Centenary of Unveiling of Tercentenary Memorial

In a new essay to commemorate William Byrd, K Dawn Grapes writes of the Tercentenary events that "The most meaningful service of the day may have taken place at Stondon Massey in Essex, where Byrd lived for some thirty years.  ... In March 1924, a tablet with Byrd's coat of arms was presented at an Evensong service."#

The following is an extract from 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'.

The memorial, funded by a surplus from the London celebrations includes “the words, in raised lettering, “A Father of Musick”, these being taken from the Byrd entry in the ‘Cheque Book’ of the Chapel Royal”[1].

Its unveiling was marked by a Service on 12^th March 1924, reported in The Times and locally in the Essex Review and the Essex County Chronicle and was attended by twenty men and boys of the Chapel Royal who sang a selection of Byrd’s work. The officiating preacher was Dr Gary Warman, the Bishop of Chelmsford, who unveiled the memorial: “Things were so arranged that the Bishop could easily manipulate the light cord from the pulpit”[2]. 

“Considerable local and general interest was taken in the historic event [on Wednesday] and the church was filled some time before the service started. An imposing touch of colour was provided by the long scarlet and gold-braided coats of the boy choristers, with the white laced ruffs as were used in Byrd’s time”.

“The service (which was conducted by the Rev. L. J. Percival) took the form of evensong, with sung responses by Byrd. Psalm 84, ‘O how amiable are Thy dwellings’, was chanted, and the first lesson read by Canon Reeve, was from Ecclesiastes. 44, verses 1-16. In the place of the Magnificat, Byrd’s anthem, ‘O praise the Lord, ye saints above’ was finely rendered, followed by the second lesson, read by Canon Galpin [of Faulkbourne, also president of the Essex Archaeological Society[3]], from Revelation 7, verses 9 to the end. For the Nunc Dimittus, the anthem, ‘Come to us we beseech Thee’ (Byrd), was substituted. After the third collect, ‘Justorum Animae’ (Byrd) was sung, followed at the close by the hymn ‘For all the Saints”, sung to the tune by Vaughan Williams. Practically all the singing was unaccompanied. The choir, led by Mr Stanley Roper[4], gave faultless renderings.

“The Bishop of Chelmsford, in the course of an address, said William Byrd’s gift was marked by three main features, each of interest.  He gave his best music for the rites and ceremonies of his own Church. His Church was not theirs, but they respected him. In his day, the English Liturgy was in the process of revision. Men were wanted to give musical settings for the new versions, and William Byrd gave them”[5].

“Canon Reeve [who from the outset took a keen interest in the erection of the tablet] thanked the committee for a beautiful gift in memory of the distinguished parishioner of by-gone days and said that he was honoured to accept the tablet”[6].

Reeve later wrote, “I little thought, twenty years ago, that I should have witnessed such a Service … or found Stondon so generally accepted as Byrd’s home and burial place”[7].

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# The extract comes from the essay 'Reviving Byrd. The 1923 Tercentenary' contained within a new book entitled 'Byrd Studies in the twenty-first century' edited by Samantha Bassler, Katherine Butler & Katie Bank. (Clemson University Press, 2023)

[1] The Times. 17 March 1924

[2] ERO T/P 188/3 f688

[3] Canon Francis William Galpin was not only a professional colleague of Reeve but also a gifted musician and leading authority on ancient musical instruments. He wrote many articles and was co-author of ‘Church Plate in Essex’ (1926). He was a handsome man with dignified bearing, who never discarded his frockcoat and broad-brimmed hat of the Victorian age.

[4] Stanley Roper was organist and leader of the Chapel Royal choir and the director of the Elizabethan Madrigal Society. Also present was Dr. Charles Macpherson, organist of St Pauls Cathedral. The Service was conducted by the Rev. L J Percival, Preceptor of the Chapel Royal. (Source: The Times. 17 March 1924)

[5] The Times. 17 March 1924

[6] Essex Chronicle. 14 March 1924

[7] ERO T/P 188/3 f699

Byrd at the BBC: Composer of the Week Podcast

When the series is no longer available to listen to in full, this Podcast includes Byrd's life and times including at Stondon Massey: BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, William Byrd (1543-1623)

Byrd at the BBC: Record Review Podcast

 

This version of 'Record Review', first broadcast on 1 July 2023, is available for over a year: Record Review Podcast - The essential works by English composer William Byrd. - BBC Sounds

Keyboard music by Byrd on You Tube - with familiar pictures

 Returning the compliment to RosemaryThomas1 for use of the You Tube video: William Byrd 400th Anniversary 2023 Celebration of Englands' greatest composer - YouTube

Repeat of 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'. Thursday 27 July 2023.

