DIVISION-MUSICK

The art of 'dividing' upon a ground bass, or playing 'divisions', was the equivalent of our modern jazz tradition in the Elizabethan period and  throughout the seventeenth century in England. Skilled musicians, both amateur and professional, would improvise upon a fixed repeated harmonic sequence (the 'ground'), often with astonishing inventiveness and virtuosity. This programme explores some of the many composed, and therefore surviving, examples of this art along with sets of variations on popular tunes of the day. Lute solos alongside divisions played on treble, tenor and bass viols accompanied by lute improvisations make for a rich palette of aural colours and a vibrant and virtuosic recreation of sixteenth and seventeenth century music making in England.