O mistress mine, for keyboard, MB 83

• Composer: William Byrd
• Period: Renaissance (1450-1599)

Review

The renaissance English composer William Byrd (1543-1623) wrote a set of six variations on the English song Mistress Mine I Must. This song is not contained in My Lady Nevell's Book of 1591, but rather the later Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, and is thought to postdate the earlier collection.

This piece is one of the finest slow works written by Byrd. Byrd is at his most masterful in the polyphonic writing and ornamentation applied to the melody. He chooses to set his own varied harmonies, which change between the variations, but retains the song in the treble throughout creating a strong sense of melody. Although only a small set of variation, he increases the tension throughout guiding the listener's attention towards the final variation where all is resolved.

This is thought to be one of the last variation sets written by Byrd, and is certainly one of the best. It successfully marries a genre set in his relative youth with a more mature writing style to produce one of the gems of the English keyboard tradition. ~ David Cashman, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Elizabethan Songs And Dances	1987
Grounds and Variations
Music of Shakespeare	1997
Purcell: 15 Fantasies	1995
Shakespeare's Musick
Songs to My Lady
The Early Byrd	1995
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book	2003
The Fitzwilliam Virginial Book	1999
William Byrd: The Complete Keyboard Music	1999

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