ABSTRACT
The high proportion of pavans and galliards in their keyboard output strengthens the hypothesis that they studied with Byrd because it was after Byrd's return to London that the composer began to develop the stylized keyboard dance. There is a tendency to imagine a linear narrative when approaching the keyboard music of this period, in which one composer has an influence on the musical style of the next in an unbroken evolutionary chain. Discussion of style and influence in keyboard repertories often focuses on surface detail rather than underlying compositional process, and it can be difficult to distinguish points of significance from the lingua franca of contemporary keyboard figuration. The dating of five mature keyboard dances by Philips points to a period of activity in the medium of the keyboard dance corresponding with the time Byrd was compiling the sequence of pavans and galliards for inclusion in MLNB.
