# Early music recommendations similar to Lawes etc



## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

I am quite new to classical music and really got into it by following up on music I remember my parents playing when I was a kid. I found and have been enjoying Hespèrion XX's recordings of William Lawes' Consort Music and Dowland's Lachrimae as well as some Bach organ and harpsichord works.

I am a little fuzzy when it comes to time frames in classical history but it would be great if any one could recommend any CDs that contain similar music to the above from that era? I prefer instrumental to vocal music but otherwise I am pretty open. Obscure or under rated composers or works are welcome as well as big names!

So you know where my thinking is at I have been listening to works by Marin Marais, Scarlatti and Jean-Philippe Rameau on Spotify trying to find more artists I like.

I am being a bit lazy as I can do my own research it is just I always get such good recommendations on this forum I thought I would ask the experts first!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Since you mention Lawes Consort music, two directions in that similar vein of consort music immediately come to mind. Going back a few decades, you have *Orlando Gibbons* and his Viol Fantasias in 6, 4, and 2 parts, I believe. I was initially only partly into them, and more so just fascinated at the idea of something resembling an old string quartet and spurred on by a contemporary quote that Gibbons consorts were "the chiefest of all musick." The more I listened and the more I let it rest and returned, I came to truly love these works, with their excellent counterpoint and the freedom of design without conventional cadences that only late renaissance music can have while still retaining a great deal complexity and thematic cohesion to woo a fan of JS Bach and the like.






This fantasia, I believe is a 6 parter and is one of the more prominently and quite functionally dissonant members of his viol consort oevre. Gibbons has a sort of golden and highly polished quality to him, perhaps the English-Corelli of his day.

As an aside, *Arcangelo Corelli* and his concerti grossi are wonderful, as are his many instrumental sonatas. Another great contemporary of Corelli who wrote concerti grossi and other suites, is *Georg Muffat*. His work is somewhat more contrapuntally vigorous and irregular with fun dance rhythms, than his polished and straightforward Italian contemporary.

The other direction I mentioned, in relation to Lawes, is that of the later viol fantasias of *Henry Purcell*. Purcell's are fascinating in that they are an excellent example of maximizing on a style that was considered antiquated by his time, being extremely complex, adventurous, and lively. You should check out the other music he wrote for a contrast. His opera Dido and Aneus and other incidental are wonderful, but are much more baroque and have more in common with later composers. The trio sonatas offer a happy medium.

Lastly, looking at harpsichord music, the English virginalists, of which Gibbons is part of, are all worth looking into. *William Byrd* is the greatest English composer of the age, and wrote some fine viol consort music as well as many wonderful works for virginal, the type of harpsichord commonly used at the time in England. *John Bull* is one of the earliest, nearly exclusively keyboard composers and his works for virginal have an ambitious and virtuosic complexity to them that neither Byrd or Gibbons have. I find his works absolutely thrilling, he was the Liszt of his day in the best of ways.

*Domenico Scarlatti* has to be mentioned too, with his harpsichord sonatas numbering over 500. Try experimenting with different recordings and you'll hopefully find much to be amazed with in these works.

For a little more obscurity, the concerti grossi of the late baroque composer, *Francesco Geminiani* are a development from Corelli's into a more complex and irregular, but highly melodic style. His best works are the best of both worlds, Corelli and Vivaldi. I would highly recommend the recording of his opus 2 concerti grossi, by Auser Musici, which are currently available on youtube.

For more yet, the symphonies of *William Boyce* an english composer with a sort of Handellian goldness to his works. And Georg's son, *Gottlieb Muffat* another exclusively harpsichord composer is among the best of the less known composers of the late baroque.

And I'll cap it off with a good word for J.S. Bach's elder two sons, *WF Bach* and *CPE Bach*. These guys both write music in a transitional style, CPE Bach venturing further into the classical-baroque transitional excitement, WF digging a little deeper into some counterpoint and harmonic oddities.

Plenty more, but I'll have to limit it now.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

As far as where to go next with organ, there are recomendable compilation CDs by Martin Neu, Harald Vogel and Herbert Tachezi that may help.

