Byrd: Clarifica Me

Berben, Léon

RAM 0704

William Byrd belonged to a generation of musicians who brought forth many new things: His contemporaries included Claudio Monteverdi, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Girolamo Frescobaldi and Fransisco Correa de Arauxo. In Byrd's work, the diversity of genres and structural principles stands out in particular. Although Byrd took a lively interest in developments on the mainland and drew on the stylistic reservoir of foreign colleagues, his genres are characterized by a high degree of individuality and show little resemblance to continental genres. Rather, his work refers to local traditions, which he fundamentally renewed, which is particularly evident in his instrumental music. Byrd's fantasies, for example, show the genre from a new, incomparably varied side. Imitative sections alternate here with toccata and canzone-like moments or even dance-like segments. Occasionally he uses several keys at once in individual phrases, which, according to the wording of his colleague Thomas Morley, should never be done in fantasies.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Ramée

10-12-2007

4250128507042