Byrd's keyboard music

[ardcarp]

Although best known for his vocal music, William Byrd's keyboard music was rich and diverse, leading the way for composers such as Giles Farnaby and Thomas Tomkins. Lucie Skeaping speaks to Professor of Harpsichord and Fortepiano Carole Cerasi about how Byrd set the future style of English keyboard music and why it remains important now 400 years after his death.

(I bought a copy of My Ladye Nevells Book...no apostrophe on the title page....around 1970, and have enjoyed dipping into it ever since. Edited by Hilda Andrews...who she?)

[Old Grumpy]

Although best known for his vocal music, William Byrd's keyboard music was rich and diverse, leading the way for composers such as Giles Farnaby and Thomas Tomkins. Lucie Skeaping speaks to Professor of Harpsichord and Fortepiano Carole Cerasi about how Byrd set the future style of English keyboard music and why it remains important now 400 years after his death.

(I bought a copy of My Ladye Nenells Book...no apostrophe on the title page....around 1970, and have enjoyed dipping into it ever since. Edited by Hilsa Andrews...who she?)

Who she?

This one presumably https://www.oxfordreference.com/disp...D3516B61E25091

....but I suspect you probably knew that anyway

[gurnemanz]

Davitt Moroney's Byrd: The Complete Keyboard Music on 7 CDs from Hyperion is one of the best boxed sets I have ever invested in. Beautiful sound and performance on 6 different instruments (harpsichords, virginal, chamber organ, clavichord, Ahrend organ of l’Église-Musée des Augustins, Toulouse). The presentation is exemplary. The booklet has 100 pages of thorough and lucid notes, with detailed information on each individual piece.

Seems now to be only available as a download which does include the essential booklet.

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDS44461/7

[vinteuil]

Davitt Moroney's Byrd: The Complete Keyboard Music on 7 CDs from Hyperion is one of the best boxed sets I have ever invested in.]

Yes!

[ardcarp]

Seems available in CD form (new) in the US. Eye-watering price though.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115469646326?hash=item1ae286f9f6:g:6XcAAOSwPoZi1vbe&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8L6Q02rCW57ejxg57z71PfGnHayWRaXTqtvF%2BaLxtJ9SMm%2FcpZ0OhpgjlaDDtQRo0T9hPmQsYpR%2FhjcyaKdTRMysFgW6JvkmmwWyXzD8hwep8XsC3e3xf104Y88ziBLKl3pWSNjsFu%2FXNy85E1Lc16VAQ745eYmsVv2gONJAerSRC2OfBIoshjxUGZl2Fa0bfecL7FvwEnnv2KKPM2OC1BBY%2FQ1jp9B00aLXze6I%2Fv9AfcXXAV7%2BIGmHVTktdHnbIJitSWKG5HWva50IsWluuALEH%2FxuKe%2FX0ZUafVDjPUB8n749n2UXBGT61egIAH7l8A%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMhqyai6Fi

[Pulcinella]

I would have thought that Hyperion would have reissued these in Byrd's anniversary year.
Indeed, given that they took over later volumes of The Byrd Edition from ASV/Gaudeamus (Cardinall's Musick/Andrew Carwood) I was actually wondering if they might have bought the rights to those previously released recordings and given us a complete edition there too.

[MickyD]

I'm still fond of Hogwood's 'Ladye Nevell's Booke' - he used a variety of keyboard instruments, harpsichord, virginals and organ. Has anyone heard the newer version by Pieter-Jan Belder for Brilliant?

[Mandryka]

I'm still fond of Hogwood's 'Ladye Nevell's Booke' - he used a variety of keyboard instruments, harpsichord, virginals and organ.

I last listened to that on July 2 2018. My notes say that I enjoyed the Galliards, and the 9th Pavan. I also commented that I felt he was more comfortable on harpsichord than on organ. By the way I'll mention that his recording of music from The Fitzwilliam Book is, IMO, absolutely magnificent!