Harpsichord is harder, and I can't think of a good compilation recording to give you rapid access to a range of composers. You could start by focusing on composers which influenced JS Bach, whose music you already know - maybe Book 4 of Francois Couperin's suites (try Rousset if you can get it), a good general Frescobaldi selection (maybe Hakkinen), a good Froberger selection (maybe Colin Tilney), and a good Scarlatti recording (I suggest you go to Leonhardt for Scarlatti, or Vartolo), a good Clérambault harpsichord CD (no hesitation here - Kenneth Gilbert) and a good Louis Couperin Cd (maybe Jovanka Marville or Richard Egarr) 

There are a lot of names left out - Boehm, Buxtehude, Graupner, Pachelbel, Weckmanm, Scheidemann, Sweelinck, Georg Muffat. Not to mention Brits from the renaisance, Spaniard and Italians. This is a big area with a lot of excellent music to doscover. 

As far as your interest in viols goes, names to explore are Forqueray, Purcell, Du Caurroy, Francois Couperin and maybe St Colombe. I can recommend particular recordings if you like.


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## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

@clavichorder
Thanks these are excellent suggestions, thanks for taking the time


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## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

@Mandryka thanks for these, very helpful yes please do recommend any specific recordings if you have time!


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Here you go... the gateway into this period:


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## Giordano (Aug 10, 2014)

I think you might like lute music by *Sylvius Leopold Weiss*. As for performers, I like Nigel North and Jakob Lindberg.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

For the Purcell viol music I like Ekkehard Weber / La Gamba, Les Voix Humaines and August Wenzinger / Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. You may also like Purcell's keyboard suites - excellent recordings by Richard Egarr and Kenneth Gilbert. 

For the F Couperin viol suites I like Bernfield/Sempé and van der Velden/Wilson.

For Forqueray viol music I like two - Lorenz Duftschmid and Paolo Pandolfo. For the keyboard transcriptions there are very contrasting approaches from Gustav Laeonhardt (his last recording - called Bliss and Pain) and Mario Raskin. Many people like Blandine Rannou also here, and indeed Jacques Ogg.

For Marais I like Jean-Louis Charbonnier most. 

I've focused on baroque music. If you get interested in renaissance music -- Gibbons etc -- then it's a whole different kettle of fish.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

I would second the recommendations of Purcell and also suggest more Dowland.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

MoonlightSonata said:


> I would second the recommendations of Purcell and also suggest more Dowland.


The Lacrimae are difficult because you need to give each one a disctinctive emotional character. I like Wenziger/ Schola Cantorum Basillensis most, but it may be hard to find. All the other recordings I've heard have left me unsatisfied. They tend to be homogeneous, uniformly sad. But that's just boring and Dowland makes it clear in the preface that it wasn't his intention.

There are two recordings by Kenneth Gilbert of Purcel Suites. Both different and both essential!


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## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

Thanks, a lot of good recommendations for me to check out now!


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## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

clavichorder said:


> Since you mention Lawes Consort music, two directions in that similar vein of consort music immediately come to mind. Going back a few decades, you have *Orlando Gibbons* and his Viol Fantasias in 6, 4, and 2 parts, I believe. I was initially only partly into them, and more so just fascinated at the idea of something resembling an old string quartet and spurred on by a contemporary quote that Gibbons consorts were "the chiefest of all musick." The more I listened and the more I let it rest and returned, I came to truly love these works, with their excellent counterpoint and the freedom of design without conventional cadences that only late renaissance music can have while still retaining a great deal complexity and thematic cohesion to woo a fan of JS Bach and the like.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I randomly bought Francesco Geminiani Sonatas for Violoncello as it was cheap on Ebay, very good, thanks for the recommendation on this.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Try Orlando Gibbons


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

FPwtc said:


> I am quite new to classical music and really got into it by following up on music I remember my parents playing when I was a kid. I found and have been enjoying Hespèrion XX's recordings of William Lawes' Consort Music and Dowland's Lachrimae as well as some Bach organ and harpsichord works.
> 
> I am a little fuzzy when it comes to time frames in classical history but it would be great if any one could recommend any CDs that contain similar music to the above from that era? I prefer instrumental to vocal music but otherwise I am pretty open. Obscure or under rated composers or works are welcome as well as big names!
> 
> ...