There will be another opportunity to hear 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'. Andrew Smith will be giving a PowerPoint version of the talk at the High Country History Group.

The meeting will be held on Thursday 27 July 2023, beginning at 8pm at Toot Hill Village Hall, Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar. CM5 9SD.

Visitors are very welcome. The entrance fee is £5.00 and will include after-talk refreshments.

For more information on the High Country History Group visit High Country History Group

The talk is available for booking. Use contact form on this site.

Byrd at the BBC Today

 BBC Radio 3 In Concert

Wednesday 12 July. 7.30-10.00pm

BBC Radio 3 - Radio 3 in Concert, The Sixteen at York Minster

The Sixteen Choir under their director Harry Christophers sing Byrd as part of their Choral Pilgrimage.

Music Workshop

 Read and listen to Byrd here: William Byrd 400 years on: celebrating the ‘father of music’ (music-workshop.co.uk)

Father Edmund Campion

An extract from the new book ‘The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History’ now available.  The image is from the ceiling of the English Martyrs' Chapel in Westminster Cathedral, London.

 In the early 1580s men who had been trained abroad as Jesuit priests were entering England as missionaries. One of the most high-profile was Edmund Campion, originally ordained in the Church of England. The other was Father Robert Persons (or Parsons) who we encountered earlier. These “two Jesuits strengthened the resolve of many lay Catholics to refuse conformity” through the printing and circulation of books by using “a roving press”[1]. The authorities seized many copies. Campion travels the country and is welcomed, in his own words, “to hear their confessions … [say] Mass, I preach; they hear with exceeding greediness and often receive the sacrament”[2]. But this is a dangerous course of action. From 1581, celebrating mass was punishable by death.

 A network of spies engaged by the authorities would secretly join invited congregations at recusant country houses. Campion made an ill-judged return visit to Lyford Grange in Berkshire two days following his first visit. It was there that George Eliot, a professional priest-hunter, heard Campion preach on the text ‘Jerusalem thou killest the prophets’. Jerusalem then, as in the later setting of William Blake’s poem and ‘Last Night at The Proms’ song, was reference to England: ‘England thou killest the prophets’ was an incendiary speech. Later that day the house was surrounded, and the following morning intruders discovered Campion hiding in the ‘priest’s hole’.

 John Stow’s ‘Annals of England’ was published in 1605. He records the recent events: “1581. Campion and others executed. The first of December, Edmond Campion Jesuit, Ralfe Sherwine, and Alexander Brian seminarie priests, were drawne from the Tower of London to Tiborne, and there hanged bowelled & quartered.”

 Edmund Campion, born 25^th January 1540, was the same age as Byrd and as a boy had connections with St Paul’s Cathedral where Byrd’s brothers also sang. They grew up together: “A boyhood friendship between them might explain the intensity of Byrd’s musical reaction to Campion’s martyrdom”[3].

 Roy Hattersley reveals “Among the silent Catholics, who were emboldened by the execution of Edmund Campion, was the wife of William Byrd, the composer and organist in the Elizabethan Chapel Royal. She, at least according to folklore, was in the crowd that witnessed his disembowelling, and dipped her handkerchief in the martyr’s blood”. This is a souvenir or, more appropriately, a relic of the occasion.

 

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[1] Trimble, 1964, 103

[2] Hattersley, 2017, 142

[3] Harley, 2010, 10

Byrd at Harlington

 

 

Researching William Byrd, in March 2023 I took a trip along the new Elizabeth Line to Zone 6 in West London to visit Harlington and on the way home called at Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral to attend a service which included the great composer’s music. Harlington has not been mentioned during the Byrd celebrations on the BBC so now I make amends.

 There is little to be seen at Harlington other than the Church of St Peter & St Paul which Byrd did not attend but a school nearby is named after Byrd.

