William Byrd
William Byrd is the greatest composer England has produced. His output, though not quite as prolific as his Continental contemporaries like Palestrina, Lassus, Monte, et al, is quite considerable and of consistently superb construction and invention . . . both choral and instrumental. The variety of forms and moods of this small sampling of his work gives the listener an intimation of the scope of Byrd’s creative impulse. He practically invented the consort song and the verse anthem . . . the many keyboard variations he wrote were unprecedented. All this he accomplished while he and his family were under constant threat of imprisonment or worse for his adherence to the Catholic faith. The complete works, ‘The Byrd Edition” edited by Philip Brett, is published in 17 volumes by Stainer and Bell, London.
William Byrd was long thought to have been born and raised in Lincoln, but recent scholarship places his birth in London in 1540, and his first musical activity as chorister at St Paul’s. His first association with Thomas Tallis (35 years his senior) at the Royal Chapel was as a student. Eventually, after the worst of the horrors of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and ‘Bloody’ Mary, Byrd finally, at age 23, was appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral under the new Protestant regime of Elizabeth I.
The chapter at Lincoln had become so puritanical and repressive of elaborate music in the Cathedral that in 1570 Byrd applied and was accepted as a Gentleman of the Royal Chapel (no doubt through some influence of Thomas Tallis); oddly he did not return to London until 1572. Here the collaboration with Tallis began and the joint organists of the Chapel Royal applied to the Queen for a patent to print and sell polyphonic music. In 1575 they published a collection of their Latin motets, ‘Cantiones sacrae’. Needless to say this was not a success, probably because, in all but the Royal Chapel and a few other places of worship in the land, singing and intoning in Latin was forbidden by the Anglican church!
In the late 1570s Byrd started to be more harassed for his Catholicism . . . not without provocation. But he seemed always to retain the support of the Queen, perhaps with offerings such as “This sweet and merry month” and setting the Queen’s text on the defeat of the Armada, “Look and bow down”. So when asked about his Catholicism she would answer “He is but a musician”.
In 1585 Tallis died and Byrd proceeded to publish volumes of his own works in quick succession: 1588 ‘Psalms, Sonets and Songs’, 1589 ‘Songs of Sundrie Natures’ and ‘Liber primus sacrorum cantionem’. In 1593 Byrd acquired the manor house at Stondon Massey, Essex, (about 25mi. East of Central London) and at 53 yrs. he apparently retired from Court. Stondon Massey is conveniently close to Ingatestone Hall, the home of the Petre family, wealthy Catholic patrons of Byrd. One of his two volumes of ‘Gradualia’ is dedicated to Lord Petre. One can imagine Byrd organizing a group of singers for Latin Masses in the chapel at Ingatestone Hall.
William Byrd died at Stondon Massey in 1623, age 83! He had requested to be buried in the church there, but his grave has not been found . . . unlike his contemporary artist, William Shakespeare (died 1616), who to this day has pride of place in the chancel of the Parish Church at Stratford-on-Avon. That there are no throngs of tourists annually pouring into Stondon Massey, the resting place of England’s greatest composer, is perhaps a reflection on the state of music education, or lack of it, in our culture.
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Domine tu iurasti
This five-part motet is from the ‘Liber primus sacrorum cantionem’ of 1589. The volume was dedicated to Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, a Catholic who managed to maintain his position at Court despite his religion. He was a Privy Councillor and a major patron of Byrd.
William Byrd "Domine tu iurasti"
Text:
Domine, tu iurasti patribus nostris
daturum te semini corum terram
fluentem lacte et melle;
nunc, Domine, memor esto testamenti
quod posuisti patribus nostris,
et erue nos de manu Pharaonis,
regis Aegipti, et ex servitute Agiptiorum.
Translation:
Lord God, Thou hast sworn to our forebears
Thpu wouldst give to their posterity lands
rich and flowing with milk and honey;
but now, O Lord, be mindful of the promise
which Thou didst make to our forefathers,
and deliver us from the hand of Pharoah,
King of Egypt, and the servitude of his
people.
Great Service – Magnificat
Ironic that the Catholic, Byrd ,should create music for the Anglican service that has not been equaled by any Anglican composer. The “Magnificat” is especially fine, perhaps because it had been the exceptional canticle for generations of Catholic composers. Many of those earlier versions alternated the verses with plainchant/polyphony. Byrd’s “Magnificat” is like a motet in four “partes”, each one distinctive, but leaving no doubt about each belonging to a unified whole, unfolding in grandeur to the final “Amen”. It is a magnificent offering to the Anglican church . . . but with a gesture that seems to say, “This is how it should be done . . . now leave me alone!” Obviously written for the Chapel Royal–the Queen . . . certainly fit for a Queen . . . how could she let them take away her musical genius?
