William Byrd: Difference between revisions

From the early 1570s onwards Byrd became increasingly involved with Catholicism, which, as the scholarship of the last half-century has demonstrated, became a major factor in his personal and creative life. As John Harley has shown, it is probable that Byrd's parental family were Protestants, though whether by deeply felt conviction or nominal conformism is not clear. Byrd himself may have held Protestant beliefs in his youth, for a recently discovered fragment of a setting of an English translation of [[Martin Luther|Luther]]'s hymn ''Erhalt uns, Herr, bei Deinem Wort'', which bears an attribution to "Birde" includes the line "From Turk and Pope defend us Lord".<ref>O. Neighbour, "Music Manuscripts of George Iliffe from Stanford Hall, Leicestershire, including a new ascription to Byrd", ''Music and Letters'' 88 (2007) pp. 420–435</ref> However, from the 1570s onwards he is found associating with known Catholics, including Lord [[Thomas Paget, 3rd Baron Paget|Thomas Paget]], to whom he wrote a petitionary letter on behalf of an unnamed friend in 1573. Byrd's wife Julian was first cited for [[recusancy]] (refusing to attend Anglican services) at [[Harlington, London|Harlington]] in [[Middlesex]], where the family now lived, in 1577. Byrd himself appears in the recusancy lists from 1584.

 

 

Byrd's commitment to the Catholic cause found expression in his motets, of which he composed about 50 between 1575 and 1591. While the texts of the motets included by Byrd and Tallis in the 1575 ''Cantiones'' have a [[High Anglican]] doctrinal tone, scholars such as Joseph Kerman have detected a profound change of direction in the texts which Byrd set in the motets of the 1580s. In particular there is a persistent emphasis on themes such as the persecution of the chosen people (''Domine praestolamur'' a5) the [[Babylonian captivity|Babylonian]] or [[Egypt]]ian captivity (''Domine tu iurasti'') and the long-awaited coming of deliverance (''Laetentur caeli'', ''Circumspice Jerusalem''). This has led scholars from Kerman onwards to believe that Byrd was reinterpreting biblical and liturgical texts in a contemporary context and writing laments and petitions on behalf of the persecuted Catholic community, which seems to have adopted Byrd as a kind of 'house' composer. Some texts should probably be interpreted as warnings against spies (''Vigilate, nescitis enim'') or lying tongues (''Quis est homo'') or celebration of the memory of martyred priests (''O quam gloriosum''). Byrd's setting of the first four verses of Psalm 78 (''Deus venerunt gentes'') is widely believed to refer to the cruel execution of Fr [[Edmund Campion]] in 1581 an event that caused widespread revulsion on the Continent as well as in England. Finally, and perhaps most remarkably, Byrd's ''Quomodo cantabimus'' is the result of a motet exchange between Byrd and [[Philippe de Monte]], who was director of music to the [[Holy Roman Emperor]], [[Rudolf II]], in [[Prague]]. In 1583 De Monte sent Byrd his setting of verses 1–4 of [[Vulgate]] Psalm 136 (''[[Psalm 137|Super flumina Babylonis]]''), including the pointed question "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" Byrd replied the following year with a setting of the defiant continuation, set, like de Monte's piece, in eight parts and incorporating a three-part canon by inversion.