Alexei Lubimov (modern) harpsichord
‘Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century English Composers for the Virginal’ as part of the series ‘A Thousand years of music’
Released by Melodia, 1980 made in the USSR 33C 10-11291-92(a) KCS-36
Not in the very best shape this recording especially side 2 shows some failures at 3’44, 28’12, 29’13, 29’31 and 39’06. Sorry.

Side One
WILLIAM BYRD (1543 – 1623)
00:00 Pavan and 04:38 Galliard No. 10 (6.29).
06:24 07:19 08:14 Three French Courantes (2.42)
The Battle (17.26)
09:09 01. Soldiers’oath of allegiance
10:20 02. Infantry march
11:08 03. Cavalry march
12:16 04. Trumpets
13:55 05. Irish march
15:25 06. Bagpipe
16:45 07. Flute and drum
18:30 08. Battle
20:34 09. Burial of the dead
23:28 10. Melody
24:08 11. Soldiers’ dance
24:55 12. Last post

Side Two
ORLANDO GIBBONS (1583 – 1625)
26:24 Fantasia (6.35).
32:50 Lord Salisbury Pavan and 35:46 Galliard (5.00)
JOHN BULL (1563-1628)
37:45 Fantasia No. 5 (3.00).
40:46 The “Doctor Bull in Person” Jig (1.08)
41:56 Jesters (3.52).
45:50 Fantasia No. 11 (4.12)

In the 16th and the 17th centuries English composers for the virginal wrote some highly origin and profoundly national music, all of the highest quality and at times approaching sublimity. It was
marked by artless and lyrical spontaneity. Even the virtuoso pieces often contained more than a hint of typically English melancholy. The composers, who had absorbed what was finest in continental
music, in their tum enriched the latter, especially the Dutch and the German Klavier schools. Music written for the virginal presents several problems to the present-day performer, primarily in the choice of instrument for there are very few extant 16th and 17th century virginals . However, this music can also be played on small spinets and virginals (in which there is only one string to each note), as well as on large harpsichords . Since Alexei Lubimov has had no access to old instruments and had to do with a modern harpsichord, he has studied existing descriptions of the design of
English and Dutch harpsichords of the 17th century as well as the period instructions for playing the virginal, which has prompted him to remain within the confines of a single register in some of
the pieces, in view of the limited possibilities of the virginal. In other and longer pieces he has used an arrangement of 18th-century instruments: Two eight-foot and one four-foot registers , as well as their combinations and a lute device. Only one composition – W. Byrd’s Battle, with its picturesque mosaic – allows the full range of the present-day harpsichord to be used.
William Byrd, the outstanding composer, wrote three masses and other polyphonic church pieces. Organist of Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel Royal, he was also a musical publisher. Music for the virginal comprises only a small part of his heritage, but its originality and impact put him in the forefront of composers for the virginal. His fantasias, variation cycles, dances and genre pieces are marked by the free use of church polyphony and masterly
melodic decoration.
Dances: pavans, galliards, courantes and jigs figured extens ively in virginal music. A good example is the three short French courantes by Byrd offered on this disc. Two other dances – a pavan and a galliard – often formed a small two-piece cycle, contrasting in tempo but united by a common tonality, and sometimes a common theme. Pavan and Galliard No. 10 are from Byrd’s manuscript
“Ladye Nevells Booke” (1591). “The Battle” – one of the first exemplars of programme Klavier music – is from the same source.
Another brilliant composer, John Bull, became famous as; a virtuoso , whose concert tours of the Netherlands, France and Germany in 1601 not only brought him European acclaim but brought English music to the Continent. In his numerous pieces, with their unusual depth and sense of drama, Bull revealed a mastery innovation in Klavier technique, especially his fantasias. He often gave fanciful titles to his works, some of his pavans and
galliards being styled “Melancholy”, “Chromatic” and “Fantastic”. The “Doctor Bull in Person” Jig is a study in irony.
Orlando Gibbons, the youngest of the three great Elizabethans, was, like Byrd, an organist of the Chapel Royal, and produced a comparatively small number of works, including church music, madrigals and pieces for a viola consort and virginal. The grave and philosophical contemplation and even austerity of style have prompted some musicologists to compare – it with Beethoven’s late sonatas (W. Apel in the “Oxford History of Music”). His splendid Fantasia for Four Voices – a polyphonic development of six themes – is one of the finest pieces for the virginal. The Pavan and Galliard dedicated to Lord Salisbury abound in refined melodies.
A. Lubimov

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