Has anyone heard the newer version by Pieter-Jan Belder for Brilliant?

He is very able to play this music, but I don't think in Byrd he reaches the starry summits of Hogwood, Arpo Hakkinen, Marianne Lévy-Noisette, Elizabeth Farr, Colin Tilney, Gustav Leonhardt, Richard Egarr, Colin Booth, Lydia Maria Blank and probably others I can't remember.

(Anyone enjoy Glen Wilson's Byrd? Or Belder?)

[Mandryka]

Davitt Moroney's Byrd: The Complete Keyboard Music on 7 CDs from Hyperion is one of the best boxed sets I have ever invested in. Beautiful sound and performance on 6 different instruments (harpsichords, virginal, chamber organ, clavichord, Ahrend organ of l’Église-Musée des Augustins, Toulouse). The presentation is exemplary. The booklet has 100 pages of thorough and lucid notes, with detailed information on each individual piece.

Seems now to be only available as a download which does include the essential booklet.
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/d...c=D_CDS44461/7

This is his second Byrd recording, and it is indeed remarkable for the variety of instruments he uses. His first was just the pavans and galliards, he waxed lyrical about them in the booklet essay:

No feature of My Lady Nevell's Book shows Byrd's guiding hand more than the selection and arrangement of the first nine pavans and galliards (the tenth pair stands apart, having been added as an afterthought the end of the manuscript). The sequence is laid out with the regard for symmetry and variety that he habitually brought to the planning of a set of variations. The first six pavans are each followed by a galliard. Nos. I, 3 and 5 are solemn works in minor modes (cr, ai and c2) with sixteen bars to the strain. Of Nos. 2, 4 and 6, all in the major, 2 and 4 (G2 and Cr) are lighter pieces in 8-bar strains; No. 6 (C2) matches the minor mode pavans in dimensions and weight, and closes the first group. Nos. 7 and 8 (G6 and a4), though also 16-bar pavans, differ in having no galliards. The great Passing Measures pair (g1) crowns the series.

[vinteuil]

.

... the (few) pieces of Byrd in Glenn Gould's recorded repertoire are a joy

.

[Mandryka]

.

... the (few) pieces of Byrd in Glenn Gould's recorded repertoire are a joy

.

Kit Armstrong!

[Pulcinella]

.

... the (few) pieces of Byrd in Glenn Gould's recorded repertoire are a joy

.

Spun this evening (while tackling the Times crossword).

[CallMePaul]

Kit Armstrong!

Daniel-Ben Pienaar has recently issued a double CD of Byrd on the piano, although I have yet to hear it. Should be worth a listen if it's up to the standard of his complete Gibbons keyboard music, which was recommended a few years back on Record Review.

[MickyD]

.

... the (few) pieces of Byrd in Glenn Gould's recorded repertoire are a joy

.

I last listened to that on July 2 2018. My notes say that I enjoyed the Galliards, and the 9th Pavan. I also commented that I felt he was more comfortable on harpsichord than on organ. By the way I'll mention that his recording of music from The Fitzwilliam Book is, IMO, absolutely magnificent!



He is very able to play this music, but I don't think in Byrd he reaches the starry summits of Hogwood, Arpo Hakkinen, Marianne Lévy-Noisette, Elizabeth Farr, Colin Tilney, Gustav Leonhardt, Richard Egarr, Colin Booth, Lydia Maria Blank and probably others I can't remember.

(Anyone enjoy Glen Wilson's Byrd? Or Belder?)

Thanks for answering my questions. Agreed about Hogwood and the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, a lovely set, thankfully rescued by Eloquence from the original Folio Society LPs.

[Mandryka]

I listened to Marianne Lévy-Noisette this afternoon.

Do yourselves a favour. Do as I did. Get some enormous speakers and a huge muscle amplifier, put on the Marianne Lévy-Noisette recording, and upset all the neighbours!