My Ladye Nevells Booke - Contents

Contents

(Spelling as in the score's pages or in the index – there are some minor differences.)

1. my ladye nevells grownde
2. Qui paſse: for my ladye nevell
3. the marche before the battell
4. the battell
   1. the souldiers sommons
   2. the marche of footemen
   3. the marche of horsemen
   4. the trumpetts
   5. the Irishe marche
   6. the bagpipe and the drone
   7. the flute & the drõme
   8. the marche to the fighte – tantara tantara – the battels be ioyned
   9. The retreat
5. the galliarde for the victorie
6. the barlye breake
7. the galliard gygg
8. the huntes upp
9. vt re mi fa sol la
10. the first Pavian
11. the galliarde to the same
12. the seconde pavian
13. the galliarde to the same
14. the third pavian
15. the galliarde to the same
16. the fourth pavian
17. the galliarde to the same
18. the fifte pavian
19. the galliarde to the same
20. the sixte pavian
21. the galliarde to the same
22. the seventh pavian
23. the eighte pavian
24. the nynthe pavian
25. the galliarde to the same
26. the voluntarie lesson
27. will you walk the woods soe wylde
28. the maydens songe
29. a lesson of voluntarie
30. the seconde grownde
31. have wt you to walsingame
32. all in a garden greene
33. lthe:lo:willobies welcome home
34. the carmans whistle
35. hughe ashtons:grownde
36. A fancie — for my ladye nevell
37. sellingers rownde
38. munsers almaine
39. the tennthe pavian: mr:w:peter
40. the galliarde to the same
41. A fancie
42. A voluntarie

With the exception of the two pieces dedicated to Lady Nevell, the compositions were evidently neither created specifically for the book, nor for the dedicatee, but are representative of some of Byrd's work of the ten to fifteen previous years. The tenth pavan is dedicated to the Catholic John, Lord Petre, while the sixth was for Kinborough Good, daughter of Dr James Good. The manuscript is notable for the lack of any liturgical works, and the pieces may reflect the musical tastes of Elizabeth Nevill herself. Dance music is represented mainly by the ten magnificent but somewhat sombre pavans and their galliards, and there are none of Byrd's more lively corantos and voltas found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, and only one of the almans.

The naive battell was supposedly written after the Armada victory of 1588, but more probably alludes to one of the Irish rebellions of the time. It is the first known programmed suite of descriptive music, and shows Byrd in a rare lighthearted vein.

The variation forms, sometimes harmonic, sometimes contrapuntal, are on folk-song and dance tunes, and on the hexachord (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la), possibly an invention of Byrd's. The masterful fantasias and voluntaries (the terms could in this period be used interchangeably), at least one of which is an arrangement of a fantasia for consort, are not likely to have been composed before the late 1580s, but in any case a full generation before the Italian keyboard masters published their toccatas.

Complete recordings of the music in the booke have been made by harpsichordists Christopher Hogwood and Elizabeth Farr. Davitt Moroney's recording of the complete keyboard works of William Byrd of course includes all these pieces. Some pieces, including "Sellingers Rownde" and "Hughe Ashtons Grownde", have been recorded by Glenn Gould on piano.