The recording session was held on a cold March night with snow piled up around the Germanic baroque Church of St. Mary on a windswept hill above the hamlet of New Trier, Minnesota. (A more sonorous reading of the “Magnificat” recorded in the ultra-resonant Chapel of St. Thomas Seminary, St Paul, also by Concentus Cantorum can be heard on Musical Heritage Society LP MHC 9436 ‘Nowell Sing We’. Copies are available through this website.)
William Byrd 'Great Service - Magnificat'.
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit rejoyseth in God my Saviour.
For He hath regarded the lowliness
of his handmaiden. For behold from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed.
For He that is mighty hath magnified me,
and holy is His name.
And His mercy is on them that fear Him,
throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with His arm:
He hath scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He rememb’ring His mercy
hath holpen His servant, Israel.
As He promised to our forefather Abraham
and to his seed for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost:
as it was in the beginning, and is now
and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Great Service – Venite
William Byrd’s ‘Great Service” is the most elaborate of the four settings of the Anglican Office that he composed. It consists of “Venite”, “Te Deum”. “Benedictus” for Matins, “Magnificat” and “Nunc dimmittis” for Vespers and “Kyrie” and “Credo” for Communion. Although set to a text of similar length the “Venite” is far less elaborate and grand than the “Magnificat” above, although it does manage to enlist as many as 6-voice parts (to ‘Magnificat’s’ 8). There is no contemporary 16th century print of the Great Service, possibly because few choirs could muster the resources to perform it.
William Byrd 'Great Service - Venite'.
O come, let us sing unto the Lord:
let us heartily rejoice in the strength
of our salvation. Let us come before
His presence with thanksgiving:
and shew ourselves glad in Him with
Psalms.
For the Lord is a great God:
and a great King above all gods.
In His hands are all the corners of the earth:
and the strength of the hills is His also.
The sea is His and He made it:
and His hands prepared the dry land.
O come, let us worship and fall down:
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For He is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of His pasture
and the sheep of His hand.
Today if ye will hear His voice,
harden not your hearts:
as in the provocation,
and as in the day of temptation
in the wilderness; when your fathers
tempted me: proved me, and saw my
works.
Forty years long was I grieved
with this generation, and said:
It is a people that do err in their hearts,
for they have not known my ways.
Unto whom I sware in my wrath:
that they should not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost:
as it was in the beginning, and is now
and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
In fields abroad
Printed in his ‘Psalmes, Sonets and Songs’ of 1588, this “make love, not war” part-song of Byrd rather flies in the face of the prevailing military stance of the nation in the year of the Armada. But of course the Armada was supposed to bring England back into the Roman Church . . . nice that Byrd could keep his sense of humour. The first and last of four stanzas are sung here.
William Byrd "In fields abroad"
Text:
In fields abroad, where trumpets shrill do sound,
Where glaives and shields do give and take
the knocks.
Where bodies dead do overspread the ground.
And friends to foes are common butchers’
blocks.
A gallant shot well managing his piece
In my conceit deserves a golden fleece.
By that bedside where sits a gallant Dame,
Who casteth off her brave and rich attire,
Whose petticoat sets forth as fair a frame
As mortal men or gods can well desire,
Who sits and sees her petticoat unlac’d,
I say no more, the rest are all disgrac’d.
In winter cold
Byrd’s ‘Psalms, Songs and Sonnets’ was published in 1611; it contains several settings of moralistic poems that are found in ‘A Choice of Emblemes’ (1586) by Geoffrey Whitney. If Byrd himself selected those particular verses , it would reveal in the composer a rather ungenerous nature . . . somewhat more Puritan than Catholic! Perhaps they were commissioned by a patron.
William Byrd "In winter cold"
Text:
In winter cold when tree and bush was bare,
And frost had nipped the roots of tender grass,
The ants with joy did feed upon their fare
Which they had stored while summer season
was;
To whom for food a grasshopper did cry
And said she starved if they did help deny.
Second part:
Whereat an ant with long experience wise,
And frost and snow had many winters seen,
Inquired what in summer was her guise.
Quoth she, I sung and hopped in meadows
green.
Then, quoth the ant, content thee with thy
chance,
For to thy song now thou art like to dance.
Jhon come kisse me now
Byrd was 14yrs when Prince Philip of Spain came to England to marry Queen Mary. Included in his retinue was Antonio de Cabezon the famous Spanish keyboard player . . . quite likely Byrd was able to hear Cabezon play his ‘differencias’ on tunes like “Guardame las vacas”. Byrd’s sets of variations on “popular” tunes probably find a model in Cabezon, but carry the idea to “extremes”. Most of Byrd’s examples are to be found in the ‘Fitzwilliam Virginal Book’ edited by Fuller Maitland and Barclay Squire in 1899. It is generally thought that this exceptional manuscript was copied out by Francis Tregian (d. 1619) while he was confined in Fleet Prison, London for his Catholicism. There are nearly 300 pieces in the ms. by the leading composers from around 1600. The technical demands on the performer are considerable, especially in the works of John Bull and William Byrd.
