Byrd, Fantasy a 3, piano solo

Fantasy for three instruments, by William Byrd, performed by Stephen Malinowski, accompanied by a bar-graph score.

FAQ

Q: Where can I get the sheet music for this piece?
A: Here is the score with one line per part:
http://www.musanim.com/pdf/ByrdFantasyA3.pdf
and here is a version for keyboard:
http://www.musanim.com/pdf/ByrdFantasyA3_keyboard.pdf

Q: Who is playing this piece?
A: Me (Stephen Malinowski, smalin on YouTube)

Q: Is there a way I could make the bar-graph scores myself?
A: The Music Animation Machine MIDI file player will generate this display; you can get the (Windows) software here:
http://www.musanim.com/player/
There are lots of places on the web where you can get MIDI files; I usually go to the Classical Archives site first:
http://www.classicalarchives.com/

Q: Could you please do a MAM video of _________?
A: Read this page:
http://www.musanim.com/all/MAMRequests.html

Q: Please tell me more about the composer.
A: You can read about the composer here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_byrd

Q: What instrument are you playing?
A: It's a Yamaha P-80 piano.
.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• byrd
• fantasy
• fantasia
• music
• keyboard
• piano
• scrolling
• score
• animation

[MrCatComics]

I have to learn this song by tommorow :P

[smalin]

@MrCatComics You do? Why?

[MortiCarthago]

how the hell do you keep the voices distinct? I'm playing the two part inventions and even in those it's hard to make the voices sound like two people are playing them! Take for example in invention #2, when the main theme switches to the left hand and then the right hand follows and they meet at D (measure 13). Basically though, how do you make your hands sound like distinct voices instead of together... should you practice each "voice" by itself first then put it all together?

[smalin]

@MortiCarthago You can hear I'm making the voices more distinct than they would be; that is a significant achievement. I could give you advice, but you can figure out all the important things yourself. Get the scores for this piece (I've added them to the FAQ), and listen to how I play each voice. Annotate the scores to show what I'm doing. It's all about the dynamics, timing and articulation being independent in each voice. Practice one voice, then each combination of two, then all three.

[MortiCarthago]

@smalin Thanks so much I'm having a stab at it! Also, I think in the piano version there is a mistake in the first measure in the bass line... it seems to me the last eighth note should be a B, not an A (unless I missed something I'm no expert).

[smalin]

@MortiCarthago Ooops, you're right. I've fixed it and uploaded another version. I wonder how that happened? I made the keyboard version from the open score version (which doesn't have that mistake). Good luck with this. Don't expect to get good at this overnight; I've been playing contrapuntal music for forty years, and I'm still getting better at it ...

[RedRaven555]

no i have very long toes

[RemovdSande11]

nice! im learning counterpoint right now and im loving Byrd.

[MrCatComics]

@smalin It was for school, but it was cancelled. Thank God. I totally sucked.

[Markohoppis]

smalin's hand thou art. smalin's hands.

[daandwars]

I never heard this before, especially in such a piano-like style. Thank you for posting, great contribution.