John Cooper - named Coprario at the Elizabethan court very fond of Il Cortegiano of Castiglione - expresses with his music the contradictions of his time. Elizabeth the first ruled the country from 1558 to 1603, the king James 1st followed. At this time, life was fragile, all made of disorder … « For Coprario, as for Burton (Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621), music was ‘a sovereign remedy’. In these early years of the seventeenth century, so sorrowful and so fragile, he tried to struggle against despair.» Bernard Cassaigne Coprario wrote the Funeral Teares (1606) to celebrate Charles Blount’s memory, outstanding pair of the kingdom, lover of Pénélope Devereux poetes’muse. Charles Blount died of melancholy after that his marriage with here was banned.

The Songs of Mourning (1612) celebrate on Thomas Campion’s poetry, Henry’s memory - Prince of Wales, futur king, protestant, friend of arts, Coprario’s pupil. Death killed him at 18. His death was a tragedy for the english.

The Masque of Squires (1614) were written for the delayed marriage of Lady Elizabeth, sister of death prince Henry. The Ayres express however the possibility of happiness…

Anne Delafosse-Quentin & Paulin Bündgen gathered their 2 ensembles to discover this repertoire ; voix, luth, harp and violas… and bring variety to this music, full of fine melodies, rythms and harmony.