Early Life

William Byrd was born around 1540 in London, England, and died at 83 years of age on July 4, 1623, in Stondon Massey, Essex, England. Although little is known about his time in London, it's been documented that his work as a choirboy for the London Chapel Royal under Protestant Edward VI and Queen Mary. From 1563 to 1572, Byrd served in the Church of England as an organist with his teacher Thomas Tallis and choirmaster at Lincoln Cathedral. From then on until his passing, he returned to the Chapel Royal under Queen Elizabeth.

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Education

Byrd was a respected student of Thomas Tallis. He, along with Tallis, was given a twenty-one-year monopoly over music printing for England, and Byrd took over after his teacher’s death. Tallis’s death gave Byrd the motivation to publish many of his works, including Psalmes, Sonets, & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie (1588), Songs of Sundrie Natures (1589), and two books of Cantiones sacrae (1589 and 1591). His education led him to join the Royal Chapel for the Anglican Church of England, despite Byrd being catholic. With this privilege, William Byrd provided for the hidden catholic community by composing music for religious meetings, creating a space for the persecuted to practice their faith.

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Career

The majority of William Byrd’s catalog of over 470 compositions is Latin masses and motets and Anglican service music. Although he worked for the Church of England, he wrote the majority of the secret Catholic community’s polyphonic music of the time, with some written for up to 5 voices. Most of Byrd’s compositions that survived are Latin sacred pieces; even though he composed many English versions of church music, they have only resurfaced as manuscripts.

However, he did not strictly write religious music, as he also wrote many secular polyphonic vocal and instrumental works. One notable collection he wrote was Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets (1611), which combined both English sacred and secular music. This makes him one of the earlier composers to mesh both religious and secular themes in his works.

Byrd is known for being the master of the genre “consort song”, consisting of voice accompanied by a string ensemble known as “consort of viols”, usually in five parts. Lulla Lullabye from his collection Psalms, Sonets and Songs (1588) was his most famous consort song of the century. Unfortunately, consort songs were only important until other forms of string ensembles overtook the genre in the 18th century. Despite this, there have been modern groups who have tried to revive the genre, one notable one being the Rose Consort of Viols.

Overall, William Byrd wrote over 180 motets, 4 services, 3 masses, dozens of anthems, secular partsongs, consort songs, fantasias for viol consort, keyboard variations, fantasias, and dances.

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English Virginalists

Byrd was a member of a group named the “English Virginalists”, an 18-member group known for the virginal instrument being hugely influential in their compositions. The English Virginalists stood out from previous Spanish and Italian composers of this time due to their attention to variations on melody instead of basic melodic outlines and bass patterns. William Byrd was one of the most important members due to being a sole contributor to the creation of the musical genre. John Come Kiss Me Now by William Byrd was one of the group’s most popular English Virginalist pieces, featuring setting variation and quickening of pace to create a contrast to the relaxing conclusion. 

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