Bruno Maderna’s Music of Gaity (1969) is an orchestral suite drawn from Elizabethan keyboard pieces in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, arranged for solo oboe, solo violin, and chamber orchestra and it exemplifies Maderna’s skill in reimagining early music through a contemporary lens.

The suite presents a sequence of dance‑like movements—galliards, pavans, and fantasias—originally by composers such as William Byrd, Giles Farnaby, John Dowland, and Thomas Phillips. Maderna assigns melodic material alternately to the oboe and violin, supported by winds, strings, and subtle percussion. His orchestration preserves the contrapuntal clarity of the virginal originals while enriching them with modern harmonic inflections and coloristic effects.

The piece demands from the soloists both Baroque‑inspired agility and twentieth‑century expressive nuance, while the chamber ensemble must maintain precise balance and rhythmic vitality to articulate Maderna’s blend of historical homage and avant‑garde flair.