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Track(s) taken from CDS44461/7

The Ghost, BK78

composer
FVB (No 162), Matchett (f. 20). [Neighbour, p 168]

Davitt Moroney (harpsichord)
Recording details: December 1996
Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, France
Produced by John Hayward-Warburton
Engineered by Ken Blair
Release date: September 1999
Total duration: 2 minutes 58 seconds

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

The ghost is probably not a spooky one. In Elizabethan English, the word’s range of meanings was closer to ‘spirit’. The work is in the form, and has the character, of an alman. The melody itself may perhaps not be by Byrd. The first phrase (in G) is followed by a varied repeat; the second phrase (which starts in A minor) is twice as long, and is followed by its varied repeat. The whole harmonic structure is then repeated in more varied form. The treatment is exactly comparable to that found in many other almans by Byrd. In Clement Matchett’s manuscript a copying date of 20 August 1612 is given although the work was probably composed some thirty years earlier.

from notes by Davitt Moroney © 1999

Le “fantôme” du titre n’est pas du genre effrayant. L’anglais élisabéthain utilise ce mot plutôt dans le sens d’“esprit”. En forme et en caractère, l’œuvre est une alman. La mélodie des deux strophes principales n’est peut-être pas de Byrd lui-même. La première phrase (en sol majeur) est suivie d’une reprise variée. La deuxième (qui commence, exceptionnellement, en la mineur) est deux fois plus longue ; elle est suivie aussi de sa reprise variée. Toute cette structure est ensuite répétée, de façon encore plus variée. Byrd agit ici exactement comme dans d’autres almans. Le manuscrit de Clement Matchett porte une date de copie (le 20 août 1612), mais l’œuvre est sans doute composée quelque trente ans auparavant.

extrait des notes rédigées par Davitt Moroney © 1999

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