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CHAN 0699 Front.qxd 5/4/07 11:20 am Page 1 CHAN 0699 CHACONNE CHANDOS early music CHAN 0699 BOOK.qxd 5/4/07 11:26 am Page 2 Elizabethan Virginals Music Anthony Holborne (?1584–1602) 1 The Queenes New Year’s Gift 1:56 Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) Lebrecht Music Collection Music Lebrecht 2 Lord of Salisbury Pavan – 2:28 3 Lord of Salisbury Galliard 2:13 William Byrd (1543–1623) 4 Earl of Oxford’s March 3:13 Orlando Gibbons 5 The Queenes Command 1:28 Giles Farnaby (c. 1563–1640) 6 Walter Erle’s Pavan 4:42 Anon 7 A Ground 9:51 Giles Farnaby 8 Tower Hill 0:47 Martin Peerson (1571/3–1651) 9 Piper’s Pavan 4:40 (?1562/3–1628) Title page of the countertenor part of William Byrd’s John Bull 10 ‘Psalmes, Sonets and Songs’ of 1588 Piper’s Galliard 7:01 3 CHAN 0699 BOOK.qxd 5/4/07 11:26 am Page 4 Elizabethan Virginals Music Anon The court of Queen Elizabeth I was the their Dutch and Italian counterparts, and 11 Can shee excuse 1:34 epicentre of the English artistic scene at the then surpassed them, in terms both of the end of the sixteenth century. Since the magnitude and the sophistication of the Anon dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, new repertoire they created. It was at this 12 Pakington’s Pownde 1:57 English music had become increasingly time that keyboard music found a new centred around London; in marked contrast role – aside from its hitherto mainly William Tisdale (late 16th century) to the situation in other European countries, liturgical function – and the popularity of 13 Mrs Katherin Tregian’s Pavan 4:15 where a provincial monastery might have the domestic virginals reached new heights. acted as a lively hub of musical activity. With We know that even the Queen played the William Byrd the court and Chapel Royal playing such instrument tolerably well, and is famously 14 Carman’s Whistle 4:03 crucial roles, it is hard to over-estimate the said to have taken to it ‘to shun melancholy’. William Byrd influence of the Queen herself on the music The virginals was to remain popular in of her time. England for about a century after her death, 15 The Queenes Almain 3:07 Ever conscious of the international but it was between the late sixteenth and William Byrd reputation of her court, Elizabeth was early seventeenth centuries that composition content to see English musical life developing for the instrument flourished as never before 16 Lullaby 5:01 a strong identity of its own, whilst or since. John Bull continuing to benefit from the influence of William Byrd can be seen as the father of 17 Chromatic Pavan – 5:35 Continental composers. England’s victory English keyboard music, for it was he who over the Spanish Armada ignited a new first developed an idiomatic way of writing 18 Chromatic Galliard 3:05 TT 68:04 national self-confidence that prepared a specifically for the instrument, rather than fertile soil for artists of all kinds – including merely using it as a vehicle upon which to Sophie Yates virginals Shakespeare, Hilliard, Spenser and play settings of popular vocal music. Smythson. Nonetheless, many of his sets of variations Virginals by David Evans (tracks 1, 4, 6, 11, 15 & 16) and In the musical sphere, Byrd, Bull, Gibbons are based on the most popular tunes of the Alan Gotto (all other tracks) and their contemporaries first learnt from day – for example, the ‘Carman’s Whistle’ 4 5 CHAN 0699 BOOK.qxd 5/4/07 11:26 am Page 6 (once condemned for its ‘odious and and turned a blind eye to her talented Another Cornish connection comes in the for an ambitious musician such as Dowland. lascivious ribaldry’). Byrd’s treatment of these Catholic composers, such as Byrd, who could shape of Captain Digorie Piper, the dedicatee The lute song ‘Can she excuse my wrongs’, tunes is notable for the variety of colour and reconcile their faith with loyalty to the of a famous Pavan and Galliard by the from Dowland’s Second Book of Songs, texture he employs and the distinct crown. At different times in his life, Byrd lutenist, John Dowland. Piper was captain of appears in Lachrimae or Seven Teares as ‘The characterisation of each set of divisions. was fortunate enough to have the patronage the ship ‘Sweepstake’, and was charged with Earl of Essex Galliard’. It is thought that However, I have also included on the disc a of two fellow Catholics at court, William attacking any Spanish shipping that strayed Devereux might have written the words in setting by an unknown hand of a famous Petre and Edward Paston. These influential into the English Channel, as tensions supplication to the Queen at a crisis point in tune by Byrd himself. The ‘Lullaby’ appears men, who trod a fine diplomatic line between the two nations rose in the years their tempestuous relationship. For