Masque
tagStarted 1550Peak 1600–1635Last big hit 1695
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Masque music blends songs, choruses, instrumental symphonies, dances, and ceremonial effects into a courtly theatrical pageant dense with allegory and visual splendor. The sound is decorative rather than symphonic, often courtly, pastoral, or mythological, with highly sectional structures and close ties to spectacle, movement, and spoken or semi-spoken presentation.
History
The English masque flourished under the Stuarts as an elite court form shaped by playwrights such as Ben Jonson and designers such as Inigo Jones, with music by Campion, Ferrabosco, Lawes, and related strands later converging with Purcell’s semi-opera world; although the form declined, it left a durable legacy in staged allegorical entertainment and English theatrical music.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oxford Music Online
- Grove Music Online
- early English theatre notes from Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, and Chandos