Consort song (musical)

The Consort Song is an English song genre of the 16th and 17th century, which evolved from the Air and the Elizabethan Madrigal. It was composed of simple, folk- ways for a four - or five-part Consort, as a rule of viols, and a high singing voice. The term first appeared in William Leighton's 1614 published collection The Teares and Lamentatacions of a Sorrowfull Soule with Consort Songs of John Bull, William Byrd, John Dowland, Martin Peerson and other contemporary composers. Byrd was the most important representative of the genre.