Your Recorder Community

This magnificent work by Byrd was written for six viol players.  It has several different sections and takes about seven minutes to perform. I have transposed the work up a whole-step to fit the recorder ranges better.

There are a number of small movements within the work.  Rehearsal letters have been entered to clarify the structure; these coincide with a cadence that marks the end of each section.  In some cases there is an extra whole-note beat stretching the measure prior to the cadence.

Several textures are encountered: imitative polyphony, dance-like sections, some polychoral writing, a homophonic chordal passage, and then a full-blown galliard with three repeated strains (involving dueling sopranos), prior to a grand, majestic ending.  The galliard is faster than the preceding material in a 3-to-2 proportion. The final section is slow and rich.

The difficulty of each part is about moderate, but a skilled leader will be very helpful in keeping things together.  This is a good piece for a recorder society meeting or for a workshop.