Abstract
Consort Music is a set of six pieces assembled between 2015 and 2017. Each piece is a re-working of a movement from Into the Garden, a quartet for period instruments written for the Martin Feinstein Ensemble in 2009. These re-workings involve simplification of the original pieces by the removal of subsidiary parts and a concentration on the presentation of a single musical idea. The most radical re-working is of the third movement in which the orignal texture is dismembered to form two separate pieces - the recorder and violin canon becomes Moto Perpetuo whilst the viola da gamba line forms the material of Monody. The finale, Concertino, is closest to the original, retaining its recognisable tutti/solo contrasts. The pared down materials of Consort Music form the basis for various types of controlled improvisation; in Prelude, for example, performers assemble their own patterns by omitting notes from the written arpeggios whilst in Chorale (which can be played simultaneously with Moto Perpetuo) they choose their own independent tempi, using the pauses that end each phrase as gathering points.
Consort Music exists in various versions - an open scored format for four or more players (the form in which the piece was originally requested by Jane Chapman for her Consort 21 class at the Royal College of Music) and two piano trios with flute and viola, oboe and vibraphone respectively.
The titles of the six pieces are: Prelude, Toccatina, Chorale, Moto Perpetuo (which can be performed simultaneously with Chorale), Monody and Concertino.