Music in the Elizabethan era
All noblemen were expected to be proficient in playing the lute and "any young woman unable to take her proper place in a vocal or instrumental ensemble became the laughing-stock of society.
"[3] Music printing led to a market of amateur musicians purchasing works published by those who received special permission from the queen.
His reign saw many revisions to the function[clarification needed] within the Anglican Church until it was frustrated by the succession of Catholic Queen Mary.
Queen Elizabeth re-established the Church of England and introduced measures of Catholic tolerance.
The most famous composers for the Anglican Church during Queen Elizabeth's reign were Thomas Tallis and his student William Byrd.
Secular vocal works became extremely popular during the Elizabethan Era with the importation of Italian musicians and compositions.
These composers adapted the text painting and polyphonic writing of the Italians into a uniquely English genre of madrigal.
Thomas Morley, a student of William Byrd's, published collections of madrigals which included his own compositions as well as those of his contemporaries.
The most famous of these collections was The Triumphs of Oriana, which was made in honour of Queen Elizabeth and featured the compositions of Morley, Thomas Weelkes, and John Wilbye among other representatives of the English madrigalists.
Numerous works were produced for the instrument including several collections by William Byrd, namely the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and Parthenia.
With the gradual shift in the early Baroque period, England experienced a decline in musical standing among European nations.
[5]” At the most elegant of weddings, usually those of the nobility, the processional included musicians who played lutes, flutes, and violins.
The waits have been in existence as far back as the medieval period and their role was to perform at public occasions of the viewing pleasure of the town.
They performed using fiddles, lutes, recorders, and small percussion instruments attracting crowds whenever they played.
The songs they played and sang were traditional favourites, "a far cry from the sophisticated and refined music of the Elizabethan court."
"[8] The English Madrigals were a cappella, light in style, and generally began as either copies or direct translations of Italian models, with most being for four to six voices.
During Elizabeth's reign, the first documented regular use of mixed ensembles (broken consort) are recorded.
Generally, loud consorts consisted of cornetti, sackbuts, shawms and the higher-pitched recorders and flutes.
Soft consorts generally included the viols, flutes, recorders, krummhorns and other of the quieter instruments.
The next most popular stringed instrument, made in sizes and played in consorts or alone, was the viola da gamba.
Duet music for any two of the family still exists, and the bass, alone, was a popular solo instrument for pieces such as Woodycock.
The common wind instruments included the shawms, recorders, cornetts, sackbuts (trombones), krumhorns and flutes.
The soprano of the shawm family (called 'hautbois' by the French, for high or loud wood) would eventually be tamed to make the baroque oboe.
