Index to the Recordings of
William Byrd (1543-1623)
My sources are shown in brackets: NE numbers are those in Nevell, PA in
Parthenia, FW in FitzWilliam, MB Musica Britannica.
- Liturgical works. These belong to the musical world in
which Byrd was born.
- Pavans and Galliards. The Pavan was the ceremonial
entrance dance of the time, "a kind of staide musicke, ordained for grave
dauncing" (Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Music,
Thomas Morley, 1597). It was always paired with a Galliard, "a lighter and
more stirring kind of dancing", properly with the same pulse but in triple
time, for the young (but 'proper') bloods to introduce their skill and energy.
It was thus a totally respectable form, yet free of church restrictions, for
Byrd to present his new world of music.
- Other dances
- The Queenes Alman (FW172 MB10)
"The Alman is a more heavie daunce than [the galliard], so that no
extraordinary motions are used in dauncing of it." (Morley)
- Alman (FW163 MB11)
- Alman (FW63 MB44)
- Monsiers Alman (NE38 FW61+62
MB87+88)
- Alman (FW156 MB89)
- Coranto (FW218 MB21) The three
themes of this piece occur together in a lute manuscript of 1590
- Coranto (FW241 MB45)
- Gigg (FW181 MB22)
- Hornpipe (MB39) This piece, found
among Byrd's papers after his death, as were most that come from Will
Foster's Virginal Book, contains many quotes from his earlier works.
- Sellingers Rownde (NE37 FW64
MB84) Round dances were lively affairs, usually with lots of foot stamping.
- La Volta (FW159 MB90) theme by
Thomas Morley
- La Volta (FW155 MB91)
- Grounds
- Preludes & Fantasies. "The most principall and
chiefest kind of music which is made without a dittie is the fantasie, that is
when a musician taketh a point at his pleasure and wresteth it and turneth it
as he list, making either much or little of it according as shal seem best in
his own conceit" (Morley) Preludes were used to check out the tuning and
regulation of an instrument at the start of a performance.
- Præludium (PA4 FW24 MB24)
- Fantasia (FW100+52 MB12+13)
- Fantasia (NE36 FW103 MB25)
- Fancie (NE41 MB46)
- Fantasia on a Fugue (FW261 MB62)
- Fantasia (FW8 MB63)
- Ut,re,mi for Two (MB58) This is a
piece to keep a pupil awake, with frequent changes of pulse and rhythm, and
the occasional crossing of the ground by the instructor's part.
- Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la (NE9
FW101 MB64) The gamut, or scale, of medieval times was based on
hexachords - 6 notes. Pieces with this title were written to display the
inventiveness of the composer with the whole gamut. I play this one at the
tempo appropriate for the large harpsichords of the time, such as the "payer
of virginalles in one coffer with iiij stoppes" bought by Henry VIII in
1530, three years before his daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I, was
born.
- Ut,mi,re (FW102 MB65)
- A Verse (MB28) a simple two-part
work
- Lesson of Voluntarie (NE29 MB26)
Byrd's voluntaries were first written for viols - this one for 5. Despite
this, they remain completely within the 12-pitch meantone scale of a
keyboard.
- Voluntarie (NE42, MB27 in part)
- Voluntarie: for my ladye nevell
(NE26 MB61)
- Program music
- The Marche before the Battell
(NE3 FW259 MB93)
- The Battell (NE4+5 MB94+95)
"Souldiers sommons, marche of footemen, marche of horsmen, trumpetts, Irishe
marche, bagpipe and the drone, flute and the droome, marche to the fighte,
the battels be joyned, retreat, galliarde for the victorie". This is the
only Byrd piece where the instrument has to be short-octave tuned, as most
were then, to reach the bass chords written.
- Popular tunes. These were the staple of the professional
harpsichordists of the time, most of whose work was never recorded.
John Sankey