Dear All,
For anyone else who has been trying to find GG's "Consort of Musicke by
William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons" as I have -- checking websites,
constantly questioning city centre stores, emailing Sony: all without
success -- here's a wonderful bit of news. After ringing Tower mail order
in London and a long wait on the phone while a patient guy worked his way
through my slightly incorrect information, I've tracked it down! Not only
that, but when I called in my local (Birmingham) Tower, there it was! So
what was the problem? Well, the catalog number appears to have changed
slightly: it's now SMK 52589 (not *WSK* which is what I was previously
looking for...). Though you wouldn't think that slight inaccuracy would
make the thing so hard to track down.
Despite claiming, in interview with Jonathan Cott in 1974, that "Gibbons is
my favourite composer..." this collection in fact only contains three
pieces by Gibbons and five by Byrd (plus in this reissue [1993] one by
Sweelinck, from CBS TV, April 23/24, 1964). "Was GG being inconsistent?"
the sleeve notes ask? His own words suggest not: "...one is never quite
able to counter the impression of a music of supreme beauty that somehow
lacks its ideal means of reproduction....in the keyboard field at least,
his works work better in one's memory, or on paper, than they ever can
through the intercession of a sounding board..."
-- from the sleeve notes by Michael Stegeman
Best, Alun
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Alun Severn snailmail: 1 Chestnut Rd Oldbury
West Midlands B68 0AX England
voice: 0121 422 9509
email: alun@ukiah.demon.co.uk
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"...[it is] my sober conviction that no piano need feel
duty-bound to always sound like a piano." - Glenn Gould
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