Even in an era so richly stocked with great names,
William Byrd demands particular attention as the most
prodigiously talented, prolific, and versatile composer
of his generation, and together with his continental
colleagues Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando de Lassus,
one of the acknowledged great masters of the late
Renaissance, due to his substantial volume of
high-quality compositions in every genre of the time.
Byrd's pre-eminent position at the beginning of music
publication in England allow...(+)
Even in an era so richly stocked with great names,
William Byrd demands particular attention as the most
prodigiously talented, prolific, and versatile composer
of his generation, and together with his continental
colleagues Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando de Lassus,
one of the acknowledged great masters of the late
Renaissance, due to his substantial volume of
high-quality compositions in every genre of the time.
Byrd's pre-eminent position at the beginning of music
publication in England allowed him to leave a
significant printed legacy at the inception of many
important musical forms. It would be impossible to
overestimate his subsequent influence on the music of
England, the Low Countries, and Germany. Byrd was a
Roman Catholic, and in addition to the church music
that he composed for the Anglican services, he wrote
Masses and liturgical music for the Catholic Church. He
was also a composer of motets, polyphonic songs, and
keyboard and consort music.
Byrd was born about 1540, and it is assumed that he was
a chorister in the Chapel Royal (his brothers were
choristers at St. Paul's Cathedral) and a student of
Thomas Tallis. He certainly was a close friend of
Tallis', as they worked closely together, and Byrd's
second son was the godson of Tallis. Byrd was named
organist and master of choristers of Lincoln Cathedral
at the age of 20, where he wrote most of his English
sacred music. In 1570 he was appointed a Gentleman of
the Chapel Royal, where he shared the post of organist
with Tallis. Queen Elizabeth I, despite Byrd's intense
commitment to Catholicism, was one of his benefactors,
and granted him and Tallis a patent to print music in
1575. Their first publication was a collection of five-
to eight-part, Latin motets, but they published little
else. Around the same time, Byrd began composing for
the virginal. His contribution to the solo keyboard
repertoire comprises some 125 pieces, mostly stylized
dances or exceptionally inventive sets of variations
that inaugurated a golden age of English keyboard
composition. Many of these pieces are found in one of
two manuscripts: My Ladye Nevells Booke and the
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. In 1573 he became a
permanent member of the Chapel Royal. Byrd contributed
heavily to the developing genre of the English anthem,
including the newer "verse" style with organ
accompaniment, composing his widely regarded Great
Service in this format. However, during the 1580s and
1590s, Byrd's Catholicism was the driving force for his
music. As the persecution of Catholics increased during
this period, and occasionally touched on Byrd and his
family, he wrote and openly published music for
Catholic services. This was inaugurated in 1575 with
the volume of Cantiones Sacrae, a joint collection with
Tallis.
Byrd's "Peccantem me quotidie", motet for 5 voices, is
expressive right from the first note, expect perfect
Byrd, and the musical expectations are generously
fulfilled in this imitative motet from the 1575
Cantiones. Byrd's polyphonic techniques can build
beautiful music with the sparest, flimsiest musical
materials, so when, as here, the lines themselves are
poignant, the result is pulse-quickening to say the
least. He wastes no time bringing in all the voices.
There is a wavering, dangerous quality throughout due
to the strategically timed comings and goings of the
bass voice and due to the perceptual contradiction of
the lines being so charged with emotion, while the
musical narrative so reasonable. When the soprano
enters she sounds faintly hesitant, as if she's on a
precariously loose tower of stones; then, to drive the
point home, the harmonies smear out into dissonant
suspensions and the bass (again) vanishes. It's
scary.
As is Byrd's way, he intensifies his operations on
every level as the piece progresses, in this case
audibly taking his cues from the text. At the first
"miserere" the harmonies get so rich that the
polyphonic lines, moving along much as before, are
practically blotted out by them. At the second
"miserere" the bass again disappears at a dramatic
point. When the bass and soprano are both present in
Byrd, they are clearly the most important voices, so
that removing the bass causes a fairly drastic change
in perspective, all attention suddenly being drawn to
the previously inner voices, and the whole becomes more
airy and aloof. In terms of the music's rhetoric each
suggests a different state of prayer: resigned or
passionate. Witnessing constant fluctuations between
the two in a person would bring our regretful pity, in
music they bring only joy.
Source: AllMusic
(https://www.allmusic.com/artist/william-byrd-mn0000804
200/biography)
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATTB or
ATTBarB), I created this Interpretation of "Peccantem
me quotidie" (I sin every day) for Wind Quintet (Flute,
Oboe, English Horn, French Horn & Bassoon).