Giles Farnaby's "Loth to Depart"
Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England. https://youtu.be/XwPI_WrL8tA Giles Farnaby (1565–1640) received his Bachelor's degree in music from Oxford on the same day as John Bull, who was perhaps the greatest composer of keyboard music England ever produced (well, maybe not greater than Byrd). Some musicologists have speculated that Farnaby was influenced by Bull. In any event, Farnaby was considered important enough to have over 50 of his works included in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, our primary source for late Elizabethan and early Jacobean keyboard music. Farnaby was in great company; the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book contains works by Bull, Byrd, Gibbons, Peerson, Philips, and Sweelinck, to name but a few. Timothy Roberts Deia says, "Farnaby stands somewhat apart, the outsider among the others who, even those who held to their Catholic faith, were trained and worked within the established Anglican wor...