this in Psalmes, Sonets and Songs of 1588; the themselves, gave him refuge and the benefit leading up to the Spanish Armada. Piper, recording, I have taken the anonymous tune was so popular that the whole book of their inside information about court however, took the opportunity to launch variations on the tune from the Fitzwilliam became known as Byrd’s Lullabies. A letter of intrigues. Much of Byrd’s Catholic piratical attacks on French, Dutch, Flemish Virginals Book and mixed them with 1602 mentions the popularity of Irish music liturgical music was written for the private and, fatally, Danish vessels too. When the Dowland’s original solo lute divisions. at court, but guesses that ‘in winter, celebrations of Mass that went on in their King of Denmark complained to Queen The practice of sharing repertoire between ‘Lullaby’, an owlde song of Mr. Birde wylbee households. Elizabeth, it spelt the end of Piper’s exploits instruments by writing divisions on popular more in request’. The version of the ‘Earl of I have chosen the music on this disc to try and only a full confession prevented him tunes or bass-lines was well-established Oxford’s March’ that I play here is from the to reflect some significant ideas current in this from being hanged. It is tempting to guess during this period. The anonymous Fitzwilliam Virginals Book, although it is only rich period and to make connections between that the sea-captain might have been a friend ‘A Ground’ is just such a piece – Tomkins a portion of a much longer piece called ‘The its prominent personalities. Since the disc is a of Dowland’s, as there would seem to be no and Byrd also used the pattern as a basis for Battle’ from My Lady Nevells Book of 1591. commemoration of Queen Elizabeth’s death, political advantage in dedicating a piece to their own compositions. This version is The Fitzwilliam Virginals Book is the I have included several chromatic works in such a dubious character. extraordinarily extended with a powerfully largest collection of keyboard music from the programme. During this period chromatic John Bull’s divisions on his rather elegiac cumulative effect and divisions that are this time and was compiled by Francis writing, with its resulting dissonance, was ‘Piper’s Galliard’ are fantastically elaborate reminiscent of John Bull’s more austere Tregian, a Cornish Catholic who was used to express melancholy and yearning. The and virtuosic, almost submerging the original works. ‘Pakington’s Pownde’ could not be incarcerated in the Fleet Prison for recusancy. Cornish composer William Tisdale’s tune. The treatment has something in more different in its straightforwardly It is significant that the work of both Chromatic Pavan, dedicated to Francis common with the way in which jazz bucolic nature, reflecting the popular story Catholic and Protestant composers is Tregian’s wife, Katherine, is a piece of such musicians use a song as a mere starting point of a wager on Packington’s ability to swim represented in the Fitzwilliam, in marked painful intensity that it is easy to believe it for an improvisation. across the Thames. Giles Farnaby’s ‘Tower contrast to the official situation of anti- was written to soothe a deep sorrow, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex – a Hill’ represents a darker side of Elizabethan Catholic apartheid that existed at court. signifying that a personal relationship existed courtier who had a close relationship with life in London. The Tower of London was a However, the Queen took a pragmatic view between the two families. the Queen – was a typical choice of dedicatee dreaded place of confinement and execution, 6 7 CHAN 0699 BOOK.qxd 5/4/07 11:27 am Page 8 but considering the sinister connotations of Sophie Yates began her career by winning the tune’s title, Farnaby’s divisions are the international Erwin Bodky Competition surprisingly jaunty! at the Boston Early Music Festival, and as a Orlando Gibbons succeeded Walter Earle result she was invited to tour and broadcast as the Queen’s virginalist and was known as throughout the eastern states of America. She ‘the best finger of our age’. His Pavan and now performs regularly around Europe, the Galliard for Robert Cecil, Lord of Salisbury, United States and Japan, and has also worked is weighty and dignified, as befits the in Syria, Morocco and Western Australia. Secretary of State. This work is included Known for her affinity with the French alongside Byrd’s similarly titled piece in baroque, the music of the Iberian Peninsula Parthenia, a collection of virginals music that and English virginals music, she has appeared around the time of Cecil’s death: it performed on most of the playable virginals is possible that they were both written as surviving in Britain and is working on a elegies to him.