Anyone who has ever sung in a (traditional) church choir is likely to have sung some much beloved and glorious anthems composed by William Byrd. He was considered to be among the greatest composers of Renaissance music as well as being a well known keyboard plyer in his life time. He died on 4th July, 1623 and as we mark the 400th anniversary of his death this year, we shall probably hear more of his wonderful music celebrated in special events and broadcasts. Look out for them in the coming weeks!
His 80 years of life spanned one of the most turbulent times of British history and will bring to mind the Elizabethan era, reformation and the religious and political struggles of that period. Byrd was a devout lifelong Roman Catholic who would have found it difficult to remain one at a time when refusal to attend Anglican services was against the law, punishable by fines, property confiscations and even imprisonment. Indeed, some of his friends were accused of treasonable activities, but his own loyalty to the government never came into question.
William Byrd was born into a rich, musical family. He was probably a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, and the Chapel Royal, where he was a pupil of another giant in church music, Thomas Tallis. Tallis kept him on as his assistant and later as the organist at Chapel Royal. Byrd’s first professional appointment was as the organist and choirmaster at Lincoln Cathedral, but the tensions between the near-puritanical Cathedral and Byrd’s musical exuberance meant that his stay there was only a few years long and he returned to London in 1572.
Tallis and Byrd remained close associates throughout. They found favour with the Queen at the time, Elizabeth I, who although a Protestant, was a moderate one with some fondness for ritual, as well as being a great lover of music. She granted them a monopoly on the printing of sheet music and lined music paper, which lasted 21 years. An early example of a patent for printing books.
Byrd is credited with raising the English keyboard to great prominence and also influencing the achievements of other wellknown church musicians like his pupil Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell and Thomas Tomkins.
Although a devout Catholic, Byrd did contribute significantly to Anglican church music in quality, although limited in quantity compared to the rest of his enormous musical output, comprising three Masses (probably written during the reign of James I, an easier time for Catholics in England), ‘psalms, sonnets and songs’, madrigals, keyboard music of the Fitzwilliam Virginal and so forth.
The Tallis-Byrd duo, both staunch Catholics, managed to write and publish three volumes of Cantiones Sacrae, which were offered not as part of liturgy, but for ‘private devotional use’. This was clever as it meant that the theological precepts of the Cantiones did not come under scrutiny of the Protestant hierarchy. The first volume had 34 Latin motets dedicated to the Queen and were consistent with Anglican doctrine. However, by the time the latter two were published, Byrd appears to have concentrated more on themes of persecution; they dwell on Israel’s exile in Babylon or Egypt: drawing parallels with the persecution of Catholics going on at that time. They wee dedicated to his friends who were prominent Catholics.
Considering the enormous challenges and danger to life and property faced by Christians persecuting Christians during the time of Reformation, we have so much to be grateful for: that composers like Tallis and Byrd created wonderful church music acceptable to the Church of England at that time, and also that their music generally found favour with the Sovereign and survived to this day. The era of Elizabeth II has certainly been one when Christians did learn to live and work together in relative harmony.
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