Consort Music of Four Parts

John Ward’s music for four viols shows less consistency of style than his work for five- or six-part consort. The smooth madrigalian lines of the six Oxford fantasias most clearly approach the accomplishment of his characteristic pieces for larger ensembles. The Paris fantasias, which with the In nomines also included in the collection feature uniquely in a single source in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, are more variable in texture and idiom. The volume also includes six ayres for two bass viols and organ, brief, tuneful compositions in dance-like rhythm redolent of the almain.