William Byrd (between 1534 and 1543 – 4 July 1623) was an English composer of the Renaissance. Events 836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere He lived until well into the seventeenth century without writing music in the new Baroque fashion, but his keyboard works are said to have marked the beginning of the Baroque organ and harpsichord style. Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. The organ (from Greek όργανον – organon "organ instrument tool" is a Keyboard instrument of one or more divisions each A harpsichord is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard.
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Early life
William Byrd is believed to have been born in 1543, since in his will he describes himself as being in his eightieth year of life. The will is dated 15 November 1622, which would mean he was born between 14 November 1542 and 14 November 1543. However the statement about his age refers only to when he started writing his will. At this time in history, it might have taken several months to several years to complete a will. Therefore he may have been eighty in 1619 and taken 3 years to complete his will. Byrd drafted a deposition on or near 15 November 1598. In the deposition he is described (in someone else's handwriting) as "58 yeares or ther abouts". This would give a date of birth near the end of 1539 or in 1540. In that he case he could not possibly have been the "Wyllyam Byrd" who became a chorister in Westminster Abbey in 1543, though some sources have decided that Byrd must have been born even earlier, in 1534, in order to make this possible. The idea that he was born in Lincoln derives from the fact that the name "Byrd" is rare, and is found in that area. If he really was the "Wyllyam Byrd" at Westminster in 1543, then he is likely to have been born in London, not Lincoln. He must have been born sometime between 1534 and 1543, in Lincoln or London.
According to music historian John Harley, Byrd was the only member of his family sympathetic toward Catholicism. His brother John was a faithful member of the Church of England in Southwark, while his sister, nephew and niece married Protestants. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Southwark or The Borough is an area of south-east London in the London Borough of Southwark, situated 1 [1]
Famous works
Like so many gifted musicians in Renaissance Europe, Byrd began his career at a very early age. He almost certainly sang in the Chapel Royal during Mary Tudor's reign (1553–1558), "bred up to music under Thomas Tallis". Thomas Tallis (c 1505 &ndash 23 November 1585) was an English Composer. This places him in the best choir in England during his teenage years, alongside the finest musicians of his day, who were brought in from all over the British Isles, from the Netherlands, and even from Spain and Portugal. Mary I spent her brief reign reacting to the excesses of Protestant austerity under her predecessor Edward VI. Mary I (18 February 1516 &ndash 17 November 1558 was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death Edward VI (12 October 1537 &ndash 6 July 1553 became King of England and Ireland on 28 January 1547 and was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine Byrd seems to have thrived on the exuberant, creative atmosphere as well as here her taste for elaborate Latin church music: one manuscript from Queen Mary's chapel includes a musical setting of a long psalm for Vespers, with eight verses each by leading court composers William Mundy and John Sheppard, and four verses by the young Byrd. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Vespers is the evening Prayer service in the Roman Catholic, Eastern (Byzantine Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, liturgies of the William Mundy (c 1529 – 1591 was an English Composer of Sacred music John Sheppard (c1515 &ndash December 1558 was an English singer and composer
Under Elizabeth and James
He was eighteen years old when Mary died and her younger Protestant sister, Elizabeth I, succeeded her. The sudden change may well have driven him away from court. In his mid-twenties he became organist and choirmaster of Lincoln Cathedral, being named to the position on March 25, 1563 and living at 6 Minster Yard in the Cathedral Close. Lincoln Cathedral (in full The Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, or sometimes St There the clergy apparently had to reprimand him for playing at excessive length during services, although he did continue to write music specifically to be played at Lincoln even after his move to London.
He married Juliana (or Julian) Byrd in 1568, and at least seven children are known: Christopher (baptized in 1569), Elizabeth (baptized early in 1572), Rachel (born sometime before 1574), Mary, Catherine, Thomas (baptized in 1576) and Edward.
After being named a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1572, a well-paying job with considerable privileges attached to it, he moved back to London. A Chapel Royal is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household of the monarch in right of each of the Commonwealth realms formally known as the royal He worked there as a singer, composer and organist for more than two decades. Just after his appointment, he and Tallis obtained a joint printing license from Queen Elizabeth. He published three collections of Latin motets or Cantiones Sacrae, one (in 1575) with the collaboration of his teacher and two (in 1589 and 1591) by himself after the older man had died. In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions (Byrd composed the musical elegy Ye Sacred Muses on Tallis's death). Ye Sacred Muses is William Byrd 's Musical Elegy on the death of his colleague and sometime mentor Thomas Tallis. Alongside these, he brought out two substantial anthologies of music in English, Psalmes, Sonets and Songs in 1588 and Songs of Sundrie Natures in 1589. He also wrote a large amount of Anglican church music for the Chapel Royal, including the ten-voice Great Service and a number of anthems, including Sing joyfully. In Anglican church music, a Service is a musical setting of certain parts of the Liturgy, generally for Choir with or without organ accompaniment The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music (in Music theory and religious contexts or more generally a song (or composition of In 1591 he arranged for the transcription of many of his keyboard pieces to form a collection dedicated to a member of the Nevill family, titled My Ladye Nevells Booke, one of the most important anthologies of renaissance keyboard music. My Ladye Nevells Booke is a compilation of keyboard pieces by the English composer William Byrd, and together with the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book In 1593 he moved with his family to the small village of Stondon Massey in Essex, and spent the remaining thirty years of his life there, devoting himself more and more to music for the Roman liturgy. Stondon Massey is a village in south Essex. It is situated to the north of Brentwood, between Blackmore and Doddinghurst He published his three settings of the Mass Ordinary between 1592 and 1595, and followed them in 1605 and 1607 with his two books of Gradualia, an elaborate year-long musical cycle. For other uses see Mass (disambiguation The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that He contributed eight pieces to the first printed collection of keyboard music in England, Parthenia, published circa 1611. Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls was as the title states the first printed collection of music for keyboard in England He died on July 4, 1623, and is buried in Stondon churchyard.
