On this first day of September, I’m happy to share with you Beautiful Music by Christopher Simpson. The 17th century English musician was one of the greatest viol players ever, and he composed a set of fantasias for his instrument called THE MONTHES. September is a fantasia for 3 viols with organ continuo.
This is a great selection for the beginning of September, especially this very difficult year. This piece was written in another difficult year, 1666, when the Great Fire of London occurred. I’ve chosen this same piece as the topic for an online class as one of the Amherst Early Music weekend online classes, on Saturday 12 September 2020 at 3 pm EDT. Anyone interested in more information can go to the AEM website: https://www.amherstearlymusic.org/weekend_online_classes .