Consort Music for 4 & 5 & 6 Viols

LeStrange Viols presents the modern premier recording of nearly all of William Cranford's surviving works for consort, including the complete fantasias for 4, 5, and 6 viols, the substantial and virtuosic 6-part pavans ("Passamezzo" and "Quadran"), and his distinctive 5-part setting of the In nomine and playful variations on the well-known tune "Go from my window." This is also the first major single-composer release by an American viol consort in more than two decades. Little is known about the life of composer William Cranford (fl. 1630s) beyond his remarkable surviving chamber music for viol consort, a Renaissance string ensemble that attracted the best English composers from William Byrd to Henry Purcell. Cranford's music-by turns sonorous, expressive, quirky, and forward looking-represents some of finest surviving writing for the ensemble.