Photo © Gill Heppell via The Queen's Six - thequeenssix.co.uk
The Queen's Six
The Queen's Six
Espionage, history, and a cappella singing—Early Music Now promises all of these in its 38th season opener concert at St. Paul’s featuring The Queen’s Six, in a program titled “Stars and Their Spies: Music, Travel and Espionage in the Renaissance.”
Early Music Now has a knack for booking high-quality ensembles from around the world. The Queen’s Six, formed about 15 years ago and based in Windsor, England, is a group of two altos (one countertenor), two tenors, baritone, and bass. This will be their second performance in Milwaukee, after a visit in 2018. I spoke to countertenor Tom Lilburn about the history of the group, the content of the concert, and what to look forward to.
“It started off as people seeing a niche in this sort of after-dinner market,” he said. “If a few of us could learn a few a cappella tunes and click a bit, we could get a few after-dinner gigs. It started that way, and then people thought there was a scope to do a lot more.”
Royal Gigs
Five of the six members now sing with the St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and that connection has led to royal gigs of the highest order: singing at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the funeral of Prince Philip, and the Committal of Queen Elizabeth II.
Despite this tight connection to Anglican and royal tradition, The Queen’s Six has evolved into a more maverick ensemble, venturing into pop, folksongs, musical theater. Arrangements have come both from inside and outside the group, and they have also premiered new classical works.
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The Early Music Now program, in a way, is a return to the group’s roots. Tom remarked, “We’ve had rehearsals the last two weeks and there’s some really beautiful music in there. The Ferrabosco’s amazing, particularly.” He also looks forward to singing in a grand church space: “That does make a such a difference for early music. You can just trust the acoustic and float things. It gives you so much more scope.”
And how about that connection to espionage? Simon Whiteley, a founding member and architect of this program, notes: “The thread is religious upheavals, and how composers dealt with them. Byrd toughed it out and stayed through it all, somehow remaining a Catholic throughout. Some stayed and were accused or convicted of recusancy, and/or worked for wealthy recusant families (Peerson, Wilbye). Some couldn’t deal with it and left for Catholic countries (Phillips, Dering). And some played one side off against the other by spying (Ferrabosco, Morley, Bull). I’ve tried to find pieces that represent the tortured nature of the composer to illustrate their inner turmoil. For example, Peerson’s ‘Who will rise up with me?’”
Tom Lilburn also highlighted “Who will rise up with me?” as one of the more experimental pieces: “[It’s] kind of crazy. I’ve enjoyed rehearsing it, and as the name suggests rising up, he does some chromatic stuff with that. There are some lines where I thought ‘That can’t possibly be right,’ but it is. Harmonically, it just blew my mind.”
For a taste of beautiful choral music tinged with the upheaval of a past era, venture to hear The Queen’s Six presented by Early Music Now.
The Queen's Six will perform “Stars and Their Spies: Music, Travel and Espionage in the Renaissance,” 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 914 E. Knapp St. For tickets, visit earlymusicnow.org.
