Editing Consort of instruments (section)

==Definitions and forms==
The earliest documented example of the English word 'consort' in a musical sense is in George Gascoigne’s ''The Princelye Pleasures'' (1576).<ref>Warwick Edwards, "Consort", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 2001).</ref> Only from the mid-17th century has there been a clear distinction made between a ''‘whole’, or ‘closed’ consort'', that is, all instruments of the same family (for example, a set of [[viol]]s played together) and a ''‘mixed’, or [[Broken consort|‘broken’ consort]]'', consisting of instruments from various families (for example viols and [[lute]]).<ref>David D. Boyden, [https://archive.today/20120717212522/http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/content/XLIII/2/220.full.pdf+html "When Is a Concerto Not a Concerto?"] (Subscription Access), ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'' 43, no. 2 (April 1957): 220–32 (citation on pp. 228–29); S. Sadie and Alison Latham, ''The Cambridge Music Guide'' (Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 136; P. Holman. ''Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court, 1540–1690'' (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 275.</ref>

Major forms of music composed for consorts included [[fantasia (music)|fantasias]], [[cantus firmus]] settings (including ''[[In Nomine|In nomines]]''), [[variation (music)|variations]], dances or [[air (music)|ayres]], and fantasia suites.<ref>J. H. Baron, ''Chamber Music: A Research and Information Guide'', 2nd revised edition (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 133. {{ISBN|0-415-93736-1}}</ref>