The Battell Suite

Instruments:

• 3 Bb Trumpets
• F Horn
• Trombone
• Trombone (or Euphonium)
• Tuba
• [Percussion] Tom-Tom

Arranged for Toin Gakuen High School's performance at the 2013 Ensemble Contest. Originally this was a brass and percussion septet minus trumpets. William Byrd (c. 1543-1623) was an English composer during the Renaissance.The son of Thomas Byrd, a musician of Chapel Royal in England, he learned music from Thomas Tallis as a member of a boys choir. He was appointed as the organist of Lincoln Cathedral at age 20 and Chapel Royal at 29. In 1575, he and Tallis obtained permission to print, publish and exclusively sell scores with generous support from Elizabeth I.

"The Battell Suite" was originally written for virginals (a general term for the harpsichord in English before the mid-17th century) and was completed in 1591 by Bird's fifth collection of songs, "My Ladye Nevells Brooke". It is included in a collection of visual works called "Booke". Written as a gift to his patron Mrs. Nevel, this collection includes not only Bird's work but also many of the popular composers of the time. It is also a valuable collection of works that gives the keyboard instrument style of the time.

Among them, "The Battell Suite" is a large-scale work consisting of 15 songs related to war such as convening soldiers, marching, fighting and assaulting, death and retreat, and dances of victory and joy.

(Makoto Onodera)