Christopher Huggett

Elizabethan Symphony Christopher Huggett

When the original version of this composition was first written in 2009, Alexandra, my wife, commented that it sounded like music for the Elizabethan court. I have since developed it with that observation in mind. It is not intended to imitate accurately the music of that period, but rather to create an atmosphere that evokes the sixteenth-century court. Although the work is called a symphony, it does not follow strictly the symphonic structure of modern works. In the seventeenth century, the word ?symphony? referred to a work in which several instruments played together and it is this interpretation which prevails here, although there are certainly some aspects of the modern perception present. In the Elizabethan period, a ?symphony? designated any member of the harpsichord family - spinets, virginals and the like. It is therefore fitting that a harpsichord is included in the composition.