Page "William Byrd" Paragraph 23

The period up to 1591 also saw important additions to Byrd's output of consort music, some of which has probably been lost.

Two magnificent large-sale compositions are the Browning, a set of 20 variations on a popular melody ( also known as The leaves be green ) which evidently originated as a celebration of the ripening of nuts in autumn, and an elaborate ground on the formula known as the Goodnight Ground.

The smaller-scale fantasias ( those a3 and a4 ) use a light-textured imitative style which owes something to Continental models, while the five and six-part fantasias employ large-scale cumulative construction and allusions to snatches of popular songs.

A good example of the last type is the Fantasia a6 ( No 2 ) which begins with a sober imitative paragraph before progressively more fragmented textures ( working in a quotation from Greensleeves at one point ).

It even includes a complete three-strain galliard, followed by an expansive coda ( for a performance on YouTube, see under ' External links ' below ).