Byrd on Record

 

Preparing the talk about William Byrd for Stondon Massey has been a labour of love, reading books and listening to his music. Here then is my record review of mainly new discs bought for Christmas and birthday, and personally in very necessary research.

In recent years much of Byrd’s music has come out from the obscurity of the clandestine domestic settings of the Elizabethan era.  Most of the music is now available to hear in the comfort of our own homes.   Byrd was a prolific composer, writing many religious works but also madrigals, songs and pieces for the organ, the virginal and consort of viols which would have been used for entertainment in the houses of the gentry.  A lot of the music is in manuscript form, set in parts, copied, and collected privately. Depending on who was available these parts could either be played on instruments or sung. The viola de gamba, which comes in various sizes and played like a cello ‘between the legs’, was often a perfect substitute for the human voice.   Many pieces can be sung a cappella or with a solo singer as a Consort Song. Robert Dow, who collated part books, wrote “You who are a glory to our race, and a nightingale to our people. Byrd, I pray that you may make music with voice and hand for a long time”.

One of the tests for Byrd authenticity is whether the recording reflects the domestic setting of the time.  The still to be released disc by Chelys Consort of Viols with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston certainly does, entitled ‘The Honour of William Byrd’. Mine has received several plays since obtaining a copy at a recently attended concert at Ingatestone Hall where Byrd, of course, visited and performed. Fantasia a6 No 2 is an example of Byrd’s non-choral output which starts austerely on the consort of viols but develops into a wonderful Elizabethan dance tune. This sweet and merry month of May is performed on the recording by the consort of viols, taking the place of human voices, with the beautiful and clear diction of Helen Charlston. The piece comes from Byrd’s ‘Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets, 1611’ which has recently been released in its entirety on two discs by The Sixteen with Harry Christophers accompanied by viol consort Fretwork. Here the choir alone perform the madrigal. Fretwork also appears on ‘Tom and Will’ the new disc from The King’s Singers commemorating the deaths of both William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes 400 years ago. Six voices perform the same piece – differently to The Sixteen.

Staying with The King’s Singers the varied programme on ‘Tom and Will’ includes O Lord Make Thy Servant Elizabeth. Sung respectfully its duration is 3’09, which compared to Chelys sung solo with viols comes in at 2’13 – a bit quick for my liking but excellently performed.

‘The Honour of Byrd’ has so much wonderful music that I select Why do I use my paper, ink and pen which are verses from a poem by Henry Walpole recalling the execution of Father Edmund Campion, of which more will be written in another blog entry.

It is said that the poet Walpole attended Campion’s execution. Afterwards he wrote twenty-one verses beginning ‘Why Do I Use My Paper Ink and Pen’ naming the martyr. Byrd set the first three verses to music in his 1588 collection without naming Campion.  It was probably sung in the Petre household also in remembrance of John Payne. Maybe the additional verses were sung in secret?

By way of illustration Byrd’s seemingly innocuous piece ends:

“… That we, therefore, their virtues may embrace,

pray we to Christ, to guide us with his grace”.

Compare this with the sixteenth verse of the poem:

“… and every drop of blood which he did spend,

hath reaped a joy which never shall have end”.

The Chellys version with Charlston is magnificent, and it is interesting to compare it with a more mournful rendition by Nicholas Todd, tenor, who is the soloist with (again) Fretwork on the album ‘Byrd 1588. Psalmes, Sonets and songs of sadnes and pietie’ released in 2021 with Alamire under David Skinner.  A further version from 1997, somewhat dated now in my opinion, is ‘The Caged Byrd’ released by Chandos with I Fagiolini and Sophie Yates under director Robert Hollingworth. Here two countertenors perform – Robin Blaze and Richard Wyn Roberts – employing different verses reflecting the time of persecution.

‘The Caged Byrd’ also includes Byrd’s response to Philippe de Monte when he sends Super flumina Babylonia (by the rivers of Babylon) with Quomodo cantabimus? translated from later in the psalm ‘how do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’.  Eight soloists perform but this is eclipsed by the tonal quality of The Sixteen under Harry Christophers in their outstanding new album ‘A Watchful Gaze’ released to accompany their Choral Pilgrimage of concerts in 2023.

The final piece on ‘The Watchful Gaze’ is Vigilate written for the season of Advent. The setting uses text from St Mark’s Gospel: “Keep watch, for you know not when the Lord of the house will come”. It includes reference to a cock crowing, and you can sense the urgency in The Sixteen’s reading. I made much of the piece in the talk. Were the recusants being vigilant of Christ’s second coming, or of the risk of being caught practising Catholic worship?  Or was Byrd being defiant warning these Anglicans about their new religion? It is the opening piece on ‘The Caged Byrd’ the clucking and crowing of the cockerel perhaps more obvious but The Sixteen wins the overall comparison.

Our review of these records continues with a couple of further recommendations from the ‘Byrd 1588’ double album being the first release of the entire collection. Lullaby a Christmas song was known to be popular during Byrd’s era.  Our own Revd. Reeve of Stondon Massey wrote in 1900: “In a letter from the Earl of Worcester to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Sept. 19^th, 1602, we have an interesting passage respecting one of Byrd’s part-songs. The writer says:

“’We are frolic here in Court, much dancing in the Privy Chamber of country dances before the Queen’s Majesty, who is exceedingly pleased therewith. Irish tunes are at this time the most pleasing, but in winter ‘Lullaby’, an old song of Mr. Bird’s, will be more in request, as I think. The Lullaby song is printed in the author’s Psalmes, Sonets and Songs of Sadnes and Pietie, 1588’”.

My other choice is Come to me grief forever which is an elegy written by Byrd as a funeral song to Sir Phillip Sidney. Chelys and Charlston also perform the piece, perhaps less elegiac over a minute faster than Skinner’s ensemble and maybe the line ‘Sidney is dead, dead’ is not quite as poignant but what a recording.

Ye Sacred Muses an elegy on the death of Byrd’s friend Thomas Tallis is performed on both ‘The Honour of William Byrd’ and The King’s Singers’ ‘Tom and Will’.  My final piece is Browning returning to a very domestic setting as a fun folk-song piece with the catch ‘The leaves are green. The nuts are brown. They hang so high that they won’t come down’. Here my choice track is with ‘Tom and Will’ because The King’s Singers sing the lines accompanied by Fretwork. In ‘The Honour of William Byrd’ the Chelys Consort of Viols perform without their magnificent soloist. Maybe it could serve as a karaoke track for our own domestic gatherings. There’s a thought.

 

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.

Record Review

Saturday 1 July. c10.30-11.15am

BBC Radio 3 - Record Review, A survey of William Byrd with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor

The best of Byrd on CD and to download.

Record Review Extra

Sunday 2 July. 9.00-11.00pm

BBC Radio 3 - Record Review Extra, Kirsten Gibson's Byrd

Hannah French offers listeners the opportunity to hear in greater length the pieces discussed in Record Review.  A Byrd fest!