The Night Watch

The Night Watch play music from the medieval, renaissance and early baroque periods (13th-17th centuries) for concerts, weddings, workshops, and social events.

The YouTube video page for The Night Watch is here.

The Night Watch are:

Ian Pittaway: voice, lutes, cittern, 4 course guitar, mandore, gittern, citole, medieval harp, bray harp.
Andy Casserley: voice, recorders, rebec, shawm, crumhorn, bagpipes, simfony, chalumeau, citole.

Why ‘The Night Watch’?

Anthony Holborne (fl.1584-d.1602) was an English renaissance composer for lute, cittern, bandora, and consort. He arranged his piece The Night Watch several times for different instruments: for cittern and bass viol; for bandora; for consort; and for the lute. This constant rearranging of music was typical of medieval and renaissance music, a creative spirit of innovation and reinvention which The Night Watch heartily embrace in our own arrangements, performances and workshops.

Reviews

“It was a measure of the way they captured the audience’s imagination that announcing the final song produced a loud groan, so they played an encore and were rewarded with prolonged applause. They had entertained, enlightened and educated their audience, and very few musicians can do all that in one performance. If you can, go and see them. They are rather special.” Cleobury Clarion

“super … such fun … very, very good early music … wonderful music and singing … fantastic stuff” Genevieve Tudor, BBC Radio Shropshire, Sunday Folk

“… a galaxy of string and wind instruments … Dexterity, subtlety, precise timing and a display of flying fingers.” Folk West

“… two very top instrumentalists … most enjoyable … amazing instruments … fascinating” The Circle Folk Club

“Absolutely fabulous – The Night Watch were the best thing I saw all week.” Mary Humphreys, folk singer, at Whitby Folk Week

“… well worth my while! … very tasty collection … Both men are good singers in the style one associates with music of this period … detailed liner notes that this reviewer really appreciated [that] add a great deal to my listening experience. These two gentlemen are indeed good ambassadors of early music. I would love to hear them perform.” Green Man Review (USA), reviewing The Ambassadors (The Night Watch CD)

“… a full house … taken back through time to listen to medieval and renaissance instruments as unfamiliar and varied as an oud, a shawm, a rebec, a gemshorn and a gittern. We also heard the sounds of German bagpipes, a cittern with low-tension strings of iron and brass(!), a lute on which Ian gave an impressive solo performance of a John Dowland piece, a treble lute, and Andy’s umpteen recorders – with Andy showing his versatility by playing two of them at the same time. There was also plenty of fine singing. The audience just clamoured for more.” Folk West

Enquiries

Every event is different: fees depend on preparation time, travel, and the length of performance. To enquire, please use the form below.