Little Missenden Festival: Phantasm - Two centuries of viol music

The Tudor and Jacobean viol repertoire is one of the glories of English music. The beginning of a truly independent instrumental polyphony in England, it led to an outpouring of part-music that liberated itself from the written word – or ‘dittie’ – and gave free rein to a composer’s imagination, his ‘fancy’.

The polyphonic pearls presented in this programme range from the 16th century through to Bach. They’ll be performed in chronological order of composition, with Phantasm describing how the music evolved. We’ll hear the early composers taking fascinating contrapuntal risks that undermine conventional ideas of musical character and style. By the end we emerge into Bach’s complete mastery of fully-evolved counterpoint.

Phantasm, founded in 1994 by Laurence Dreyfus, is possibly the most exciting viol consort playing today. They’ve pioneered a radical approach to consort playing, respecting historical practice while giving approachable performances.

“The playing is quite simply divine” Gramophone