Byrd 2023

Description of impact

Saturday 11 November 2023
Lecture Recital at Crooked Spire, Chesterfield, for local organists' associations

BYRD 2023

2023 marks the anniversary of William Byrd's death in 1623. This lecture recital was based around a number of my research publications on early English keyboard music, and the consideration of ornaments and their interpretation in Byrd's music directly relates both to the AHRC-funded 'Digital directions for collected editions' and the follow-on grant application which is currently in progress. This work is published in a research article (linked below). It illustrated the necessity for dynamic digital editions of music where each source is separately encoded for each piece so that computational research techniques can be used to address the placement of the ornaments and determine their interpretation and whether this changed through time.

The publicity material read as follows:

'As we bid farewell to the Franck year, we usher in a celebration of William Byrd’s anniversary. This lecture recital will introduce the world of Byrd’s keyboard music. In particular, we will explore which pieces are best suited to the organ, what the fingerings in the manuscript sources of this repertoire tell us about how to play early English keyboard music, and how we can go about interpreting the mysterious single- and double-stroke ornament signs. Byrd composed music for players of all levels of ability, so come along to find out more!

The lecture will be illustrated both by images and by live performance of extracts from Byrd’s magnificent oeuvre.'

Category of impact	Creativity, culture and society