Ashgate Historical Keyboard Series: Aspects of Early English Keyboard Music Before c.1630

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English keyboard music achieved remarkable sophistication in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, as organists like William Byrd elevated a genre typically associated with amateur performance to a level of seriousness akin to vocal music. This book compiles significant research on the music, its sources, and the instruments used. Two chapters focus on instruments: John Koster examines the harpsichord's role during this period, while Dominic Gwynn discusses the construction of Tudor-style organs based on existing evidence. This leads to a section on organ performance practice in liturgical settings, where John Harper analyzes the implications of organs pitched in F used alongside vocal polyphony, and Magnus Williamson investigates improvisational practices of the Tudor era. The next section addresses sources and repertoire, starting with Frauke Jörgensen and Rachelle Taylor's exploration of Clarifica me Pater settings, which ties back to improvisation. Further contributions delve into significant manuscript sources: Tihomir Popovic reevaluates My Ladye Nevells Booke in the context of aristocratic culture, and David J. Smith provides an in-depth study of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. The discussion expands with Pieter Dirksen's analysis of sources related to John Bull, closely linked to David Leadbetter's work on Gibbons, lute sources, and stylistic questions.