William Byrd, Preface (1588)

William Byrd

1539/40 - 1623

English composer

Among his numerous works, in 1588 Byrd published a collection of English songs:

“Psalms, Sonnets and Songs of Sadness and Pietie”. They consisted mainly of adapted  consort songs, which Byrd, probably guided by commercial instincts, had turned into vocal part-songs by adding words to the accompanying instrumental parts and labelling the original solo voice as ‘the first singing part’. The consort song, which was the most popular form of vernacular polyphony in England in the third quarter of the sixteenth century, was a solo song for a high voice (often sung by a boy) accompanied by a consort of four consort instruments (normally viols).

Preface to

“Psalms, Sonnets and Songs of Sadness and Pietie”

by William Byrd  (1588)

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Reasons briefely set downe by th’auctor to perswade euery one to learne to singe:

First,    it is a knowledge easely taught, and quickly learned, where there is a
            good Master  and an apt Scoller.

2.       The exercise of singing is delightfull to Nature, and good to preserue
           the health of Man.

3.       It doth strengthen all parts of the breast, and doth open the pipes.

4.       It is a singular good remedie for a stutting and a stammering in the

          speech.       

5.       It is the best meanes to procure a perfect pronunciation, and to make a
          good Orator.

6.       It is the only way to know where Nature hath bestowed the benefit of a
          good voice; which guift is so rare, as there is not one among a thousand
          that hath it: and in many, that excellent guift is lost, because they want
          Art to expresse Nature.

7.       There is not any Musicke of Instruments whatsoever, comparable to that

          which is made of the voices of Men, where the voices are good, and the
          same well sorted and ordered.

8.       The better the voice is, the meeter it is to honour and serue God
           there-with; and the voice of man is chiefely to be imployed to that ende.

                   Since singing is so good a thing,

                   I wish all men would learne to singe.

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William Byrd, life

William Byrd

1539 or 1540 - 1623

English composer

William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance, born in late 1539 or 1540 in London.

He died in 1623. He was the son of a musician, and studied music principally under Thomas Tallis.

(T. Tallis, c. 1505–1585, was an English composer - Church musician in Tudor England, then the leading composing member of the Chapel Royal Choir).

In 1563 William became organist at Lincoln Cathedral and, three years later, chorister in the Chapel Royal. In 1575 received the title of Organist of the Chapel Royal without being obliged to perform the functions of that office.

W. 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 virginialist school) and consort music. He can be defined the most distinguished contrapuntist and the most prolific composer of his time in England.  

(The term virginalist usually refers to the English keyboard composers of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods. The term does not appear to have been applied earlier than the 19th century. Although the virginals was among the most popular keyboard instruments of this period, there is no evidence that the composers wrote exclusively for this instrument, and their music is equally suited to the harpsichord, the clavichord or the chamber organ).

William Byrd was the first Englishman to write madrigals, a form which originated in Italy in the thirteenth century, and received its highest development in the sixteenth century at the hands of Arcadelt and other masters.

(Jacques, or Jacob, Arcadelt - c.1507–1568 - was a famous Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in both Italy and France, and principally known as a composer of secular vocal music).

An organist and performer of the first order upon the virginals, Byrd wrote for the latter instrument an enormous number of compositions, many of which are played today. His chief significance lies, however, in his compositions for the Church, of which he produced a great many.

In 1607 he published a collection of gradualia for the whole ecclesiastical year, among which is to be found a three-part setting of the words of the multitude in the Passion according to St. John. A modern edition of this setting was published in 1899.

In 1611 "Psalms, Songs and Sonnets, Some Solemn, Others Joyful, Framed to the Life of the Words, Fit for Voyces or Viols, etc." appeared. Probably in the same year was issued "Parthenia", a collection of virginal music, in which Byrd collaborated with J. Bull and Orlando Gibbons.

Three masses - for three, four, and five voices, respectively - belong to the composer's best period. In 1841 the mass for five voices was reprinted by the Musical Antiquarian Society and in 1899 the same work was issued by Breitkopf and Hartel. Two of his motets, "Domine, ne irascaris" and "Civitas sancti tui", with English texts, are in the repertoire of most Anglican cathedrals.

(Motets = A short piece of music set to Latin words, and sung instead of, or immediately after, the Offertorium, or as a detached number in extra-liturgical functions).

William Byrd’s death in 1623 was noted in the Chapel Royal Check Book in a unique entry describing him as ‘a Father of Musick’.

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