Pavan and Galliard

This Pavan and Galliard is something I started writing all the way back in Spring of 2022 but put on the back burner because of learning new pieces.  It's really intended for a virginal or other plucked keyboard but here it is on clavichord.  I consider the Galliard to be much better than the Pavan, the lively character is more reflective of the dedicatee, so if you want to you could skip to that at 7:42.  Not that I think the Pavan is mediocre at all, but yeah.  I intend to write the score in a font similar to that of My Lady Nevell's Booke, and record it on a better instrument at some point.

This is a nice piece of work! I think you really capture the renaissance style well with this piece. I especially love the dance-like rhythms of the Galliard and I love some oft the imitation figures that you used in it!

8 hours ago, Guardian25 said:

This is a nice piece of work! I think you really capture the renaissance style well with this piece. I especially love the dance-like rhythms of the Galliard and I love some oft the imitation figures that you used in it!

 

thanks so much guardian, i’m happy you listened to both the pavan and galliard since i know it’s a long form.

Hi @gaspard,

Welcome back! I always love your unique clavichord pieces shared on the forum!

I love the Pavan for those modal chord progression and false relation, which as @Guardian25 said capture the renaissance style. I love the Galliard too, it's indeed more lively, but both are great for me as they always act as a pair for contrast. Btw. I forget about the characteristics of both of the dance haha...

The link maybe wrong here since it always move to the Galliard and skip the Pavan after clicking the video.

Thx for sharing!

Henry

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu thanks henry, i always appreciate the time you take to listen and review.  i think i fixed the link…

anyways, the pavan is always rather stately and in 2 and the galliard is always in 3, however the galliard as in the case of william byrd and his multitude of proteges collectively known as the “virginalists”, the measures/ beats are often be subdivided in ways that create a different emphasis at different times…. i’m probably explaining that inefficiently since i’m not much of a musicologist or theoretician.  but there’s rarely anything simple about the rhythm for the galliards.  in some cases the pavan might have a triplet section that becomes kind of a galliard within the pavan, and there can even be a tripletized section within a galliard so it becomes a galliard within a galliard….or something.  Most of the time, the galliard will follow the pavan though there are stand-alone pavans and stand-alone galliards.

By the time of these types of keyboard pavan and galliards, the dances themselves were probably falling out of fashion and the virginalist pavans and galliards were probably not danced to, and certainly weren’t meant to be.  They were often memorial pieces (as is this one).

With respect to the dance themselves, apparently galliards included 4 steps and a leap….i’m guessing the leap lasted two beats to equal 6.  as you can read about, elizabeth I of england apparently used them as exercise.  The steps to the pavan seem very simple and understated, or minimal you could say.  

Very true about the false relations…there’s a meme somewhere with a bunch of people cheering/raising beer mugs with the caption “Fans of english renaissance whenever there’s an F against F#” or something and i think it’s pretty accurate 😄