#william byrd

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

[musicwithoutborders]

William Byrd/Jean-Paul Liardet, The Battell, MB 94: The Irishe Marche I The Battell and English Dances of the 16th Century, 1969

[musicwithoutborders]

William Byrd / Friederike Chylek, Sellinger's Round I Keyboard Works, 2022

[18thcenturythirsttrap]

I do like finding recordings of pieces I know on one instrument / set of instruments on another completely different instrument / set of instruments - e.g. this piece, which I'd only previously heard on viols, here set for and played on a chamber organ.

[18thcenturythirsttrap]

Back to Byrd this evening, with a piece based on a ground by an earlier English composer, Hugh Aston - hence the title of this piece, Hugh Aston's Grownde, played here on the virginals.

[18thcenturythirsttrap]

I don't think I've posted viols for a couple of days, so please enjoy this pavan and galliard by William Byrd (1540 - 1623).

[18thcenturythirsttrap]

Back on my early music bullshit again with this cheerful little ditty by William Byrd (1540 - 1623). Byrd is interesting because from the 1570s onwards he increasingly moved in Catholic circles, and either became more actively Catholic himself or converted to Catholicism - paying fines later in life for his refusal to attend Church of England services (recusancy). Yet as this piece composed in 1586 shows, even as he associated with Catholics such as Robert Southwell and Fr. Henry Garnett (both of whom would later be executed), he still continued to compose in honour of Elizabeth I, praising God here for blessing England through her and for preserving the country from 'foreign fears' for the 28 years of her reign so far. Moreover there are suggestions that Elizabeth may have actively protected Byrd from more active investigation and persecution.

Anyway, enjoy!

[18thcenturythirsttrap]

If you're not listening to these three pieces the next time you're thinking about or needing to write about something sad, then you're missing a trick (they work beautifully for me):