Consort (music)

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In Renaissance music, a consort is an ensemble of musical instruments . During the Renaissance, consort music was usually not notated specifically for an instrument, so it was left to the performers to decide which instruments were actually used.

This practice benefited from the fact that in the Renaissance almost all instruments were built in complete so-called “ families ”, from soprano to bass . The most important families of instruments for playing the consort were the recorder and the viola da gamba , which is why one speaks of the recorder consort or viol consort . It was perfectly acceptable to use instruments from different families (referred to in England as “broken consort”).

Modern consort ensembles:

• Athesinus Consort Berlin
• Clemencic Consort
• Deller Consort
• Hassler Consort
• Leonhardt Consort
• Neumeyer Consort