Whereas William Byrd the recusant Roman Catholic wrote church music in a more personal and introspective vein, William Byrd the dashing member of Queen Elizabeth's court freely bestowed musical favors upon the fashionable men and women of the time. This is especially true in his keyboard music, where a large number of dance tunes, fantasias, and variation sets bear the name of some lord or lady. Some dedicatees, like "Lady Nevell" herself, must have enjoyed playing "their" music; even those courtiers who lacked the requisite musical skills could be flattered by Byrd's dedications. One set of variations, known as Rowland in an early manuscript, also bears elsewhere the title "Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home." And indeed, Lord Willoughby himself returned to England from an expedition to Flanders in 1589. Certainly the gentleman's safe return to home and castle provided the opportunity for Byrd's keyboard tribute.

As with many of his keyboard variations, Byrd selected a simple and popular dance-like tune on which to hang his composition. In this case, his source is a strophic AABB form, in a folk-like G-dorian mode. From the outset, however, he uses a somewhat forceful musical style, applying ornaments and even melodic variants to the initial repeats of each phrase; in the close of the second phrase both times he lavishes attention on two successive harmonic cross-relations. For the second variation set, he first seems to break into a conventional type of melodic elaboration, but the rapid scalar embellishments of the melody travel briefly into inner voices for contrast. The second half of this variation also features alternating melodic interest between the soprano and tenor voices. In the third and final variation, Byrd sets up a kind of perpetuum mobile, with almost constant eight-note motion between hands and voices, often in imitation.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.