Poetic exploration: Ensemble Près de votre oreille in an engaging exploration of chamber & vocal music by William Lawes

Lighten mine eies - William Lawes: selected psalms & harp consorts; Ensemble Près de votre oreille, Robin Pharo; Harmonia Mundi
Reviewed 11 November 2025

For their debut on Harmonia Mundi, the young French ensemble give us a poetic exploration of the music of William Lawes putting his imaginative Harp Consorts alongside his intimate psalm settings and theatre music 

Whilst 17th-century English composer William Lawes is best known for his viol consorts and music for lyra viol, his elder brother Henry Lawes is known for his vocal music with little instrumental music surviving. This new disc, Lighten mine eies from Ensemble Près de votre oreille and Robin Pharo on Harmonia Mundi sets William Lawes instrumental works against his vocal pieces in an attractive programme that mixes movements from the Harp Consorts, psalm settings and songs.

Henry, Willliam and their younger brothers Thomas and John were born to Thomas Lawes and his wife Lucris. Thomas senior was a church musician who became a lay vicar at Salisbury Cathedral. The family lived in the Close and it is presumed that the boys all sang in the choir. Thanks to a patron, William Lawes was apprenticed to English composer John Coprario (Cooper). By 1635 William had a Court appointment but had been writing music for the Court before this. William remained at loyal courtier, writing music for King Charles and Queen Henrietta Maria both for public and private use.

Ensemble Près de votre oreille features Maïlys de Villoutreys (soprano), Anaïs Bertrand (mezzo-soprano), Alex Rosen (bass), Fiona-Emilie Poupard (violin and viola da gamba), Pernelle Marzorati (harp), Simon Waddell (theorbo), Loris Barrucand (harpsichord and organ) and Robin Pharo (viola da gamba and direction). The ensemble was founded by Robin Pharo in 2017 and previous discs have included two devoted to Elizabethan song, Come Sorrow and Blessed Echoes.

This disc explores the sheer variety of William Lawes music. As Robin Pharo explains, William Lawes' music "presents a synthesis between the polyphonic Elizabethan style inherited from Renaissance composers, the Seconda Pratica and basso continuo style of Italian origin, as well as the French dance suite, while also being seriously forward-looking".

William Lawes

The disc begins and ends with vocal music. It begins with Music, the master of thy art is dead, written for the death of John Tomkins, organist of the Chapel Royal and half-brother to Thomas Tomkins. It is a remarkable, intense piece with powerful use of dissonance. We end with the song O my Clarissa, rather lighter in feel but no less astonishing for its use of textures. This was probably written for one of the Court masques or other theatrical entertainment.

The core of the disc is a selection of William Lawes' psalm settings. William died during the Civil War in 1645 and in 1648 his brother Henry published Choice psalmes put into Musick for Three Voices which featured William's music alongside works written in his honour by Henry and other composers. The album is an important source for William Lawes' psalms for three voices and continuo which are performed on the album. William was never a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, but his brother was and we must presume this gave him an outlet for sacred music.

The psalms, however, are more intimate music. For three voices and continuo, they were probably written to be sung in people's chambers (there are similar sacred songs by Byrd). On 7 November 1660 (well after William Lawes' death), Samuel Pepy wrote in his diary, "After all this he [Sir Edward Mountagu (Earl of Sandwich)] called for the fiddles and books, and we two and W. Howe, and Mr. Childe, did sing and play some psalmes of Will. Lawes’s, and some songs; and so I went away." And again on 14 December 1662, Pepys was singing and playing Lawes's psalms with the Earl of Sandwich.

Ensemble Près de votre oreille perform six psalms, including two Latin texted ones. The serious ones, such as Ne irascaris, Domine and How long with thou forget me, O Lord? are intense indeed with a strong use of dissonance. So much so, that you feel Lawes really relished it and there are moments which seem almost Gesualdo-like. Yet, O sing to the Lord a new song is, by contrast, wonderfully danceable! In all the psalms, the ensemble brings out the textural contrast between the smoothness of the voices and the very plucked textures of the continuo. One thing, however: though their English pronunciation is admirable they do not attack the English words of the psalms with the relish that is needed.

This sense of texture comes over in the Harp Consorts too. The disc features seven movements from Harp Consorts Nos. 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11. This is some of the earliest English chamber music conceived for harp, here joined by viola da gamba, violin and theorbo. They were probably written for the King's private chambers, where the musicians included several harpists with a selection of harps including triple harp and harp with metal strings. The harp occupies the role intended usually for keyboard or lute. The results, whether fast dances or slow ones, are some wondrous textures including one Alman that sounds almost like a music box. Whatever the speeds or style of the music, the ensemble keeps up a sense of flowing dance with some of the faster ones being positively toe-tapping.

Other vocal highlights include Whiles I this standing lake which is plangent and serious, shading into flowing arioso, and Love I obey which is performed as a set of divisions, the voices alternating with some vivid instrumental writing.

William Lawes's death during the Siege of Chester must be counted a real loss. The mind speculates as to what an older Lawes might have achieved, particularly after the Restoration. As it is, this disc gives us a fine portrait of a composer who had a gift for harmonic and contrapuntal daring, along with an ear for the quirky. Lawes's instrumental music has been extensively covered on disc, but this is a chance to explore his wider output in a wonderfully engaging disc.

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