| Fretwork |
When Drake set sail from Plymouth on 15 November 1577, he took with him four viol players, who almost certainly had no idea that they were about to embark on such an epic journey. The viols played music to accompany Drake’s private worship – he prayed for over an hour each day, and sang hymns to the viols; they also entertained him while he ate; he also used the pacific nature of the music to impress the natives in South America, and then also in Java, where the king returned the favour.
Fretwork have commissioned Orlando Gough (Birds on Fire) to use these scant facts to create a journey in sound that charts Drake’s remarkable feat. Music from the 16th century prior to Drake’s departure is woven seamlessly into a through-composed piece of music lasting 70 minutes complete with narrator. Drake stopped in Morocco, The Cape Verde Islands, Brazil, Argentina, Patagonia; passed through the Straights of Magellan (where he lost one of the sister ships, and another turned back, and where Drake’s ship, the Pelican, was renamed The Golden Hinde); then up the coast of Chile, Mexico, California, across the Pacific Ocean to the Moluccas, Java, then round Cape of Good Hope, Sierra Leone and finally Plymouth in September 1580.