Lincoln Cathedral celebrates the life and work of William Byrd in a sequence of concerts and lectures between 30 June and 4 July 2023. The highlight will be the unveiling of a memorial to the great composer.
Byrd 400: celebrating our great choral composer - Lincoln Cathedral
William Byrd was Master of the Choristers at the cathedral from 1563 to 1672, during which time he composed much music for the relatively newly translated services of the Church of England. Byrd married a local woman, and his family grew during the time that he lived in Minster Yard. At a time when failing to follow wholeheartedly the practice of the Church of England was seen as a treason, Byrd was stubbornly Catholic and made no attempts to hide it. His wife and other members of his household were arrested several times for recusancy (failing to give up their Catholic practices), and later in life Byrd himself was placed under house arrest in 1585. However, the appreciation of his musical talent by Queen Elizabeth led to the dropping of any charges ‘by order of the queen.’
Leaving Lincoln to become a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal
in 1572, Byrd’s grew in reputation and fame until his retirement to Essex where
he died on 4th July 1623. On the day of his death, an entry in the
chequebook of the Chapel Royal described him as “Wm. Bird, a Father of Musick.”
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