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Kinborough Good, the daughter of Dr James Good, married Robert Barnewell some time before 1589, so this work was probably composed in the mid 1580s. Byrd’s alternation scheme has led us to expect a work in the major, and indeed this is in Ionian C major. However, instead of the expected ‘8-bar’ work, it is a ‘16-bar’ pavan, running to 96 semibreves. The compositional technique explores a more clearly imitative language than is often found in Byrd’s pavans and galliards. The melody of the galliard could almost be that of a popular folksong, showing how close Byrd always remained to simple song, even in the most carefully composed of his works. The Nevell scribe, John Baldwin, added at the end the words laus sit deo (‘praise be to God’).

from notes by Davitt Moroney © 1999