Sir Francis Drake took with him on his earth-changing circumnavigation of the globe four viol players who were to play both for his own devotions and to the unsuspecting native peoples they encountered. Fretwork have commissioned British composer Orlando Gough to recreate this remarkable journey—a panoply of music old and new, familiar and strange, with Simon Callow telling the story in the words of the time. Gunboat diplomacy can never have sounded so good.