Giles Farnaby

Fitzwilliam Suite

These charming pieces are 3 of the 50 or so that Giles Farnaby contributed to the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Although they are arranged in modern keys, they retain their original modal feel. A Toye is made up of two themes in the Aeolian mode, each of which is followed by a variation. The melody bounces around between the flutes throughout. His Rest is a Galliard in Dorian mode and in a fugal style. His Humour plays on the contrast between the spritely staccato sections and the dolce, slow-moving rising and falling minims and semibreves, though the liveliness wins out in the end. Feel free to add embellishments as keyboard players of the late 16th century would have done.