Aberdeen Art Gallery, in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen Music Department and the British Library will host the first showing in Scotland of My Ladye Nevells Booke, one of the most beautifully written music manuscripts to survive from the late 16th Century, from Saturday, 10 May, until Saturday, 2 August.
Still preserved in its original ornate binding, it contains 42 pieces for keyboard by William Byrd, the greatest English composer of his age, and was painstakingly compiled by the Windsor-based scribe John Baldwin, who completed work on it on 11 September 1591.
Dr Nicolas Bell, Curator of Music Manuscripts, British Library, said: "My Ladye Nevells Booke is one of the most beautifully written music books in existence, and it is one of our most exciting acquisitions for many years. We are delighted to have the opportunity to display this masterpiece of Elizabethan calligraphy in Aberdeen, the first time it has ever travelled north of the border."
Deirdre Grant, Cultural Promotions Officer, Aberdeen City Council, said: "The loan of My Ladye Nevells Booke from the British Library to Aberdeen Art Gallery is a major coup for the city. It gives our visitors the rare opportunity to see one of the finest Tudor music manuscripts in existence. We are pleased to be working with the University of Aberdeen Music Department on this project and on an exciting range of talks and recitals which illustrate the music of William Byrd and the period."
Dr David Smith, University of Aberdeen, Music Department, and a specialist in early English keyboard music, said: "The loan of this manuscript has opened up so many possibilities for the music department. It will feature in the annual conference of the Royal Musical Association, which we are hosting in July, but just as importantly it has enabled us to run a course based around the manuscript, the culmination of which is the arrival of the original book in the city. Our students will have an amazing opportunity to inspect the manuscript at first hand.
"The great thing about a music manuscript such as this is that you can bring it to life by performing its contents, which is what we are doing in a series of concerts and talks: the music is just as exquisite as the calligraphy. Quite honestly, there is nothing quite like it surviving from the period and it is tremendously exciting for us to have it in Aberdeen."
The current university librarian, Chris Banks, was instrumental in securing My Ladye Nevells Booke for the nation in her previous post at the British Library.
In 1591 William Byrd was mid-way through his career as composer of church music and secular vocal and instrumental music. The manuscript provides a snapshot of the keyboard music he had composed by that date and is an exceptionally important source of his music. It contains some of his best-known keyboard compositions, including variations on the popular tunes 'Sellinger's Round' and 'All in a Garden Green'. It also includes music written by Byrd especially for 'Ladye Nevell' who has recently been identified as Elizabeth, wife of Sir Henry Nevill of Billingbere, Berkshire. Her family's elaborate coat of arms adorns a leaf at the front of the manuscript.
The manuscript was accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the British Library in April 2006, with additional funding from donors.
My Ladye Nevells Booke is exhibited in collaboration with the British Library and the University of Aberdeen Music Department. A programme of talks and recitals has been organised in celebration of the loan of the manuscript to Aberdeen.