To Musicke Bent
is my retyred mind
A secret musical gathering in Elisabethan England with compositions by Campion, Dowland, Tye, Byrd and others
What happens to the fabric of a society in times of political turmoil and unrest?
Between 1558 and 1603, when Elisabeth I reigned in England, the establishment of strong political reforms and the flourishing of trade were accompanied by the blossoming of art and culture. The English madrigal experienced its height, which went hand in hand with the development of theatre with its famous protagonist, Shakespeare. Nonetheless, Englands society experienced times of great terror and uncertainty due to warfare, religious unrest and conspiracies. An accepted opinion could fall into political disfavour from one day to the next and could cost a person their life. The blossoming of love poetry and madrigals, its equivalent in music, both reveal the tendencies of a strong need for a counter mouvement into more intimate realms and forms of expression in aristocratic circles close and at the court of Elisabeth I. - In this programme, astrophil & stella explores the spirit of this era through music – staged as a secret musical gathering among friends, playing jolly fantasies, Dowland’s melancholic Lachrimae and political commentary disguised as lovesick madrigals, in the safe space of secluded musical refuge.