Don't forget the big guys - apart from Dowland who has already been mentioned, there were Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, who made this one of the few times in history when English music was pre-eminent in Europe. Other names to conjure with are John Bull (yes really!), John Johnson, Richard Allison, Thomas Morley, Giles Farnaby, Thomas Thomkins and Orlando Gibbons.

Three excellent albums with lots of good stuff are 'Watkins Ale' by the excellent Baltimore concert - it would be hard to get a better introduction to the music of this era, it was the first CD I ever bought - Dorian. 'Elizbethan Songs and Consort Music' on Naxos, and Trevor Pinnock's '16th Century English Harpsichord and Virginals Music'. 'Spem in Alium' by the Tallis Scholars is an excellent recording of some of Tallis' best pieces.

Some fine songs to demonstrate the diffrent veins in Elizabethan music are 'Flow my teares' (also known as 'Lachrimae, or seven teares')and 'Fortune my Foe' by Dowland - these exemplify the English 'cult of melancholy', which we were known for all over Europe; 'Watkins Ale' a fabulously naughty song,typical of good humored bawdiness, ending with the immortal lines

                If any here offended be
                Then blame the author, blame not me.

and 'Packington's Pound', the No. one hit of the Elizabethan era which had dozens and dozens of lyrics set to it, from the story of Jonah and the whale to the sad story of a thief about to be hung

       Youth youth, thou 'ad better been starved by thy nurse
       Than live to be hanged for cuttin' a purse.

Hope this is helpful.