorebooks GB-Lbl Egerton 3665 and US-NYp Drexel 4302.

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