William Byrd "Jhon come kisse me now"
My mistress hath a little dog
Appleton Hall was built in 1596 by Edward Paston; so this cute consort song was written after that date. Edward Paston was a patron and fellow Catholic. Byrd probably wrote it for a member of the Paston family . . . the Hall itself was destroyed by fire in 1707, and was sited within the Royal Sandringham estaate nr. King’s Lynn.
William Byrd "My mistress hath a little dog"
Text:
My mistress hath a little dog
Whose name was Pretty Royal,
Who neither hunted sheep nor hog,
But was without denial
A tumbler fine that might be seen
To wait upon a fairy queen.
The goddess which Diana hight
Among her beagles dainty
Had not a hound so fair and white,
Nor graced with such beauty;
And yet his beauty was not such,
But his conditions were as rich.
But out, alas! I’ll speak no more.
My heart with grief doth shake;
This pretty dog was wounded sore
E’en for his mistress’ sake:
A beastly man, or manly beast
Knock’d out his brains; and so I rest.
A trial royal! Oyez!
Ye hounds and beagles all,
If ye sat in Appleton Hall;
Would you not judge that out of doubt
Tyburn were fit for such a lout?
Qui passe – for Lady Neville
William Byrd "Qui passe - for Lady Neville"
Retire my soul
Byrd’s last publication for voices was ‘Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets’ of 1611. In his preface he refers frequently to his “last labours” . . . the ethereal, “Retire my soul”, epitomizes this theme of a final reckoning. The volume is dedicated to Francis Clifford, Duke of Cumberland, who was known for staging musical entertainments at his castles in the North.
William Byrd "Retire my soul"
Text:
Retire, my soul, consider thine estate,
And justly sum thy lavish sin’s account;
Time’s dear expence and costly pleasures
rate,
How follies grow, how vanities amount.
Write all these down in pale Death’s
reckoning tables,
Thy days will seem but dreams, thy hopes
but fables.
Second French Coranto
William Byrd "Second French Coranto"
This sweet and merry month
This 4-part madrigal was first printed in Thomas Watson ‘The first sett, of Italian madrigalls Englished’ of 1590, which primarily consists of Watson’s translations of madrigals composed by the Italian madrigalist, Luca Marenzio. A different 6-part setting of the same words by William Byrd is also included, almost as if to say “we have composers who can write madrigals too.” The words are probably by Thomas Watson and under Byrd’s setting become a paean to Queen Elizabeth. The volume was printed under Thomas Morley’s license . . . perhaps Byrd’s pieces were a model for Morley’s ‘Triumphs of Oriana’ a decade later.
William Byrd "This sweet and merry month"
Text:
This sweet and merry month of May,
While Nature wantons in her Prime,
And birds do sing, and beasts do play,
For pleasure of the joyful time:
I choose the first for holiday,
And greet Eliza with a rhyme.
O, beauteous Queen, of second Troy,
Take well in worth a simple toy.
Though Amaryllis dance
The first and last stanzas of an original four are performed here; all of them propose to reject the charms of the fair sex and resolve to “love no more”. The light playful quality sounds like a canzonett or ballett . . . without the fa-las. It was printed in the 1588 ‘Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs’. Not following his own advice Byrd remarried after his first wife had died in 1586.
William Byrd "Though Amaryllis dance"
Text:
Though Amaryllis dance in green,
like Fairy Queen, and sing full clear
Corinna can, with smiling cheer:
Yet since their eyes make heart so sore,
Hey ho, chill love no more.
Love ye who list, I force him not,
sith God it wot, the more I wail,
The less my sighs and tears prevail:
What shall I do but say therefore,
Hey ho, chill love no more.
La Volta
The painting (now at Penshurst Place) of Elizabeth dancing with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is thought to show them dancing the volta . . . perhaps even this volta set by William Byrd as found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. The keyboard version has been arranged for lute, viol, and recorder.
William Byrd "Volta"
When Israel came out of Egypt
This chant is from one of the three settings that William Byrd made of the Anglican ‘Preces and Psalms’. It is essentially an Anglican chant with five voice parts and alternating Cantoris and Decani sections of the choir. The Psalm is 114 and uses the words of Cranmer’s BCP.
William Byrd "When Israel came out of Egypt"
Text:
When Israel came out of Egypt: and the
house of Jacob from among strange people,
Judah was his sanctuary:
and Israel his dominion.
The sea saw that and fled:
Jordan was driven back.
The mountains skipped like rams:
and the little hills like young sheep.
What aileth thee, o thou sea,
that thou fleddest:
and thou Jordan that wast driven back?
Ye mountains that ye skipped like rams:
and ye little hills like young sheep?
Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord:
at the presence of the God of Jacob..
Who turned the hard rock into a standing water:
and the flintstone into a springing well.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:
and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, and is now:
and ever shall be; world without end. Amen.