William byrd compositions
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William Byrd: Elizabeth I's Catholic composer
Here's an introduction to the life and music of William Byrd - one of Britain's most important and influential composers, whose deeply held faith made him an outsider figure in Elizabethan England.
Who was William Byrd?
William Byrd was one of the finest composers of his age and one of the very finest English composers ever to have lived. Almost 600 of his pieces have survived: church music with Latin texts; church music with English texts; partsongs and madrigals; consort songs; instrumental ensemble music; and keyboard music.
The music he wrote for the Anglican church has never fallen out of favour, but most of his other music had to wait until the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century for its revival. A century later, that revival is at its peak.
When was William Byrd born?
Byrd is thought to have been born in or around 1543 and died in 1623. From the sources that survive, we think that he was probably born in London and sang as a chorister in the choir of the Chapel Royal where he may have studi
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William Byrd
English Renaissance composer (c. 1540 – 1623)
For other uses, see William Byrd (disambiguation).
William Byrd (; c. 1540 – 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continent.[1] He is often considered along with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell as one of England's most important composers of early music.
Byrd wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music. He produced sacred music for Anglican services, but during the 1570s became a Roman Catholic, and wrote Catholic sacred music later in his life.
Life
Birth and background
Richard Byrd of Ingatestone, Essex, the paternal grandfather of Thomas Byrd, probably moved to London in the 15th century. Thereafter succeeding generations of the Byrd family are described as gentlemen.
Willia
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Early Years
Byrd was born on March 28, 1674, probably near the falls of the James River in Henrico County, the eldest child of Mary Horsmanden Filmer Byrd and her second husband, William Byrd (ca. 1652–1704). He is usually referred to as William Byrd II (a style that he did not employ) to distinguish him from his father and his only surviving son.
Byrd spent the formative years of his childhood in England. When he was two years old he and his mother temporarily left Virginia to reside with her relatives in Purleigh, Essex County, England. Although Byrd probably returned to Virginia two years later, by the age of seven he was definitely in England in the care of the same relatives, who sent him for nine years to the Felsted School, a prestigious academy in the same shire. He learned Greek and Latin and there probably also acquired his ability to read French, Italian, and Hebrew. After leaving school Byrd worked for tobacco trading companies for two years in London and Rotterdam to learn about commerce and at the same time acquire the social graces of a gentleman. He entered the
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