DENTON (UNT), Texas -- The University of North Texas Summer Consort of Viols will perform rarely heard music from the 16th and 17th centuries written for the viola da gamba family of instruments. The concert will be held 8 p.m. July 13 (Monday) in the Organ Recital Hall (Room 235) in the Music Building, located at the southeast corner of Avenue C and Chestnut Street. 

The viola da gamba, or viol, a bowed relative of the lute, is a family of stringed instruments used mainly in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, though many new works using the instruments are written each year.

Viol players Clint Capshaw, Gyongy Erodi, Caitlin Cribbs, Olga Amelkina-Vera and Pat Nordstrom will perform the works of William Byrd, John Dowland, Henry Purcell, William Lawes, Thomas Tallis and Anthony Holborne. They will be joined in sets of consort songs and lute songs by mezzo-soprano Dianna Grabowski and lutenist Lyle Nordstrom.

In addition to “house music” such as the consort and lute songs, the performance will feature various forms of music popular during the time period, especially settings of dances based on the rhythm and structure of the dances then in style.  Also on the program is a fantasia, a contrapuntal composition divided into distinct contrasting sections, by Purcell, and a dance-like piece by Lawes.

In keeping with the practice of the time, the performers will participate in the compositional process by improvising musical embellishments to their lines.