CJ Replay: Byrd’s Gradualia

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Sacred and Political Duality: An Analysis of Selected Motets from William Byrd’s Gradualia,” by Sean Burton)

 

       Composers rarely produce the crowning masterpieces of their oeuvre in isolation. No exception to this principle, William Byrd was heavily influenced by the historically significant political and religious events of his time. This influence is most apparent in his music set to sacred texts. An investigation of Byrd’s patrons, the circumstances of his employment, and most important his fervent religiosity, validates the interrelationships manifested in Byrd’s creative output.

       An ardent Catholic who lived during the perilous reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and her zealous commitment to Protestantism as a nationally prescribed faith, Byrd flourished as a composer because of his ability to set astoundingly beautiful music to sacred texts, in Latin and English. Byrd’s compositional mastery reaches its zenith in his largest and final collection of sacred music set to Latin texts, the Gradualia, literally his “swan song.” An exploration of historical and biographical events surrounding Byrd’s life combined with a thorough analysis of selected motets from the Gradualia will demonstrate the sacred and political duality inherent in Byrd’s magnum opus.

       Born in London circa 1540, William Byrd probably sang in the Chapel Royal under the Catholic monarch Queen Mary. During his youth, he was most likely a pupil of and assistant to the venerable English composer Thomas Tallis.

       The death of Queen Mary in 1558 resulted in the succession of Queen Elizabeth I and consequently a shift back to Protestantism for the English citizenry. In 1559, one year after the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, English Parliament passed the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, re-establishing Protestantism as the national religion of England. During the initial years of what was to become the inordinately long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Byrd was Organist and Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral, (1563-72). In 1572, the composer returned to London, a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.

 

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