User:David Fraser
darcletoolo
General Information
Country of origin: UK
Contributor since: 2002-07-10
Number of scores on CPDL: 260
Contact Information
To contact me, please leave a message on the discussion tab of this page or send a personal message via the CPDL forums.
William Byrd
For some years now I have been, with numerous interruptions, preparing a complete edition of the vocal works published in Byrd's own editions. The rationale for this, besides the simple love of Byrd's music, is a dissatisfaction with a situation where the complete works of Britain's greatest writer appear online in dozens of free editions, while those of (one of the strongest candidates for the title of) our greatest composer are available either in old and often inaccurate editions or in expensive scholarly publications.
General editorial notes to the Byrd edition
All pieces are newly edited from the original sources. Where possible, a number of alternative sources have been collated. All editions are at the original pitch and, where possible, in the original note-values. Translations of Latin texts have various sources: biblical passages are taken from the Douai-Rheims Bible (1582 & 1609-10, with spelling modernised by the editor), other liturgical but non-biblical material from various apparently freely-available breviaries and missals. Translations of more obscure originals (e.g. the one Italian piece in Byrd's Åuvre) are noted in the individual editions.
Current situation and progress
Pieces have been appearing over the past six years at various standards of editorial quality. Anything whose source file is still in version 2 of Sibelius is likely to be quite old and not up to a standard to which I would now wish to work. Rather than withdrawing all old pieces, I would prefer to ask anyone interested in using them (or indeed, while work is still in progress, any of the other pieces) to contact me to ensure that they get the newest and best possible version.
As part of a final(!) revision, I will be withdrawing Sibelius source files and MIDI files and making items available as .pdf and Scorch files. This change has unfortunately been forced by the discovery of editions in circulation that have been edited from my originals, sometimes quite poorly, and that still bear my name.
Feedback
It is always good to hear of performances or recordings of these editions (the latest Stile Antico disc, Heavenly Harmonies, uses a lot of them). If there is anything in any of the editions that doesn't seem quite right, I can do no better than quote Byrd himself:
"If... there bee any fault by mee committed, I desire the skilfull, eyther with courtesie to let the same bee concealed, or in friendly sort to bee thereof admonished: and at the next Impression he shall finde the error reformed."