A Tudor Suite

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A Tudor Suite

for Wind Band
Arranged by Richard G. Smith

Full Score & Parts, $65

score (.pdf)

mp3s (by mvt) I II III. IV. V.

The five movements of this suite could be performed individually or as a single five movement suite. Each movement has specific, identifiable challenges that will allow the director to concentrate rehearsals on specific skills.

It is my hope that no single movement will be overwhelming and that all will provide a satisfying and musical introduction to the music of the English renaissance for young students. While no attempt has been made at historical accuracy, I hope the character of the original music is retained.

I have included texts for the three pieces that were originally vocal in the hope that they will help establish context for students and be interesting to them. The Tallis Third Mode Melody (#3) is associated with several more modern hymn texts but I have included the original text including archaic contractions of archaic verb forms, i.e. fum’th (which means fumeth or angered). In my experience, this particular word is especially interesting to students.

Thomas Jefferson said he pitied the man who could only think of one way to spell a word. I have retained the archaic spelling of many of the titles. I considered using modern English but finally decided that students would be intrigued by the “quaint” older spellings.

This suite is intended to be a musical and interesting introduction to the music of the English renaissance for younger students. I believe your students will enjoy it and learn from preparing it. Here is a synopsis of each movement.

1. The Earle of Oxford’s Marche

   William Byrd

   This piece is well known. For source material, I have used both Musica Britannica and the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (the Dover edition). These two editions are very similar but when differences did occur, I deferred to the Musica Britannica. I also had in mind (obviously) the Gordon Jacob arrangement from the William Byrd Suite. I have tried to achieve a playable simplicity without block scoring. While the original is much more ornate than my arrangement, I hope I have retained enough of the original ornamentation (as well as added some of my own) to make the basic simplicity of the piece more interesting. The low reed parts are specifically meant to challenge young players who are so often ignored.

2. Ah Robyn, Gentyl Robyn

   William Cornyshe

   The source for this piece is Musica Britannica but a review of other sources revealed few differences. The arrangement is meant to pair the Tudor melody with a much more modern percussion treatment. I think it makes an attractive combination for young students and an interesting musical synthesis. Brass spend much of the time singing, which is good ear training for them and an interesting introduction to the many modern band pieces that include singing.

3. Why Fum’th in Fight

   Thomas Tallis

   This is the third mode melody Ralph Vaughn-Williams used for his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. For source material, I used the hymn as it appears in the 1940 Anglican Hymnal. I have compared this version to several other versions as well as the tune as Vaughn-Williams used it and found significant variations in how the tune is metered and in the position of the melody (tenor or soprano). I thought it would be good to have the music metered by the half note (as in the Anglican Hymnal) because this could be isolated as a specific teaching element in this piece. The only other challenge is the key which I decided to retain to provide that teaching opportunity. The 1940 edition was originally barred vocally, by the phrase. I have re-barred the music so it is more modern in structure and students are presented with the opportunity to learn several different half note meters.
   

4. Pastyme with Good Companye

   Henry Tudor (King Henry VIII)

   This is an opportunity for woodwind teaching (the brass are tacet). The source is, again, Musica Britannica which contains two versions of the music. I have combined elements of both versions. I found very few other differences in various editions of this piece.
   

5. The King of Denmark’s Galiard

   John Dowland

   The main challenge in this piece is the unfamiliar renaissance syncopation. The music becomes very intricate because of three and four different syncopations occurring at the same time. This challenge is made more manageable by extending over only 4 measures (with some variation in the next 4). The source is a Danish lute version that I compared to various others. There were no significant differences in editions.