Heavenly Noyse
Heavenly Noyse recreates the sounds of the most fashionable and sophisticated instrumental music of Shakespeare's time: the so-called 'broken consort' of six mixed instruments, that do not form a 'family' of homogenous instruments: The violin, bass viol and the flute play melodic lines; the gut plucked lute plays many fast divisions; and the wire strung cittern and bandora provide harmony and rhythm.
This most particular Elizabethan ensemble was associated with masques, royal festivities, and the theatre, and references and repertoire can be identified in plays such as The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning
Pestle.
Our Programme presents the songs and music from these and other plays, and music associated with the leading cultural patrons of Shakespeare's time.
The above concert (filmed by an audience member), took place in the same room at the National Portrait Gallery, where the painting 'Portrait of Sir Henry Unton' is displayed.
One corner of the painting shows a 'broken consort'.