By the way, what Lawes were you enjoying? I can see my some of my ideas for where to explore with viol music were not well thought through before, just because the English style is so very different from the French. One composer who's even more capricious than Lawes is John Jenkins - there's a particularly satisfying recording of Jenkins by Les Voix Humaines. Another who I find very moving is Chrostopher Tye - try the recording from The Spriit of Gambo. I don't much like what Savall does with Tye - too heavy, too lyrical, too blended, too orchestral, too serious.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Fretwork did some very nice recordings of this music - Lawes, Purcell, etc. - that you might want to look into.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

science said:


> Fretwork did some very nice recordings of this music - Lawes, Purcell, etc. - that you might want to look into.


The Lawes recording I'm enjoying most right now is by Concordia. It's very very different from the way Fretwork treat Lawes!


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Mandryka said:


> The Lawes recording I'm enjoying most right now is by Concordia. It's very very different from the way Fretwork treat Lawes!


I was a little nervous making that comment because I assume Fretwork's approach is too populist for the most serious listeners. I'll check out Concordia.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

science said:


> I was a little nervous making that comment because I assume Fretwork's approach is too populist for the most serious listeners. I'll check out Concordia.


For populist, go to Jordi. Fretwork are very classical, beautiful, poised.

By the way, does anyone know if Haydn and Mozart were aware of English viol consorts - I bet there's a chain of influence to Viennese chamber music somehow (rather than just from Italian early chamber music.)


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

Three composers you should be on the lookout for their viol consort music and who occupied the generation just following William Lawes are:

Christopher Simpson
John Jenkins
Matthew Locke


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Andolink said:


> Three composers you should be on the lookout for their viol consort music and who occupied the generation just following William Lawes are:
> 
> Christopher Simpson
> John Jenkins
> Matthew Locke


Jenkins is amazing, Christopher Simpson I don't know at all yet. I've been exploring backwards from Lawes rather than forward -- I've been enjoying Christopher Tye a lot.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> For populist, go to Jordi. Fretwork are very classical, beautiful, poised.
> 
> By the way, does anyone know if Haydn and Mozart were aware of English viol consorts - I bet there's a chain of influence to Viennese chamber music somehow (rather than just from Italian early chamber music.)


I would doubt it. The English viol tradition goes back to Byrd and beyond. Somebody like Tomkins (1572 - 1656) a prominent member of the English Madrigal School was still turning out madrigals in the 1650s. Purcell writing in the 1680s was catering for those families who still had a chest of viols and wanted "new" music to play. Marais in France was on a different tack writing mainly for the court and was taught by Lully (an Italian). Bach, Telemann and others who wrote for the viol were writing for it as either a solo instrument or for continuo rather than for a chest of viols.

For anybody interested, why not join Early Birds - TC's Early Music group.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Of course I know Christopher Simpson, how could I have forgotten! He's the author of The Division Violist. There's a recording of it on spotify by The Lachrimae Consort which I love. It features a keyboard player called Emer Buckley who I think is exceptional. I'm very keen to trace her recording of music by Peter Philips, if anyone sees one for sale or can upload it for me then please let me know - the only copy I can find is 100€, which is out of the question. 

Just now I found a recording of music by Simpson played by Les Voix Humaines, on spotify, it sounds outstanding to me, I'm hearing it right now as I type. I saw on the sleeve image that Jay Burnfeld is part of Les Voix Humaines - I'd noticed that he was special before, through the recording of F Couperin's suites with Skip Sempé.


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## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

Mandryka said:


> By the way, what Lawes were you enjoying? I can see my some of my ideas for where to explore with viol music were not well thought through before, just because the English style is so very different from the French. One composer who's even more capricious than Lawes is John Jenkins - there's a particularly satisfying recording of Jenkins by Les Voix Humaines. Another who I find very moving is Chrostopher Tye - try the recording from The Spriit of Gambo. I don't much like what Savall does with Tye - too heavy, too lyrical, too blended, too orchestral, too serious.


It was the Hespèrion XXI jordi savall recording of consort music for 5 and 6 sets, I love it but need to hear some other versions as well.


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