William Byrd & John Bull: The Visionaries of Piano Music

Featuring

Kit Armstrong
William Byrd
John Bull

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Compositional Technique

John Bull's canons often involve unusual reading instructions for a line of notes, such as sorting notes by length and reading backwards, or playing upside-down and twice as slowly.

Composer's Artistic Vision

William Byrd believed that 'aptest ideas come as if spontaneously' to a mind diligently pondering divine things, reflecting his focus on the 'great eternal world' rather than himself.

Historical Context

Byrd and Bull are considered 'founding fathers of a civilization' for elevating instrumental music to be equal to vocal music in refinement, dignity, expressivity, and substance.

Interpretation

Pianist Kit Armstrong's interpretation of Bull's Queen Elizabeth's (Chromatic) Pavan views its three sections as phases of lamentation, pain, and transfiguration, with the last section sounding like bright bells.

Composer Biography

John Bull, a contemporary of Byrd, fled England in 1613 due to a ruined reputation or religious intolerance, eventually becoming the organist at Antwerp Cathedral.

Composer Biography

William Byrd, revered as 'a Father of Musick', was a steadfast Catholic who faced penalties for his faith, leading to his reclusion around 1590.

Critical Reception

In 1776, Charles Burney, in his 'A General History of Music', described pieces by Byrd and Bull as 'so difficult, that it would be hardly possible to find a master in Europe who would undertake to play one of them at the end of a month's practice'.