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Hugh Aston's Ground, MB20Genre: Other Keyboard
Pr. Instrument: Keyboard
High Aston's Ground is a set of grounds for keyboard by the renaissance English composer, William Byrd (1543-1623). A three-part consort work entitled Hugh Aston's Masque, probably provides the source for the ground, or bass of Byrd's work, and, therefore, also the name. There are twelve grounds in the set
Byrd's work is an unusually dissonant work utilising sevenths and ninths as accented passing notes as well as other unorthodox intervals. This dissonance forms a part of the overall harmonic language of the work, showing Byrd's skill in creating a unique musical feel. This is most apparent in variations one, two and seven.
Several parallels may be drawn between this work and Byrd's earlier ground on The Hunt's Up, an altogether less impressive work. The shortcomings of the earlier work apparently haunted Byrd, and Hugh Aston's Ground may be, in part, an attempt to rework some of the failures of the earlier piece. If so, it succeeds in its aim. Hugh Aston's Ground is a very solid piece of writing.
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