Byrd’s Pavane/Galliard pairs from the usual sources –– “My Lady Nevells Booke” first in line of importance –– are some of the most beloved works in the Virginalist repertoire. Here is a galliard that is overlooked, because it was not originally for keyboard, and is difficult to find; but its transcription comes from the noblest of hands.
Byrd composed two six-part fantasias for viol consort in G minor. John Harley (“William Byrd / Gentleman of the Chapel Royal”) dates these to the 1580s, but admits that “the chronological relationship between [them] is far from certain”. One (Byrd Edition 17/13) was printed in the composer’s valedictory publication, “Psalms, songs, and sonnets” (1611)*. Some Byrd scholars of the previous century considered it to be the superior work. It is indeed neater and more suited to a broad early 17th-century audience, as well as to the taste of a sterile later epoch; but the other (BE 17/12) has all the vigor and boldness of Byrd’s youth.
Both these masterpieces, along with a simpler 3-part fantasia, were transcribed for keyboard by Thomas Tomkins. They are found among his additions to the most important source for the earliest English repertoire, British Library Add Ms 29996. The transcriptions are brilliant examples of their kind. Tomkins first transposes both works to A minor, making them a much easier lie for the hands. The transposition two fifths upwards only resulted in a single quick d-sharp, in a cadential ornament —the only note outside quarter-comma meantone.
A simple intabulation of six voices for viol consort would have been unplayable, so Tomkins, while keeping the essential elements of range and imitation, mostly reduces to four voices in tutti sections. But in the manner of Virginalist texturing, he gives himself leeway to reinforce and vary voicing as he deems most effective, sometimes expanding to seven-voice chords.
Both of Byrd’s G-minor consorts have a section in galliard style towards the end. That which I have recorded here (another single take in the home studio on Naoko’s iPhone) comes from BE 17/12, the more engaging of the two works in my opinion. The galliard must have originally been a separate piece in five parts, because in the first two strains, the two discants simply alternate on the written-out repeats. In the third strain repeat, Byrd added a sixth voice with filler material. Tomkins actually varies the repeats slightly, with the exception of the second strain, which he didn’t bother to repeat at all.
Tomkins ends his transcription of BE 17/12 with the galliard. Byrd’s consort has a magnificent coda, one of the finest things he ever wrote. Its contrapuntal intricacy must have so intimidated Tomkins that he left it out of his transcription — either that, or Byrd added it at some point after Tomkins’ manuscript version. In a 1622 dedication, the younger man referred to Byrd as “my ancient, & much reverenced master”. Nothing further is known of a teacher-student relationship, but it could be the case that the three Byrd consort transcriptions in Add Ms 29996 (including that in three parts, itself probably a relic of Byrd’s studies with Tallis) were study assignments.
Byrd’s 1611 publication referred to above has the “Message to all true lovers of Musicke” shown below. Its plea for careful preparation and performance of his works needs to be taken to heart by every musician in regard to every work undertaken. It applies especially to instruments as difficult to manage as the harpsichord family.
June 30, 2024
- Being ex[c]ited by your kinde acceptance of my former travailes in Musicke, I am thereby much incouraged to commend to you these my last labours, for myne ultimum vale.” Byrd was yet to be represented in two later publications, “Parthenia” (1612) on the marriage of Princess Elizabeth, and Wm. Leighton’s “The teares or lamentacions…” (1614).
click  to listen (m4a file)
|