The Huntes upp

The Huntes upp is a sixteenth century ballad attributed to William Gray. The words are:

The hunt is up, the hunt is up,

And it is a well nigh day;
And Harry our king has gone hunting,
To bring his deer to bay.

There is a keyboard version in C major by William Byrd. The piece has 11 variations on the songs The Hunt is Up and The Nine Muses. It is usually played on a harpsichord or piano and takes around 7 minutes. The work is included in two of the most important collections of keyboard music of the Renaissance, My Ladye Nevells Booke and the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. The copying of My Ladye Nevells Booke, which contains a selection of Byrd's keyboard pieces, was completed in 1591.The Huntes upp is believed, on stylistic grounds, to be one of the earlier pieces in the collection