1564: The Queen’s Gambit

1564. England. Elizabeth I uses music as a powerful tool of statecraft. A skilled musician herself, she exploits music’s intimacy in her diplomatic relations and its potential for grandeur and symbolism to project authority. She also uses music in her attempt to regulate religious tension, balancing Protestant reform with the rich musical traditions of the Catholic church, sustaining composers like Tallis and Byrd. And music also helps in her construction of her image as the Virgin Queen.

Gillian Moore is joined by a roster of distinguished historians for this major new BBC Radio 3 series, charting a course through 1000 years of classical music history. For the first eight programmes, historian Suzannah Lipscomb is in the chair, as together they travel from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century.

Anon: My Lady Carey’s Dompe
Trevor Pinnock, virginals

Tallis: Spem in alium
I Fagiolini, directed by Robert Hollingworth

Anon (arr. Praetorius): La Volta
Bellot Ensemble

Britten: Symphonic Suite from Gloriana, III. The Courtly Dances
BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Edward Gardner

Robert Parsons: First Great Service, Nunc dimittis
Voces Cantabiles, directed by Barnaby Smith

Byrd : O Lord, Make Thy Servant Elizabeth
BBC Singers, conducted by Owain Park

Byrd: Civitas Sancti Tui
The Sixteen, directed by Harry Christophers

Weelkes: As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending
Cambridge Singers, directed by John Rutter

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis

Producer: Chris Taylor
Academic Consultant: Professor Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford
Story Consultant: Kate Leys
Series Editor for BBC Audio: Emma Harding
Key Changes theme tune composed by Joseph Howard and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Kerem Hasan.