Politics of Politics: Fretwork Recreates the Cosmopolitan Vision of ca. 1600

In 1540, Henry VIII requisitioned musicians from Italy to compose and perform at his court. Two families came—they were not only Italian but clandestine Jews (marranos, or nominally converted ‘New Christians’). The Lupo and the Bassano families thrived in England and served the monarchy for over a century. Yesterday, the ensemble Fretwork performed a program of their music, ‘Birds on Fire: Jewish Musicians in the English Court,’ at Wigmore Hall in London:

• Augustine Bassano: Pavan and Galliard No. 1;


• Heironymus Bassano: Fantasia No. 1 in 5 parts;


• Joseph Lupo: Pavan in 5 parts;


• Thomas Lupo: Two Fantasias in 6 parts; Pavan in 3 parts*; Fantasia for three trebles;


• Fantasy for three basses; Fantasia in 6 parts; Two Fantasias in 6 parts;


• Van Wilder: Fantasia, con e senza pause (“Emmentaler vs. Gruyere”);


• Duarte: Two Symphonies in 5 parts;


• Salmone Rossi: Hashkivenu; Shir hamma’ a lot (Psalm 128);


• Gough: Birds on Fire;


• Various: A suite of dances from the Lumley Part Books: Desperada, Pavan and Gallyard,

The program notes assert that these pieces illustrate the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Tudor and Stuart courts, drawing upon the idioms of Franco-Flemish or Italian music. Although the Jews had been banished from the kingdom of England since 1290, the Italian-Jewish Bassano and Lupo families became composer dynasties, dominating English music between 1550 and 1650. But this program is, I think, far more than nominally ‘cosmopolitan.’ It is a story of international relations and the perennial pitfalls of international politics. Click here to read more...