The Broken Consort

• The Broken Consort was a section of the ensemble that worked as King Charles II’s “Private Music.” The musicians were based in the royal residence in Whitehall. The Broken Consort was called “broken” because it consisted of a mixed group of instruments (violins, viols and continuo instruments) instead of just one family of instruments.
• The Broken Consort ensemble often played the type of contrapuntal music that was favored at the court of Charles I – way back before the English Civil War and the Restoration. Locke’s suite is a conscious throwback to this older court tradition.
• It is likely that the Broken Consort ensemble played the suites named for them, and that Matthew Locke played continuo organ when the suites were performed.¹

ENCO Cut # 48311: Suite No. 2 in G Major from The Broken Consort

ENCO Cut # 48318: Suite NO. 6 in D Major from The Broken Consort

1. Peter Holman, “Locke [Lock], Matthew,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 7, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000016848.