Byrd, Bull, Farnaby, and Gibbons on the virginal — the least familiar English music on the most idiomatic instrument.
English keyboard music of the Elizabethan era
Next Wednesday (December 17, 2025) at 3:00 PM, I will give a concert at the China Conservatory of Music under the title "The English School: The Virginalists." (This is a recital, not a lecture.)
This is a solo recital centered on the virginal, presenting the dances, variations, folk tunes, and polyphonic writing left behind by the English Virginalists of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
English music is already a rarity on today's concert stage, and hearing it on its proper instrument is rarer still. More often it appears as a side dish to the usual fare — a decorative accent alongside the more familiar music of Bach or the French masters. But this music is extraordinary in its own right. It is not merely a matter of seeking more variety in our programs. These names are not footnotes in the vast history of music: they are music of the very first order.