Although this galliard is not linked in
Forster with the pavan BK76, both pieces survive only in that source. However, they were not copied together and it is unlikely that Byrd intended them as a pair. This is Byrd’s shortest galliard, his only ‘4-bar’ work, with each strain only four bars long; it is therefore an unlikely companion for the spacious ‘16-bar’ pavan BK76 (or indeed the seventh
Nevell pavan, which is also in G and also lacks a galliard). The textures of the work are somewhat reminiscent of the
Eccho galliard although considerably less worked out, and the kind of galliard seems to be the later, slightly less rapid version of the dance. These features suggest it may have been written in around 1590.
from notes by Davitt Moroney © 1999
;)
