Album Notes

What a good idea for a compilation ... an intelligent, feeling interpretation of the lyrics ... Wholenote Magazine

The Musicians In Ordinary take their name from the name of the title given at court to the singers and lutenists who performed in the most intimate chambers of England's Stuart monarchs.

Like us, the Elizabethans and Jacobeans had contradictory feelings about sleep. They, as we, want it to come more quickly and more often but are suspicious of this state where what we now call our 'subconcious' is given free rein.

We present a programme of songs that takes a close look at Sleep, and his relationships with his brother Death and his cousin Love; from peaceful slumberers to cavorting lovers and all those melancholy men who toss and turn in their beds to a queen under death sentence

Hallie Fishel - soprano
John Edwards - lute