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Track(s) taken from CDS44461/7

The fifte pavian and galliarde, BK31

composer
Nevell (Nos 18, 19). [Neighbour, ‘Pavan & Galliard c2’ p 190]

Davitt Moroney (muselar)
Recording details: December 1996
Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, France
Produced by John Hayward-Warburton
Engineered by Ken Blair
Release date: September 1999
Total duration: 6 minutes 53 seconds

Cover artwork: Phoenix. A glass window specially designed, made and photographed by Malcolm Crowthers.
 

Listeners who have followed the Nevell sequence this far will already have anticipated that this fifth pavan and galliard must be in the minor, and be of the ‘long’ kind. Indeed, here Byrd returns to the sombre C minor of the first Nevell pair, and like most of his more grave works in this form, it is a ‘16-bar’ pavan. The exceptional melodic richness of the pavan is characterised by the fact that each of its three strains is built on two different melodic ideas, each of which occupies half of the strain (eight bars); the second idea always intensifies the emotion expressed by the first, rising to a higher pitch while bringing into play more unusual and unexpected harmonies and dissonances. Byrd reserves the highest note in the piece, G, for the last section, and attentively surrounds it by his flattest harmonies of F minor and A flat major. The Galliard is one of Byrd’s most satisfying. The Nevell scribe, John Baldwin, added at the end the words laudes deo (‘praise be to God’).

from notes by Davitt Moroney © 1999

Les auditeurs qui ont suivi le cycle Nevell jusqu’ici, auront déjà compris que cette cinquième pavane et gaillarde doit être en mineur, avec des strophes longues. En effet, ici Byrd reprend le sombre ut mineur de la première pavane, et comme prévu, celle-ci est “à seize”. La richesse mélodique de la pavane est caractérisée par le fait que chacune des strophes est construite sur deux motifs différents, dont chacun occupe la moitié de la strophe (huit mesures). Le second motif exprime toujours une émotion plus intense que le premier : il monte plus haut, utilise des harmonies plus complexes et des dissonances inattendues. Byrd réserve la note la plus aiguë de la pièce, sol, pour la dernière strophe, en l’entourant de ses harmonies les plus “bémolisées” de fa mineur et la bémol majeur. La gaillarde est parmi les plus satisfaisantes de Byrd. Le copiste de Nevell, John Baldwin, ajoute à la fin laudes deo (“que Dieu soit loué”).

extrait des notes rédigées par Davitt Moroney © 1999

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