Re: Can anyone ID this movie?

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

>On Wed, 31 Dec 1997, jerry and judy wrote:
>
>> unfettered by *tradition*.  Right now I'm listening to his Byrd, Gibbons,
>> Sweelinck CD for about the hundredth time (which I don't wish to do with
>> very many recordings). After I'd first heard this album, I went to the
>> university library for copies of the scores (now they're all downloadable
>> from the net).
>
>Downloadable from where?  I'd be interested in comparing them with the
>editions I have.

Sorry, I only meant that after buying the record years ago I drove over 150
miles round trip to the nearest music library to get the music and now
atleast 75 selections from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book are avbl as midi
files on the net.

http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~bf250/byrd.html

You can transcribe them into playable sheets with Finale for the Mac or
Midi Studio etc. for the PC.

>Have you heard the ensemble version of the Byrd p&g in c minor?  This was
>allegedly one of his very first keyboard pieces, which he put together by
>ornamenting his already-existing ensemble version.

* Pavana & Galiarda (NE10+11 FW167+168 5:1) The Pavan was the ceremonial
     entrance dance of the time, "a kind of staide musicke, ordained for
     grave dauncing" (Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Music
     Thomas Morley, 1597). It was always paired with a Galliard, "a lighter
     and more stirring kind of dancing", properly with the same pulse but in
     triple time, for the young bloods to introduce their skill and energy.
     Tregian noted this one as "the first that ever hee [Byrd] made".

Haven't heard the ensemble version, but as a student of music I'm struck by
how evocative this pieces can be, especially the ones GG chose.  On paper
they appear *simple* sounding and shallow in (musical/psychological)
content, but if you give them a chance you can hear why Kazdin argued that
"the project should be completed as a matter of urgency".  I wonder how
many music lovers are missing out on these composers, because of a
preconceived notion or an unpleasant first experience.

>> And after many years of playing them, trying to capture what
>> it is that he does (afterall, these are mostly very easy pieces!) I'm ready
>> to concede defeat, but what I've gained!, which I can apply to later
>> styles, which wouldn't have been uncovered by the study of any other
>> interpretation.

>I'm curious as to why you've assessed these pieces as easy.  Some of
>Byrd's pieces (especially "Sellinger's Round") are pretty far up there on
>the difficulty scale in the harpsichord repertoire.  I'll grant that in
>the Salisbury it's not too tough to get all the notes, but Gibbons' other
>pieces are among the most difficult in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
>(after Bull and Farnaby, maybe).  Many of Sweelinck's works don't look too
>tough on the page, but they can be quite tricky when played with period
>fingerings that give the types of articulation the composer would have
>expected...plus that d-minor fantasia offers some difficulty in bringing
>off the compositional structure convincingly.

Yeah, that's my problem, I can hold my breath and play the fast runs, but
convincing a listener that there's a form in there, at the more popular
sounding tempo for the modern ear is very tricky.  I still think they look
deceptively easy to play on paper except in rare places such as Glenn said
"Certainly, as the seventh division of Sellinger's Round attests, either he
or some associate had mastered scales in thirds to a fare-three-well!"

>I first heard the Sweelinck fantasia from the CD of GG's Salzburg recital,
>and liked it enough that I chose it for my grad school audition.

Wow, I'm impressed. It's difficult enough to hold together (its
waywardness/unwieldiness) under friendly, fun settings but...
   Odd, it's listed as Fantasia in D (Fantasia cromatica), but it's
definitely in Dm even though it ends on G major!

>I remember that the fast stuff certainly isn't easy (but it doesn't have to
>go as fast as GG plays it, either)

Yeah, GG slows down to the pace at which I try to play the Fantasia in the
last five measures, but I think he does it for the effect of *justifying*
the weak ending(?).

>, but as with much of this repertoire,
>in some ways the most difficult parts to bring off are the slow parts.

Well maybe not in this Fantasia, but I very much agree with you in the
others. The slow sections are treacherous for the player, in this regard
they remind me of the slow sections in Bach's Gm and Gmajor toccatas.

>Mood, contrapuntal clarity, carefully controlled forward motion to shape
>the piece, etc....
>
>By the way, in the last two measures of the Salisbury pavan, GG plays from
>an edition that has the note values twice as long as they are supposed to
>be.  Always bugs me whenever I listen to that recording!

You're right, of course, and as can be imagined, the two versions have very
different effects on the listener.

>As wonderful as GG's playing is, especially in terms of projecting moods,
>I still prefer hearing/playing these pieces on the harpsichord and organ.
>For me, the piano has the wrong kind of sound for this music: too few
>harmonics, making the pieces sound thin in texture.

Yes, but I've heard them sound thin on a harpsichord too, probably not
intentionally.  Glenn's *tone* was actually so full that I can't think of
these recordings as authentic renderings of music of 1600, but *only* as
idealized, abstract conceptions of the scores. Now we're really getting
into a deeper subject in which I've had a question for many years.  Many
times when I'm listening to a recording, especially by Gould, I wonder if
the composer really was aware of what he was doing, was he aware of all the
human resonances that his adherence to the rules of musical theory would
someday make possible?  I've been shot down by the best for asking this
question but...  In addition to this album, I always think of GG's
recording of Haydn's last sonata and the aging Horowitz playing late Chopin.

>GG's way with some of the ornaments is pretty weird, too!

Yes, he's always seemed to be singing through the full harmony/tonality of
a section in miniature, with his idiosyncratic choice of ornamentation.

>Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.44N+78.87W

Jerry
Piano Player/Teacher/Tuner