It's been said that the arts do not flourish in complacent times.
Well, there was nothing complacent about England in the 1600s. But in literature, these were the days of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Daniel Defoe, and John Milton. In music too, the 17th century was a time that was full of creativity from a wide variety of composers, some of whom we remember today; others not so much.
We'll hear an entire program of English music from the time of the reign of the House of Stuart this week -- from William Byrd to Henry Purcell and plenty of chaps in between.
