Philip Pickett
Encyclopedia
Philip Pickett is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 musician, recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

 player and director of early music
Early music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

 ensembles, notably The New London Consort.

Student days

Philip Pickett began as a trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 player.He played trumpet while student at Marling School, Stroud , Glos. He met Antony Baines and David Munrow
David Munrow
David Munrow was a British musician and early music historian.- Biography and career :Munrow was born in Birmingham and was the son of Birmingham University dance teacher Hilda Norman Munrow and Albert Davis 'Dave' Munrow, a Birmingham University lecturer and physical education instructor who...

 who encouraged him to try early woodwind instruments such as the recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

, shawm
Shawm
The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...

 and rackett
Rackett
The rackett is a Renaissance-era double reed wind instrument.There are several sizes of rackett, in a family ranging from soprano to great bass. Relative to their pitch, racketts are quite small . This is achieved through its ingenious construction...

.] He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 . He was forced to give up the trumpet after being kicked in the mouth while being assaulted on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 at the end of his first year there. In 1972 he became Professor of Recorder and Historical Performance, a post he held for 25 years. He has played for the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, The English Concert
The English Concert
The English Concert is a baroque orchestra playing on period instruments based in London. Founded in 1972 and directed from the harpsichord by Trevor Pinnock for 30 years, it is now directed by harpsichordist Harry Bicket...

, the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players
London Mozart Players
The London Mozart Players is a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. The LMP is the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom whose performances and recordings focus largely on the core repertoire from the Classical era...

 and many other orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

s.

The Alchemist

Pickett introduced theatrical elements into his concerts, including foyer performances of juggling and fire-eating. In 1976 he joined the Albion Band, a folk-rock band led by Ashley Hutchings
Ashley Hutchings
Ashley Stephen Hutchings is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band...

. They played a mixture of traditional folk music and medieval tunes on a wide range of instruments - curtals, shawm
Shawm
The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...

s, recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

s, crumhorn
Crumhorn
The crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance period. In modern times, there has been a revival of interest in Early Music, and crumhorns are being played again....

s, bagpipes, racket
Rackett
The rackett is a Renaissance-era double reed wind instrument.There are several sizes of rackett, in a family ranging from soprano to great bass. Relative to their pitch, racketts are quite small . This is achieved through its ingenious construction...

s, chalumeau
Chalumeau
This article is about the historical musical instrument. For the register on the clarinet that is named for this instrument, see Clarinet#Range....

x and synthesiser. Also in the group was John Sothcott from the early music group St George's Canzona, playing vielle
Vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the Medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs. The instrument was also known as a fidel or a viuola, although the French...

, citole
Citole
Citole, also spelled Sytole, Cytiole, Gytolle, etc. , an archaic musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain. It is generally shown as a four-string instrument, with a body generally referred to as "holly-leaf" shaped...

 and crumhorn
Crumhorn
The crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance period. In modern times, there has been a revival of interest in Early Music, and crumhorns are being played again....

. Philip was on all four singles by the group. In 1988 he released his only solo album, appropriately called The Alchemist. It included a few of his own compositions in a mock-medieval style.

The musicians of the Globe

In 1993 he became artistic director of the Purcell Room
Purcell Room
The Purcell Room is a concert and performance venue which forms part of the Southbank Centre, one of central London's leading cultural complexes. It is named after the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell and has 370 seats....

 Early Music series. In the same year he was appointed director of Early Music at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...

, which is a within a mile of the Purcell Room. His ensemble, The Musicians of the Globe, specialised in English music from the 16th and 17th centuries. CDs were sold, in particular at the Globe Theatre, and concerts were given on the stage.

The Bones of All Men

The 1998, he released The Bones of All Men
The Bones of All Men
The Bones of All Men is an album by Philip Pickett.The exact credits on the front of the album are "Mr Philip Pickett with Mr Richard Thompson and the Fairport Rhythm Section" - giving a mock-formality to the event, as if it were a classical music concert. All of the tracks on this album are...

, a collaboration with Richard Thompson and members of Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...

, in which he played early music tunes with a modern rock rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...

 and electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

.

The New London Consort

Pickett leads The New London Consort simultaneously with the musicians of the Globe. This has a wider repertoire, covering English, Spanish, Italian and German medieval and Renaissance music. Much of the material is drawn from Philip's original research in the libraries of Europe. From 1994 to 1997 he was founder and director of the Aldeburgh Early Music Festival.

Phil Pickett with the Albion Band

Albums
  • The Prospect Before Us (1977)
  • Rise up Like The Sun (1978)


Singles
  • Hopping Down in Kent/Merry Sherwood Rangers (1976)
  • The Postman's Knock/La Sexte Estampie Real (1977)
  • Poor Old Horse/Ragged Heroes (1978)
  • Pain and Paradise/Lay Me Low (1979)

Philip Pickett with The New London Consort

  • Elizabeth and Jacobean Concert
  • Music From The Time Of Columbus
  • Ars Subtilior
  • Pilgrimage
  • Carmina Burana vol 1 and 3
  • Sinners and Saints: a compilation of previous recordings
  • Bach: Brandenburg Concerti (complete)
  • The Feast of Fools
  • Praetorius: Dances from Terpsichore
  • Vivaldi: Gloria RV 588 and Dixit Dominus RV 595
  • The Sylvan and Oceanic Delights of Posilipo

Philip Pickett with The Musicians Of The Globe

  • Music From Shakespeare's Plays
  • Ben Jonson
    Ben Jonson
    Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

    's 'The Masque Of Oberon
  • A Shakespeare Ode On The Witches and Fairies
  • Purcell's Shakespeare
  • The Enchanted Island
  • Nutmegs and Ginger
  • Sir Henry Rowley Bishop: Songs for Shakespeare productions at Covent Garden

External links

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