2 Pavanes and 2 Galliards

Ed. Maitland-Squire Rev. Dover Edition-'The most remarkable and in many respects the most valuable collection of Elizabethan keyboard music' (Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians). The close to 300 airs variations fantasies toccatas pavanes galliards allemandes and courantes in these two volumes include some of the finest examples of Elizabethan and Jacobean Music: Morley Gibbons Farnaby Warrock Ferdinando Richardson Peter Phillips Tomkins and practically every other composer of the virginalistic school. John Bull and William Byrd two of England's greatest composers are represented by over 100 works. The pieces herein while composed for the virginal can be played without difficulty on thepiano or any other keyboard instrument. Maitland and Squire set the music into modern notation preserving faithfully the intent of the composers.

The pairing of a slowish and a lively movement has long been attractive to composers certainly since the days of pavanes and galliards. Skempton uses the contrast to great effect here where if 'Rest' is a lullaby 'Recreation' could be described as rousing.