A close friend of mine who knows my musical tastes well once commented that because I had been a boy treble that I tended to prefer the purity of sound of boys voices over sopranos. In a sense, that is true, but there is much to be said about context when discussing the merits of adults vs boys and men.
On the 25th October 1970 Pope Paul VIth canonized the “40 Martyrs of England and Wales”, and being a Lancastrian it’s a sense of great pride to me that many of them (SS John Rigby, Edmund Arrowsmith, John Southworth, John Almond, Ambrose Barlow OSB, Luke Kirby, John Plessington, and John Wall) all come from my home county whose regional seat is Preston, a city whose name derives from the enclosed estate of a priest. At the time of the Reformation there were a number of Catholic families who continued the practice of their faith in the face of great danger and some of those martyrs lost their lives for hiding priests in their homes. Many homes, such as Ladywell at Fernyhalgh just outside the city, have priest holes for hiding clergy, secret passages to enable their escape, and altar rederos hidden behind the facade of what appears to be large items of furniture such as wardrobes and sideboards so they could hide their recusantry.
It is in this context that masses were heard secretly by families and their close associates. If we look at Byrd’s output during this time, it is noticeable that some years after his association with Lord Thomas Paget and his marriage to a Catholic and his conversion to the faith that the motets in the Cantiones Sacrae take on a different tone from his earlier collection of works with Tallis and become more lacrimosal in tone and move away from High Anglicanism towards subtle messages in their themes and incorporate those of the persecution of the chosen people (such as Domine praestolamur a5), or which can be interpreted as hidden warnings such as Vigilate. Between 1592 and 1595 he published his masses for 3, 4 and 5 voices.
Each of these masses “works” when sung by large choirs, and the Papal Mass at Westminster Cathedral was centred around Byrd 5, but in context I much prefer them as more intimate pieces sung by one or two per part. The reason for this is Byrd’s masses will always be inextricably linked for me to the hidden Catholicism of the North West of England and are very much the mass settings of the martyrs and the Jesuits who went from house to house saying mass. I can picture a small group of a family and friends, a priest saying mass on a side-board altar like the one pictured from Ladywell House, and 4 singers quietly singing Byrd.
For me, the most moving part is the Agnus Dei because of its poignancy. From the very first notes of the soprano and alto singing aganst each other they cry out with a power that stands in complete contrast to the simplicty of the writing. The addition of the tenor and bass at the second invocation adds to the depth and colour of the lacrimosal tone and the real solemnity and pleading comes in the bass part with its gentle syncopation and desent in scale. The voices linger on the qui tollis before taking a more dramatic turn and darker sound as Byrd pleads further in dona nobis pacem – bring us peace, where again the bass cries out as the tension builds and then resolves in a manner similar to Victoria’s Tenebrae Factae Sunt where the tenor line exposes the “Deus meus et me dereliquisti?” (My God why hast thou forsaken me?). The final bars bring that sense of peace, and unusually for Byrd he doesn’t place any passing notes in any of the voices as he usually does at the conclusion of a motet.
For me, Byrd’s masses are the high point of English choral composing for all manner of reasons. While I do think that many compositions benefit from the purity of boys and mens voices in the manner of a traditional cathedral or collegiate choir, Byrd speaks to me in many different ways and from many different places and I enjoy him most in the simplicity of 3, 4, or 5 singers performing his masses as I imagine they would have been when he was alive and catholicism in my home county was a secretive affair.
Stunning (as it says on the bottom of the tin). Thanks for this, Keith.
It illustrates your point well. It's also a candidate example for discussion of what people mean when they speak of the balance of 'straight' sound and vibrato. I find the measured use of vibrato by the singers (tho' the degree varies from voice to voice) just right for the work – combined with dynamic it adds to the intensity and richness of the sound, without loss of clarity or over-stepping the bounds of sung prayer. Heart-stoppingly beautiful.
I just recently received for my birthday the original BBC series "Sacred Music" on DVD, narrated by Simon Russell Beale and featuring The Sixteen. Episode 3 is all about Tallis and Byrd and features a wonderful section on Byrd's 'secret' music for the Mass with four of The Sixteen singing Byrd4 in a recusant mansion.
Great stuff and highly recommended.
I spent much of January 1, watching and listening, via the Utube, to English renaissance religious choral music.
I can't wait for the day when more and more Anglican Use AND latin rite parishes resound with the latin and english works of Byrd, Taverner, Tallis, Sheppard, Gibbons, and other composers of the 16th and 17th centuries.
I have to pay homage to the many wonderful works of the 19th and 20th century Anglican choral composers too. While some of them never foresaw having an impact on the Roman Church's liturgy, it is clear now they will have made their mark on a resusitated english Catholic mass and divine office. Just at a time when the liturgy of the hours in the Roman rite is beginning to spread at the cathedral and parish level.
For this, we can thank Pope Benedict for his vision and for being inspired to establish the Anglican Ordinariate. It will have the added benefit of introducing to millions of Catholics these many musical treasures, ignored and dismissed until recently, and make it possible for modern composers to have their works absorbed into the mainstream of Anglican Use and latin rite worship.
Preston the regional seat of Lancashire?! It reminds me of my father, who used to argue that the village of his birth in Ireland, being the largest village in the largest parish in the largest county of the most important country, was the de facto capital of the world.
In any case, Byrd's associations were chiefly with the Southeast of England, especially Essex. Is there any evidence that his music was sung in Lancashire in his day?
Love the Agnus for 4. Note the gradual piling up of suspensions towards the end. I like to think that this is Byrd's emotional reaction to the text of 'dona nobis pacem'. BTW there is a nice DVD of the Tallis Scholars singing this piece too.
The Mass for 4 Voices is my favorite of Byrd's. However, one point in all 3 of these Masses gives me chills. Late in the Credo, the voices separate as the begin "Et Unam, Sanctam…" However, the voices come into unison on "Catholicam," and then repeat the word again, unified in harmony. Then the voices stagger again: "et Apostolicam Ecclesiam…"
A bold act of faith!
The last time I looked, Copernicus, Preston was the administrative seat for Lancashire, whose Catholics can rightly be proud of their forbears and the ways in which they stood firm in their faith through years of persecution and discrimination (much as you would be right to appreciate the steadfast faith of your own Irish ancestors).
As for Byrd being sung in Lancashire: recusant families were not isolated from one another by geography, and it is therefore not unlikely that Byrd's music would have been sung beyond his own vicinity. It would be interesting to hear from a scholar in the field such as Kerry McCarthy or Thomas Muir.
(Yes, yes, but it's of insignificant size unless you maintain that Manchester and Liverpool aren't in Lancashire.)
I'll ask Thomas.
The point is that current size isn't the point, Copernicus. Keith refers to Preston's place in the County's recusant and wider history. It's a tradition thing – a sense of time, place and continuity beyond the more recent past.
(Gordon Bennett, lighten up, Ian!)
If your points weren't at least half serious in the first place, C, why bother making them? Whatever your intent, tho', they did seem to betray a lack of understanding of what Keith was getting at.
ps 🙂