Roman Catholic sympathies
Byrd, despite his Roman Catholic sympathies, worked in the court of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. He composed, intermittently, music for the Roman Catholic liturgy, particularly in his later years, exemplified by two volumes of Gradualia. He did not receive widespread recognition in his lifetime, but was very well respected among the Roman Catholic gentry. In the anti-Catholic frenzy following the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, the first volume of the Gradualia, printed by Thomas East in 1605, was banned in England under penalty of imprisonment, as indeed was all his Catholic music; however, his Anglican music, such as the Short Service and the Responses, has been sung in English cathedrals for four centuries. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 or the Powder Treason, as it was known at the time was a failed Assassination attempt by a group of provincial English
One of the first steps taken by the Protestant reformers after the accession of Henry VIII was the revision of all books of worship and the establishment of a new, simplified musical style. By the time Byrd joined the Chapel Royal in the 1570s, the rules had relaxed somewhat, and he could produce elaborate works for what was still the best-funded and most famous choir in the country. A Chapel Royal is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household of the monarch in right of each of the Commonwealth realms formally known as the royal Even as he won fame for his Anglican music, he was writing Latin motets about the plight of the English Catholic community, many of them publicly printed in his books of Cantiones. Anglican church music is music that is written for liturgical performance in Anglican church services In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions When he tired of compromise he left the court, and kept his position at the Chapel in absentia. He never returned to live in London. He continued to write secular songs, madrigals, and keyboard pieces until the end of his life, but his later church music, composed during the years in Essex, is exclusively Latin.
The three Masses and the two books of Gradualia, published over fifteen years, were Byrd's major contribution to the Roman rite. These were written for the intimate, even secretive, atmosphere of domestic worship, to be performed for a small group of skilled amateurs (which included women, according to contemporary accounts) and heard by a small congregation. Although such worship could be dangerous, sometimes a capital offence, Byrd went further than merely providing music. There are many records of his participation in illegal services. A Jesuit missionary describes a country house in Berkshire in 1586:
- The gentleman was also a skilled musician, and had an organ and other musical instruments and choristers, male and female, members of his household. The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order During these days it was just as if we were celebrating an uninterrupted Octave of some great feast. Mr. Byrd, the very famous English musician and organist, was among the company. . . .
Byrd nevertheless lived as a free man, and kept his office in the Chapel Royal and the benefices associated with it. A Chapel Royal is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household of the monarch in right of each of the Commonwealth realms formally known as the royal Originally a benefice was a gift of land ( Precaria) for life as a reward for services rendered Shortly after the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered in November 1605, an unfortunate traveller was arrested in a London pub in possession of "certain papistical books written by William Byrd, and dedicated to Lord Henry Howard, earl of Northampton", the first set of Gradualia. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 or the Powder Treason, as it was known at the time was a failed Assassination attempt by a group of provincial English The man was thrown into Newgate prison, one of the most notorious prisons in England. For the prison in East Granby, Connecticut, see Old Newgate Prison. Byrd and his family suffered no such treatment but court records show him involved in endless lawsuits, mostly over his right to own property confiscated from another Catholic, and paying heavy fines. The reputation he had built as a young man in London, and the patronage of the Queen, must have helped him through his later years.
Artists often claimed a vocational immunity to the controversies of their age. John Taverner, who was implicated in the radical Oxford Protestant movement of the late 1520s, escaped a heresy trial with the plea that he was "but a musician". Not to be confused with John Tavener John Taverner (c 1490 &ndash 18 October 1545) was an English Composer But the simple act of creating religious art put them in the centre of the fray. Byrd was talented and fortunate enough to continue his work, and to gain the esteem of nearly all his contemporaries. Henry Peacham reflected the public opinion when he wrote, just a few months before the composer's death, in his Compleat Gentleman:
- For motets and music of piety and devotion, as well for the honour of our nation as the merit of the man, I prefer above all our Phoenix, Master William Byrd.
Media
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Cradle Song - Problems playing the files? See media help.
See also
References
- ^ John Harley. This is a list of the musical compositions by William Byrd,one of the most celebrated English Composers of the Renaissance. Orlando Gibbons ( baptised 25 December 1583 &ndash 5 June 1625) was an English Composer and Organist John Bull (1562 or 1563&ndash15 March 1628 was an English composer musician and organ builder "New Light on William Byrd," 'Music and Letters', 79 (1998), 475-88
- John Harley, William Byrd: Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, (Aldershot, 1997)
- Stainer & Bell. Ltd., (13. IX. 2006) - Contains bio and list of works
External links
- Complete list of Byrd's works from stainer. co. uk (PDF)
- William Byrd at Find-A-Grave
Scores and recordings
- William Byrd was listed in the International Music Score Library Project
- William Byrd free scores in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Free scores by William Byrd in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
- Free recordings of Madrigals, Latin Church Music
- Free recordings of Byrd's Ave verum corpus
- Motet Ave Verum Corpus as interactive hypermedia at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext
- Kunst der Fuge: William Byrd - Free MIDI files
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