Ayres We Breathe - Hester Groenleer - Audio CD (Arrives in 50 days)

The Ayres We Breathe Songs, Dances, and Grounds from Seventeenth-Century England The title The Ayres We Breathe suggests both the repertoire and the inspiration behind it. In seventeenth-century England, the word ayre referred broadly to tuneful, rhetorically expressive pieces—whether songs, dances, or instrumental fantasies. Music was understood as a form of eloquence, a shared cultural breath of both performer and listener. At the heart of this programme lies the intimate relationship between music, language, and physical expression. English music of the seventeenth century was shaped by rhetorical ideals: composers sought not per se abstract complexity but clarity of expression, a sense of speaking through sound. The CD traces a path through English song, dance, and instrumental variation. A special type of variation represented in this programme is the idea of ground basses: repeating harmonic patterns that underpin some of the most expressive music of the period. Grounds offered both stability and freedom — a foundation over which composers and performers could spin invention, ornamentation, and emotional depth. In this sense, they mirror the balance between structure and improvisatory spirit that characterises much seventeenth-century English music.

Label: Etcetera | Origin: Holland