Each cycle is configured for specific hall acoustics, complete with critical program essays and documented temperament choices.
The Jacobean Partbooks
Venetian Canzonas & Sonatas
New Polyphony Commissions
Five-part fantasias, In Nomines, and pavans by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, and John Jenkins performed from unmeasured manuscript copies.
Early seventeenth-century polychoral experiments by Giovanni Gabrieli and Tarquinio Merula arranged for viol consort and organ continuo.
Original modern works by contemporary chamber composers written strictly within quarter-comma meantone tuning and gut string physics.
Noted by Early Music Journals
Marsden RC renders seventeenth-century English polyphony with astonishing structural transparency and utter stillness.
Early Music Review, London
Their strict meantone intonation brings an architectural brilliance to Byrd that modern ensembles simply cannot emulate.
Chamber Quarterly International
A masterclass in consort balance where individual string timbres merge into a singular, breathing acoustic body.
The Viola da Gamba Society Bulletin
From Manuscript to Performance
Archival Collation
Temperament Calibration
Consort Rehearsal
Acoustic Delivery
Direct study of manuscript partbooks held in cathedral libraries, verifying original pitch standards and bowing notations.
Tuning frets and gut strings to exact pitch levels, aligning historical intonation to match the concert hall resonance.
Internal balancing of inner polyphonic voices without modern vibrato, allowing natural unforced acoustic overtones to ring.
Presenting the final edition in stone venues and concert spaces tailored to sustain early string decay.
Complete performance dossiers, technical rider specifications, and archive audio previews are available to presenters upon request.