Queenes Command (The): Masterpieces of Elizabethan Keyboard Music
1/31/1993, 23 Tracks, 1:14:28
Featuring
Joseph Payne
Orlando Gibbons
John Bull
William Tisdale
Giles Farnaby
John Dowland
William Byrd
Did you know?
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Historical Context
Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603) saw England transform from a nation in decline to a major European power, fostering a period that produced figures like Shakespeare and William Byrd.
Instruments
The virginal, a popular plucked keyboard instrument of the Elizabethan era, was often associated with female performers, which is a likely origin for its name.
Cultural Impact
Queen Elizabeth I actively promoted music by playing instruments herself, including the lute and keyboard, serving as a model for her subjects and increasing music's social value.
Composition History
Over six hundred pieces of music from the English Virginal School survive today, mostly in manuscript collections, as music was not printed in England until 1611.
Performer Biography
Joseph Payne, the harpsichordist on this recording, was one of the last and youngest students of the renowned harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.
Compositional Technique
England, along with Spain, holds the distinction of being the first country where the variation form in music was developed.
Compositional Technique
Elizabethan keyboard music developed a unique 'keyboard rhetoric' that included wide leaps, repeated notes, and hand-crossing, anticipating innovations seen a century later in Scarlatti's Essercizi.
