Appealing to the stated topic is relevant because of the desire to concretize the knowledge of little-known in Russian musicology instrumental consorts (musical groups), as well as to expand the existing understanding of the court culture of Renaissance England and its musical and sound appearance. The main center of English consorts development was the Royal court of the Tudors — Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I. Their heyday was at the peak of the “Golden Age” of English culture. Based on the results of scientific research by Western scientists and visual and verbal sources available for study, the article outlines the milestones in the history of the main types of instrumental consort in England — the whole consort, consisting of instruments of the same family, and the broken consort, today often identified with the mixed consort, which connects heterogeneous instruments. The article notes that the early history of the recorder consort in England was closely connected with creative activities of the family of Venetian musicians Bassano. Extremely popular in musical circles of England, the consort of viol was originally formed thanks to Flemish and, somewhat later, Italian musicians. As for the mixed consort, which united performers of the viols da gamba and da braccio, lute, bandore, cistre and recorder, it started to be called “English” because of the stable combination of certain musical instruments. Analysis of consort music anthologies of the 16th—17th centuries made it possible to identify individual genre and musical-style reference points in musical groups’ repertoire, in which musicians improved the principles of instrumental polyphony and the stile concertante, topical in the Modern Period.
On the History of Early Musical Groups: Instrumental Consorts in England at the Turn of the 16th—17th Centuries