A beautiful audio fragment from William Byrd's "Lord Willobies Welcome Home"

About the instrument:

During the time known to us as the High Renaissance, a number of musical instruments, especially keyboard instruments, developed into spectacularly successful forms for enjoyment within a flourishing musical culture. A particularly beloved example was the Flemish virginal, or muselaar, a true member of the harpsichord family, quite rare today, but found everywhere in Europe and used until about 1650. These rectangular instruments, built primarily in Antwerp, richly decorated and endowed with enormous resonance, offered delight for the eye as well as the ear. The virginal, with its own characteristic sound, and with its tuning system employing pure thirds, producing sweet consonances and biting dissonances, is ideal for the music of the day from such composers as Cabezón, Frescobaldi, Byrd, Sweelinck and others.

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