Composer: Albertus Bryne, John Bull, Christopher Gibbons, Orlando Gibbons
Performer: Terence Charlston
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deux-Elles
Catalogue: DXL1124
Release: 2007
Size: 385 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Bryne: Toletole
Bryne: Suite in A minor
02. Ayre
03. Corant
04. Saraband
05. Ayre
06. Saraband
Bryne: Suite in F major
07. The Kings Ayre
08. Corant with doubles
09. Saraband
Bryne: Suite in D minor
10. Almain
11. Corant
12. Saraband
13. Jigg Allmaine
Bryne: Suite in D major
14. Almain
15. Corant
16. Saraband
17. Jigg Allmaine
Bryne: Suite in A minor
18. Almain
19. Corant
20. Saraband
21. Jigg Allmaine
22. A ground to ye organ or harpsichord
Bryne: Suite in D major
23. Allmaine
24. Coranto
25. Saraband & improvised Jig-Allmain
Bryne: Suite in D minor
26. Allmaine
27. Corant
28. Saraband
29. Saraband
30. Voluntary in A minor
Bryne: Suite in D major
31. Almand in D#
32. Corant
33. Saraband
34. anon.: Suite in D major: Towle Towle
35. Bull: Suite in D major: Preludium
36. anon.: Suite in D major: An Alman
Bryne: Suite in D major
37. The Earle of Oxfordes Gallene
38. Totetole
39. A ground to ye organ or harpsichord
Gibbons: Three voluntaries for the single organ
40. in A
41. Verse for ye single organ in D
42. Verse in F
Albertus Bryne (or, if his name were updated to modern English usage, “Bryan”) was a contemporary of Matthew Locke, though he might have been a little older — his exact birthdate is unknown. He is also said to have been the first English composer to organize his little dance movements into suites, an observation that seems a bit more out of convenience for defining his import than direct evidence. Locke’s keyboard suites cannot be accurately dated and several appear in the same posthumous publication, Musick’s Hand-Maid, which also transmits the Suite in A minor that is the first heard on Deux-Elles’ Albertus Bryne: Keyboard Music. Keyboardist Terence Charlston has prepared an integral edition of Bryne’s keyboard corpus, and though the disc isn’t called “complete,” this certainly accounts for all of it — eight suites, an organ voluntary, and two fugitive pieces. Charlston usefully adds a small selection of works by others — John Bull, Christopher Gibbons, and some anonymous works — to help place Bryne’s work in its proper context.
Another wise choice on Charlston’s part was to vary the instruments on which the pieces are played; organ works are played on an organ at St. Bodolph’s in Aldgate that dates from the early eighteenth century, single and double manual harpsichords and a spinet are used for the remainder. Even though this does provide the needed variety to keep these very short pieces from running together in one’s head, listening straight through isn’t the right way to go about it — parceling it out is more satisfactory. When it comes to keyboard music, Bryne was not only Locke’s contemporary, in many ways he was Locke’s equal. The rhythm in the “Jigg Almaine” from the first D minor Suite and the “Saraband” from the first D major Suite is highly eccentric and syncopated, even slightly “funky.” The “Almaines” that open the first D major Suite and the second A minor one are genuinely moving and beautiful pieces, short as they are. There are certainly other highlights, some of which may yield through repeated listening.
This is a labor of love for Charlston, and one aspect of Deux-Elles’ Albertus Bryne: Keyboard Music that does come through is his love of this music. While one may question whether Bryne was the first Englishman to write proper keyboard suites, or even if that this can be known given the sources we have, without question Bryne was a key figure in the transition from the virginal music exemplified by William Byrd to a true Baroque style. Deux-Elles’ Albertus Bryne: Keyboard Music does absolute justice to the intriguing and substantive work of this significant composer.