Pastime with Good Company: Music from the Court of Henry VIII (2010)

This is the approved revision of this page, as well as being the most recent.

The Folger Consort 2010/11 season began with Pastime with Good Company: Music from the Court of Henry VIII, a program devoted to music associated primarily with the court and chapel of King Henry VIII, performed from October 1 to October 3, 2010 in the Folger's Elizabethan Theatre. What is most striking about most of this music is how uniquely English it is and how different it is in many respects from continental music around 1500. Using the sort of mixed instrumental consort known to be present at Henry’s court and a small vocal ensemble like the ones he favored, the Consort presented secular songs, dances, and abstract instrumental music, as well as ornate and solemn chapel music.

Detail of James Basire's Field of the Cloth of Gold (1774).












Artists

Folger Consort

Artistic Directors

  • Robert Eisenstein: viol, violin, recorder
  • Christopher Kendall: lute

Guest Artists

  • Mary Springfels: viol
  • Dan Stillman: dulcian, recorder, trombone
  • Tom Zajac: recorder, flute, bagpipe, trombone

Voices: Lionheart vocalists

  • Lawrence Lipnick: countertenor
  • John Olund, Michael Ryan-Wenger: tenors
  • Jeffrey Johnson, Richard Porterfield: baritones
  • Kurt-Owen Richards: bass