William Byrd's Perch

Started by Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber, August 17, 2007, 08:14:55 PM

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SonicMan46

Quote from: vers la flamme on September 07, 2021, 01:33:23 PM
I just ordered the Songs of Sundrie Natures disc with the Hilliard Ensemble on EMI. Excited to explore it. I have their recording of the masses which is also quite fine.

By the way, listening to Kit Armstrong talk about Byrd on the Gramophone podcast a few months ago was quite fascinating. Guy knows his stuff. I'm not particularly interested in hearing this music played on piano, but perhaps I ought to check out his new record. To contribute to the Byrd on piano discussion, Glenn Gould has a classic disc with some Byrd:

 

Quite good as far as this stuff goes.

Thanks all for the comments on Armstrong - I listened to the 2-CD package on Spotify yesterday (would like to do again w/ headphones on - have to keep the volume down if SWAMBO is around -  :laugh:) - enjoyed his performance.  Dave :)

DaveF

Quote from: SonicMan46 on September 07, 2021, 07:43:39 AM
Also yesterday, I visited BRO and perused their Byrd offerings - selected the 4 below for potential purchase but suspect the Chandos recording overlaps one or more of the Hyperion discs - for you Byrdians, which of these are worth a buy and any to eliminate?  Thanks.  Dave :)

     

I don't know the Chandos, but from looking at the track listings there are only 3 pieces that also appear on the 2 Hyperion discs - Hæc dies, Miserere and Domine salva nos.  In any case, they will probably sound quite different in performances by an English college choir and a OVPP professional ensemble.

The Cardinalls' version of The Great Service is pretty good, I believe - it's transposed up the standard minor 3rd which, notwithstanding my advocacy of Simon Ravens' low-pitch version above, really does bring out the contrasts between low and high scoring in different passages.  I say 'I believe' because, to my surprise, I find I don't have a copy of it.  My reference recording is another Hyperion, the Westminster Abbey Choir with James O'Donnell - a bigger band altogether than the Cardinalls.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

SonicMan46

Quote from: DaveF on September 07, 2021, 02:20:46 PM
I don't know the Chandos, but from looking at the track listings there are only 3 pieces that also appear on the 2 Hyperion discs - Hæc dies, Miserere and Domine salva nos.  In any case, they will probably sound quite different in performances by an English college choir and a OVPP professional ensemble.

The Cardinalls' version of The Great Service is pretty good, I believe - it's transposed up the standard minor 3rd which, notwithstanding my advocacy of Simon Ravens' low-pitch version above, really does bring out the contrasts between low and high scoring in different passages.  I say 'I believe' because, to my surprise, I find I don't have a copy of it.  My reference recording is another Hyperion, the Westminster Abbey Choir with James O'Donnell - a bigger band altogether than the Cardinalls.

Thanks DaveF for the comments - I put in the order for all 4 CDs (just $8 each @ BRO) - I'll do some comparative listening and decide if I want to keep all or possibly discard one?  Dave :)

Mandryka

I was forgetting one of the best, the Naxos CD with Rose Consort and Red Byrd and Tessa Bonner.


https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.550604
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

DaveF

Willm Bird a ffather of musick died the iiijth of July (1623) - sed vivet in æternum! Rest in peace & rise in glory, old fellow.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

DavidW

There were two articles in the New York Times about Byrd today.  Here is a quote from one of the articles:

QuoteJames MacMillan
MacMillan — like Byrd, a committed Catholic — recently wrote "Ye Sacred Muses" for the King's Singers and Fretwork, the viol consort. The piece employs a text that Byrd used to commemorate Thomas Tallis.

I first got to know his music, and first sang his music, as a teenager at school in Scotland. Our high school choir was singing bits of his four-part Mass. As a fledgling composer, who was very interested in early counterpoint and getting to grips with how you should handle complexity, it was a wonderful lesson in how to make line against line work in a piece of music. His music is known among the singing community, the choral community, but maybe beyond that he's not as well known as he should be. Classical music audiences tend to forget about the pre-Baroque, and it's a pity because William Byrd is one of music history's great figures.

Another wonderful motet by Byrd is "Justorum animae," which is basically a commemoration or a celebration of martyrs. It's quite clear whom he means. He was seeing people being put to death because of their faith. I think Byrd and Tallis knew people who were arrested, and I think there were some composers for one reason or another during this time arrested. They must have thought that that could have been in the cards. The only comparable situation today is in dictatorships, behind what was the Iron Curtain — Shostakovich living with fear, with his bag packed, ready to go.

T. D.


DaveF

Thanks, both. I'm on holiday (in Corsica) at the moment, using slightly unreliable WiFi, but will explore the links on my return, far too soon, to rainy Wales. Dodging paywalls via incognito browsing & VPNs sounds right up my street.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

DaveF

Something I missed in the riches of last years's Byrd bonanza:



Annoyingly (in retrospect), 3 months earlier, Brilliant had released this:



which is of course included in the first box - which also naturally includes all the pieces from the Fitzwilliam Book recorded by Belder in his complete survey, albeit in new performances.  Plus all the pieces from other sources, including a scattering of extras that don't appear in Davitt Moroney's complete keyboard box.  Annoyance is considerably offset by the price of the big box, £22 on Qobuz for the equivalent of 9 discs.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison