Hidden meanings
William Byrd’s music in troubled times
from: Conrad Gessner, Historia animalium, 1551-58
The renunciation of the Catholic Church and the foundation of the Anglican Church by Henry VIII. in the 16th century forced those wanting to practice the “old religion” to do so hidden in the shadows in constant fear of prosecution and even death. Amidst the dangers we find William Byrd, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, leading musical figure in Elizabethan Age, favourite of the Queen and committed Catholic, playing a dangerous game.
Not only did he refuse to convert to the new religion, but he also composed Latin motets and music specifically made for Catholic services. Only his outstanding artistic abilities and being held in high esteem by the Queen herself, to whom he consistently dedicated new works, prevented him from paying with his life for the constant walk on the border to treason.
As certain parts of the nobility continued to practice the “old religion”, secret Catholic centers formed at their country residences far away from the public, where mass was celebrated behind closed doors. On such occasions Latin motets by William Byrd were sung, taking up words from the Old Testament such as the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem or the persecution and captivity of the people of Israel, that contemporaries could immediately relate to. Some works can even be directly connected with specific events, like the particularly cruel execution of the Jesuit Edmund Campion, through more or less hidden allusions. Those cries of desperation and wail, the prayers for mercy and salvation, William Byrd set to music in a way previously unheard-of in England.
His motets must have had an incredibly impressive, moving effect on their first listeners and haven’t lost anything of their emotional intensity up to the present day.
The Society of Voices
Hiram Santos, Superius
Akinobu Ono, Medius
Christopher Wattam, Tenor
Csongor Szántó, Contratenor
Roland Faust, Bassus
Christoph Anzböck, Organ
Sunday, 27th May 2022
16 h (Lecture 15 h)
Mariastein Abbey
