Consort songs for solo voice and viols were particularly esteemed during the early part of Elizabeth I’s reign, since their rich polyphonic fabric shared musical interest between all the parts without detracting from the clarity of a single voice declaiming the text. The viol consort was a favoured Elizabethan ensemble whose richly varied repertory is presented here with fantasias, ‘songs without words’, In Nomines and dance music in four to six parts.