Anyone seriously interested in this wonderful piece and curious about
textual matters in Byrd in general should, as always,always, always,
consult the better and much more scholarly edition in *Musica Britannica *vol.
28 (opening piece) before performing it. (Let's not forget that the Dover
edition of *My Ladye Nevells Booke *was made in 1926.)

*MLNB* is a good source, a great one and a beautiful one (now available
online at the British Library website). But since it's dated 1591 (when
Byrd was about 51), it often contains earlier versions of pieces that Byrd
himself later revised and/or corrected, since he lived for another 30 years
and was pretty active at least until the age of 70. So good later
manuscripts are usually a better guide for works that survive in multiple
sources. For this beautiful fancy, there are two sources, and the *MB*
Critical Comment makes clear the many ways that *MLNB* is indeed the
inferior of the two surviving sources.

The later and better source (British Library Add. MS 30485) was copied by a
professional musician who is now thought to be the composer Thomas Weelkes,
who probably studied with Byrd in the early 1590s. The manuscript was
compiled between 1590 and 1610. Alan Brown's comment (p. 199 of that
edition) sums up the situation clearly: "The two sources correspond fairly
closely, but Wr [=the Weelkes source] in several places gives more careful
and or complete readings than Ne [=*MLNB*]."

So why worry about such details in the *MLNB* text? If the troublesome
passages are the same in the Weelkes source, it's usually best to accept
them; when there are differences, Weelkes is usually better. The *MB*
Critical Commentary lists and discusses over 30 variants for this Fancy
where the Weelkes reading is better than *MLNB*, and even where the *MLNB*
text is simply "confused" (including one of the passages David asked about).

So it's really a false problem. The solution is known, and has been
relatively easily available in print since 1971.

There are some composers for whom we have little serious alternative other
than buying the good edition, even though it's expensive. In the case of
the *MB* edition of Byrd (2 volumes), it's an excellent investment for a
lifetime!

Best wishes,
DM





*Davitt Moroney​​Professor Emeritus Department of Music*

*Morrison Hall*


*​University of California, Berkeley​CA 94720-1200*

On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 11:31 AM, David Bedlow <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> I have been playing (well, trying to play) A Fancie [No. 41 in My Ladye
> Nevells Booke] using the Dover reprint of Hilda Andrews's edition.
>
> I would welcome comments on the following: Bar numbering includes inserted
> editorial bar lines shown by dots.
>
> Bar 41 (top of page 240), third beat: I prefer an E major chord here (G#
> in the 'alto' part)
>
> Bar 45: on the ascending scale I have been playing F# and B natural; on
> the descent I play B flat and F natural, leading to a D minor chord on the
> third beat.
>
> Bar 52: following the initial D major chord, should not all the subsequent
> Fs be F# and not only the two editorial F#s on the fourth beat?
>
> Bar 74 (the penultimate bar): I am not fully convinced by the editorial
> ficta suggestions. Suppose on the ascending scale (2nd beat) I play B flat
> and C natural, and then C# and B natural for the trill?
>
> As I have no academic music education I would be glad to hear from any who
> have whether I am definitely wrong or might be right.
>
> As I play this piece on the organ and harpsichord I am sending this e-mail
> to both lists.
>
>     - David Bedlow
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
> http://www.avg.com
>
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Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  HELP .
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