''My Ladye Nevells Booke'' (
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
MS Mus. 1591) is a music manuscript containing keyboard pieces by the English composer
William Byrd
William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He ...
, and, together with the ''
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
The ''Fitzwilliam Virginal Book'' is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who beque ...
'', one of the most important collections of
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
keyboard music.
Description
''My Ladye Nevells Booke'' consists of 42 pieces for keyboard by
William Byrd
William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He ...
, widely considered one of the greatest English composers of his time. Although the music was copied by
John Baldwin, a singing man from
St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gar ...
, who was also paid for copying music at the chapel in the 1580s, the pieces seem to have been selected, organised and even edited and corrected by Byrd himself.
A heavy, oblong
folio
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
volume, it retains its original elaborately tooled
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
binding, stamped with the title, on top of a nineteenth century repair. The illuminated
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of the Neville family is on the title page, with the initials "H.N." in the lower left-hand corner. There are 192 leaves each consisting of four six-line
staves with large, diamond-shaped notes. At the end is a table of contents.
History
John Harley has established the dedicatee as
Elizabeth Bacon (c.1541 – 3 May 1621), eldest daughter of
Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper
The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with physical custody of the Great Seal of England. This position evolved into that of one of the Great Officers of ...
Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510–1579), by his first wife, Jane Ferneley (d.1552), the daughter of William Ferneley of Suffolk. Elizabeth Bacon was the third wife of Sir
Henry Neville of
Billingbear House
Billingbear House was situated in the parish of Waltham St. Lawrence in Berkshire, England, about six miles from Windsor.
Originally owned by the Bishop of Winchester, the land was given to Sir Henry Neville (father of politician and diplomat, ...
, Berkshire, whose arms on the title page have now been identified. Thomas Morley also dedicated a book to her (as Lady Periam). Harley has postulated some reasons for the inception of the book, but nothing firm has been established.
Sir Henry and his family were not Catholics, but his son Henry's association with
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a ...
is evidence that the family may have been in favour of religious tolerance.
The date of the manuscript however leaves no doubt, as it was signed as completed by the scribe John Baldwin in
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
with the following
colophon:
finished & ended the leventh of September in the yeare of our lorde god 1591 & in the 33 yeare of the raigne of our sofferaine ladie Elizabeth by the grace of god queene of Englande etc, by me Jo. Baldwine of windsore. laudes deo.
Baldwin was a fervent admirer of Byrd: at the end of the fourth galliard he noted: "mr. w. birde. homo memorabilis", and in his
commonplace book
Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...
, he wrote a poem praising Byrd, "whose greate skill and knowledge doth excelle all at this tyme / and farre to strange countries abroade his skill dothe shyne"
Elizabeth Neville must have been closely associated with Byrd, whether as pupil or patron is not known, but the book was most probably a gift to her. She lived principally at
Hambleden
Hambleden is a small village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. The village is around west of Marlow, and around north-east of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
The civil parish also includes the villages of Fingest and ...
in Buckinghamshire, near to where Byrd and his brothers had a home. At some time it was presented to
Queen Elizabeth by Sir Henry Neville, and then passed through various hands until it was given back in 1668 to an unknown Neville descendant. The book was preserved by the Neville family until the end of the eighteenth century, when it passed through several collectors' hands until it returned to the possession of
William Nevill, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny
William Nevill, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny (16 September 1826 – 12 December 1915), styled Viscount Neville between 1845 and 1868 and known as The Earl of Abergavenny between 1868 and 1876, was a British peer.
Background and education
He was ...
. In 2006 it was accepted by HM Government in lieu of
Inheritance Tax
An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died.
International tax law distinguishes between an es ...
, and allocated to the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
. In 2009 the British Library digitised the manuscript and made it available as a virtual book on its website. It has also been published in facsimile.
Contents
(Spelling as in the score's pages or in the index – there are some minor differences.)
#my ladye nevells grownde
#Qui paſse: for my ladye nevell
#the marche before the battell
#the battell
##the souldiers sommons
##the marche of footemen
##the marche of horsemen
##the trumpetts
##the Irishe marche
##the bagpipe and the drone
##the flute & the drõme
##the marche to the fighte – tantara tantara – the battels be ioyned
##The retreat
#the galliarde for the victorie
#the barlye breake
#the galliard gygg
#
the huntes upp
#vt re mi fa sol la
#the first Pavian
#the galliarde to the same
#the seconde pavian
#the galliarde to the same
#the third pavian
#the galliarde to the same
#the fourth pavian
#the galliarde to the same
#the fifte pavian
#the galliarde to the same
#the sixte pavian
inbrugh Goodd#the galliarde to the same
#the seventh pavian
#the eighte pavian
# the nynthe pavian
he Passinge Mesures#the galliarde to the same
#the voluntarie lesson
#
will you walk the woods soe wylde
#the maydens songe
#a lesson of voluntarie
#the seconde grownde
#
have wt you to walsingame
#all in a garden greene
#lthe:lo:willobies welcome home
#
the carmans whistle
#hughe ashtons:grownde
#A fancie — for my ladye nevell
#sellingers rownde
#munsers almaine
#the tennthe pavian: mr:w:peter
#the galliarde to the same
#A fancie
#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
William Petre
Sir William Petre (c. 1505 – 1572) (pronounced ''Peter'') was Secretary of State to three successive Tudor monarchs, namely Kings Henry VIII, Edward VI and Queen Mary I. He also deputised for the Secretary of State to Elizabeth I.
Educate ...
, the son of 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
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...
is represented mainly by the ten magnificent but somewhat sombre pavans and their
galliard
The ''galliard'' (; french: gaillarde; it, gagliarda) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
Dance fo ...
s, and there are none of Byrd's more lively
corantos {{About, , the family of dances, Courante
Corantos were early informational broadsheets, precursors to newspapers. Beginning around the 14th century, a system developed where letters of news and philosophical discussion would be sent to a central ...
and
voltas
Voltas Limited is an Indian multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company headquartered in Mumbai. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells products including air conditioners, air coolers, refrigerators, washing mac ...
found in the
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
The ''Fitzwilliam Virginal Book'' is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who beque ...
, 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
A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', the ...
, sometimes
contrapuntal
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
, are on folk-song and dance tunes, and on the
hexachord
In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six-note series, as exhibited in a scale (hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial theor ...
(
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
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
of a fantasia for
consort __NOTOC__
Consort may refer to:
Music
* "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses''
* Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles
* Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...
, 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
toccata
Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuo ...
s.
Recordings
Complete recordings of the music in the ''booke'' have been made by harpsichordists
Christopher Hogwood
Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood (10 September 194124 September 2014) was an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer, and musicologist. Founder of the early music ensemble the Academy of Ancient Music, he was an authority on historically info ...
and
Elizabeth Farr.
Davitt Moroney
Davitt Moroney (born 23 December 1950) is a British-born and educated musicologist, harpsichordist and organist. His parents were of Irish and Italian extraction – his father was an executive with the Anglo-Dutch Unilever conglomerate. ...
'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
Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...
on piano.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
''My Ladye Nevells Booke'' digitised version at the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:My Lady Nevells Booke
British Library collections
Renaissance music
Dance music
English music
Compositions for harpsichord
Renaissance music manuscript sources
Compositions by William Byrd
1591 books