Giles FARNABY
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570025 bk Farnaby US 12/12/05 10:58 AM Page 4 interpretation. My own guide is the table in Praetorius ravalement of a Ruckers transposing double, but I have (Volume III of the Syntagma, published about the time the been guided in my choice of registration by what is possible Fitzwilliam Virginal Book was being copied), who divides on the only surviving English Renaissance harpsichord, organist’s ornaments into various types of accentus and built by the Flemish immigrant Lodewijk Theewes in 1579, tremoletti, which seem to fit these signs respectively and which has at long last been superbly copied by Malcom presage their further evolution better than any other source I Rose. My thanks to him for two pleasant days at his shop in know. He gives, among others, a post-beat tremoletto which Sussex getting to know this highly advanced instrument flips over onto the next note which often works very well. with three choirs of strings and very convenient stop buttons Protestant Northern Germany was the working terrain of near the keyboard. Giles many English musicians and culturally closer to Edition: Comparison of this recording with published Renaissance England than anywhere else on the continent. editions will reveal many divergences. The Fitzwilliam Fingering: I use historic English fingerings: the third Virginal Book is a fairly corrupt source. A performer can FARNABY finger of both hands on the “good” (accented) semiquaver alter things as he sees fit with less pressure on him to of every pair in scales; it is passed over the second or fourth conform rigidly to the source than a scholar going into print. wherever necessary instead of using the thumb as a pivot. In the vexed question of missing accidentals in this period (1562-1640) This leads to a clearly articulated, metrically anchored of transition between modality and tonality, no less a sound, which, however, as Praetorius tells us, must remain contemporary of Farnaby than Thomas Morley expressly clean, accurate and graceful (rein, just und anmutig) - this in allows the interpreter considerable leeway. contradistinction to many wild recent theories about the effects of such fingerings on performance. Glen Wilson Complete Registration: My instrument is a copy of a conservative Glen Wilson Fantasias Born in 1952 in the United States, Glen Wilson studied harpsichord and piano at the North Carolina School of the Arts and at the Juilliard School before moving to The Netherlands in 1971,where he studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Gustav Leonhardt for four years. Shortly before taking his Concert Diploma, he became the youngest member in for the history of The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, remaining until he was invited to teach at the Utrecht Conservatory in 1982. He had meanwhile won all three categories of the 1980 Bruges competition and embarked on a many-sided career as a soloist, in chamber music, and as broadcaster, that has since taken him to over thirty countries. He has been Harpsichord the duo partner of Emma Kirkby, Gustav Leonhardt, Michael Chance, Alice Harnoncourt, Carolyn Watkinson, Peter Kooy and Wieland Kuyken, was a member of Quadro Hotteterre, founded the Amsterdam Fortepiano Trio with Lucy van Dael and Wouter Möller, and participated in major recordings of the orchestras of Brüggen, Leonhardt, and Harnoncourt. He currently performs with the Dutch gambist Mieneke van der Velden. A series of seven solo recordings for Teldec/Das Alte Werk and numerous chamber music releases established Wilson’s reputation as a leading early keyboard specialist. In 1988 he accepted a Professorship at the Musikhochschule in Würzburg. He recently published his reconstruction of the lost autograph of Louis Couperin’s Préludes non mesurés. Glen Wilson was the long-time harpsichordist of The Netherlands Opera. He made his début as conductor there with his own edition of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria. The production, with Anthony Rolfe-Johnson in the title rôle, received over fifty performances in an unprecedented four seasons at Amsterdam, where it was filmed for television, and was invited to New York, Los Angeles, and Sydney, where it opened the Sydney Festival in 1999. His edition of L’Incoronazione di Poppea was mounted in Würzburg in 2003, with Wilson acting as conductor, designer, and stage director. Glen Wilson 8.570025 4 570025 bk Farnaby US 12/12/05 10:58 AM Page 2 Giles Farnaby (1562-1640) They might better be called part-song arrangements, or theme, treated almost like an ostinato or “ground” passed Complete Fantasias for Harpsichord ornamented intabulations of polyphonic vocal works. Two around the voices, and a second livelier one soon giving of the originals remain unidentified, the other is one of way to the toccata. Giles Farnaby was born in London in 1562, the son of a Reid Thompson seem to indicate that it was the work of a Farnaby’s madrigals, which he called “canzonets”. The four ! Farnaby arranged his canzonet “Ay me, poor heart” member of the joiner’s guild, which also later accepted group of professional scribes, using paper of such rare intertwining vocal melodies are freely altered in favour of for harpsichord. Giles into its ranks. Guild membership tended to stay in quality as is only otherwise found in the vicinity of the royal lush passage-work which takes on a life of its own. @ There follows a simple transcription of the massive families as a valued privilege. There was a harpsichord- establishments, and was used for presentation drawings by 1 Fantasia (6/320) is the only one in which Farnaby eight-part madrigal “Witness, ye heavens”, with which maker cousin, and perhaps Farnaby was as closely tied to Inigo Jones. This Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, thus named develops the opening theme in densely overlapping Farnaby closes his book of canzonets. It is hard to work in instrument building as many pre-nineteenth-century after the collector who donated it to the museum he founded entrances (stretto) in a rich texture of four to six parts. After any ornamentation when coping with eight parts on the masters were. If the quality of his music be not enough to in Cambridge, seems to have been intended as a gift for a eight bars he fills out the initial broken triad with quarter keyboard. In the original there are blatant forbidden parallel dispel the suggestion that Farnaby was an amateur person of very high rank who desired a large collection of notes (crotchets). The usual toccata begins in bar 34. fifths on the words “come death”, and the most dissonant composer, the remaining facts of his sketchy biography the best English keyboard music. There is some reason to 2 Fantasia (8/323) is the longest. After eight possible version of the so-called English cadence on the ought to be. In 1592 he was referred to in print as an think it may have returned to England after a period in entrances, some highly ornamented, of the long, sombre word “force”. “expert” contributor to a collection of psalms, and Holland, in which case a possible recipient might have been theme (the last two in stretto), it is inverted for almost the # Fantasia (9/270) is probably a later work, and more graduated as Bachelor of Music at Oxford, at that time a the music-loving daughter of James I, Elizabeth, the same number of bars. A livelier theme follows, then the like an ensemble canzona, a contrapuntal form that never seven-year study which required a command of Latin. (John “Winter Queen” of Bohemia, who lived in exile in The toccata, and finally a brilliant closing cadenza. took real root in England before it was replaced by the Bull, clearly a great influence on Farnaby, was on the Hague for decades. 3 Fantasia (5/82) has a rare opening theme in slow fugue. Several sections develop their respective themes, faculty and was granted his doctorate the same year.) The Farnaby’s works comprise no less than one-sixth of the triple time, exquisitely developed in up to six parts. A some of which again resemble masque music. There are no likeliest place for Farnaby to have learned Latin would have contents of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, an immense section resembling music for a court masque intervenes tempo changes indicated, but the themes seem to cry out for been at one of London’s choir schools, which afforded anthology of one of the greatest schools of keyboard before a particularly Bacchanalian toccata and cadenza flexibility, as would be indicated in later consort music. The excellent opportunities for talented boys. Six years later composition, the English virginalists, named after the rather close one of Farnaby’s masterpieces. closing toccata is the briefest in any of the fantasias, but Farnaby had his book of English madrigals printed, with a odd Renaissance English term for the harpsichord. These 4 (7/333) is one of the two ornamented arrangements there is compensation in the form of many small ornaments dedication that places him close to the court of Queen pieces firmly establish Farnaby in the company of Byrd, of unidentified part-songs. throughout the piece. Elizabeth I, and with congratulatory poems from some of Bull, Gibbons and Tomkins, and their proud place here in 5 Fantasia (4/489) has an opening theme later used by $ “Loth to Depart” has nothing to do with the the greatest composers of the day. Farnaby left London not their sole significant source tells us a great deal about the Richard Strauss but developed by him with less ingenuity. fantasias; it is one of Farnaby’s sets of variations, with an long after this early triumph, and spent some years in rural esteem in which the composer was held in the highest Farnaby alternates bewitchingly between triple and duple irresistible title for an encore.