Colin Tilney (Italian harpsichord, Flemish virginal) English virginal music

Colin Tilney plays English virginal music.
Released 1973 by Argo order number ZRG 675

SIDE ONE ITALIAN HARPSICHORD
00:00 William Byrd Pavan 'Tregian'
05:11 William Byrd Galliard 'Tregian'
07:03 Anon Upon La Mi Re
09:20 John Bull In Nomine no. 9
16:55 Orlando Gibbons Ground in A
19:14 Giles Farnaby Woody-Cock'

SIDE TWO FLEMISH VIRGINAL
26:18 Peter Philips Pavan 'Dolorosa'
32:40 Peter Philips Galliard 'Dolorosa'
34:59 Hugh Aston Hornpipe
38:12 William Byrd Fantasia in A
46:24 John Bull My Grief
47:38 John Bull Alman in D
48:36 John Bull Alman in D
49:28 Anon. Chi Passa

For this recording, modern copies of historical instruments have been used. The Italian harpsichord is by Jean-Pierre Batt, after the 1677 Faby of Bologna now in the Paris Conservatoire, and the Flemish virginal by Derek Adlam. This is a replica of the 1611 Andreas Ruckers

Item: two fair pair of new long virginals made harp fashion of Cypress with keys .of Ivory, having the king's arms crowned and supported by his grace's beasts within a garter gilt standing over the said keys, with two cases to them covered with black leather, the inner parts of the lids to the said cases being of walnut, with sundry antics of white wood wrought in the same. Two Italian harpsichords, their outer protective or travelling cases covered with black leather and their lids elaborately inlaid; are thus described in an inventory of Henry VIII's instruments drawn up in 1553. Other entries mention single and double virginals, an automatic virginal that "goeth with a wheel without playing upon", and "a pair of single virginals with pipes ) underneath (a claviorganum). Such evidence illustrates clearly that ,virginal music was not written exclusively for small rectangular or polygonal instruments. In fact, until ab.out 1650, the word 'virginal' meant just about every keyboard except the organ. Thereafter we begin to find references to harpsichords and spinets, and the first English virginal proper makes its appearance, ironically enough preceding by only a few years the death of Thomas Tomkins, : the last of the virginalist composers. No English keyboard instrument from the sixteenth century having survived, the fitful occurrence of English virginal-makers' names in contemporary. documents is as unhelpful as it is tantalising. It seems likely that English musicians played chiefly on imports, first from Italy and later from Flanders, and this assumption is partly confirmed by constructional details typical of the two schools of building in the handful of native seventeenth-century harpsichords and virginals that survive. For this recording, -modern copies of historical instruments have been used. The Italian harpsichord is by Jean-Pierre Batt, after the 1677 Faby of Bologna now in the Paris Conservatoire, and the Flemish virginal by Derek Adlam. This is a replica of the 1611 Andreas Ruckers in the Vleeshuis at Antwerp. Its sea:horse papet, Latin mottoes, vermilion lines and marbled case caIl all be seen in pictures of Dutch interiors by such painters as Vermeer, Metsu and Jan Steen.
No one record could give an adequate impression .of the English virginalists,- and music that suits what comes before and after 'itself _seems a better introduction to period than solemn chronology, yet there are certain restrictions underlying the choice of works in this recital. In the past, many performers have overplayed the attractive trifles cf virginalist literature - the toys, jigs, voltas, corantoes - and have thus obscured a real grandeur of achievement that has no parallel elsewhere. This "is an attempt to right the balance a little, although there is some light relief from all the splendour. Secondly·, I have concentrated slightly more on the earlier decades of virginalist writing (insofar as there can be any certain dating of manuscripts), because the. great service Byrd and his colleagues did the harpsichord was to establish it in idioms that were no longer derived from vocal music or from the organ, and the process is better worth· watching as it happens than afterwards. Here again, of course, no rules are hard or even fast: nothing could look less like organ music than the Aston hornpipe, and that was probably written while Byrd was still a boy.


#Virginal #DerekAdlam # JeanPierreBatt #ColinTilney