 

The following are extracts from the new book ‘The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History’ now available.

 

The Byrd family moved to Harlington, near Uxbridge, in 1577 where they are named by the churchwardens of the parish church for non-attendance. From 1581 fines of £20 per month were imposed for non-attendance, but it is unclear whether he actually paid any fines[1].

 “It was probably on account of his religion that he lived all his life some way out of London where he would be less likely to attract attention. His name occurs as living at Harlington in 1581, … in another entry he is described as “a friend and abettor of those beyond the seas”, and as living at Draighton”[2].

 

The final entry for non-attendance at Harlington is dated 7^th April 1592, covering the period between 31^st August 1591 and 31^st March 1592. These presentations name William’s wife as Julian. At Stondon, Byrd’s wife is named Ellen, but she is the same person[3].

(During Byrd’s time at Harlington he falls under suspicion with involvement in the Throckmorton Plot then the Babington Plot to overthrow the Queen.)

In closing the net on the conspirators, Francis Walsingham, chief spymaster, and interrogator, discovered letters from Byrd to the Pagets. By February 1584 Byrd had been questioned and was expected not to stray too far from his home at Harlington.

Investigators into the Babington Plot find a letter on the person of John Reason[4], Byrd’s servant, to “m[aste]r Fyton”. Walsingham’s office diary notes: “’To seek out matters against Bryde’, ‘to sende to Fra[nci]s Mylls m[aste]r Brydes note’ and ‘To sende for M[aste]r Byrde’”[5].

 On 21^st August 1586[6], Byrd’s home in Harlington is searched[7].

 

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[1] In ‘The Elizabethans’ (2011), A.N. Wilson suggests that the Byrd family was always short of money because they were required to pay “stiff fines” for non-attendance at Church. There is no evidence to suggest that the Byrds paid any fines. Another historian suggests that the Queen personally intervened to prevent the family paying fines. Wilson also suggests that the exclusive right to print music was in some way compensation for a poorly paid job and that “the Anglo-Catholic Queen” effectively authorised the setting of Latin Masses by Byrd (Wilson, 2011, 195). Whilst there is evidence that The Queen preferred more ritual in worship authorisation of Latin Masses would be politically undesirable. Byrd though interprets the remit widely. Wilson adds elsewhere that there were many Catholic sympathisers in the legal profession, and this was acceptable “so long as they kept quiet about it and did not attempt to proselytise” (Wilson, 2011, 196). Keeping quiet about something does not necessarily mean the behaviour is acceptable. Finally, Wilson says that the government “would have deemed itself irresponsible not to suppress Jesuit missionaries” who “in most cases rightly [were] actively engaged in treason … [plotting] the murder of the head of state and overthrow of the system” (Wilson, 2011, 196). This is explored later in the text. Other historians suggest Catholic suppression was widespread – fearful of being caught.

[2] Reeve, 1900, 33

[3] John Harley (1997) says that this is an error on the part of the ecclesiastical court in Essex, assuming Byrd’s wife to be Ellen or Helena, and claims Byrd did not remarry. This is supported by Byrd’s family tree contained in Visitations of Essex dated 1634: ERO D/DQs/43

[4] Philip Brett (2007) notes that Julian Byrd and John Reason were cited for recusancy in 1577 (Brett, 2007,126)

[5] Harley, 2010, 129

[6] Morris, 1875, 142 The troubles of our Catholic forefathers related by themselves. First [--third] series (archive.org) accessed 15 February 2023

[7] Caraman, 1964, 41

Byrd at the BBC Today

Sunday Worship

Sunday 9 July. 8.10-8.45am.  BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 - Sunday Worship, Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets

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 Choral Evensong

Wednesday 5 July. 4.00-5.00pm (repeated Sunday 9 July. 3.00-4.00pm)

BBC Radio 3 - Choral Evensong, Lincoln Cathedral

Live from Lincoln Cathedral to mark the 400^th anniversary of the death of William Byrd.

 

Sunday Feature

Sunday 9 July. 6.45-7.30pm

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Byrd and Beyond: Challenged by Faith

Harry Christophers, conductor of The Sixteen, examines the powerful relationship between faith and music, both in Byrd’s time and the present day.