'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'. Programme

 Curtain up for the special event at our Church.

Here is the Programme.

Programme

Welcome to the first of three events celebrating the life and work of our local composer and musician William Byrd who died here in 1623.

Let us take you this evening back to the sixteenth and early 17^th centuries. This was a time when worship in the Church of England was compulsory and refusal to attend subject to large fines. William Byrd was a recusant Catholic. Tonight, we will explore his life and times and the company he kept.

The script has been especially written for the occasion and we invite you to buy a copy of the accompanying book, price £5.00, which is a longer version of the research in support of a project to raise money for a memorial outside the church to mark Byrd’s quatercentenary.   

Our “cast” in order of appearance are:

 

Narrator                                                  Andrew Smith

Revd. Reeve                                          John Hughes

William Byrd                                           John Cannon

Narrator 2                                               Anne Springate

Roy Hattersley                                        Kevin Wood

Minister                                                  Gail Hughes

Queen Elizabeth I                                  Revd. Sam Brazier Gibbs

Father Edmund Campion                       Steve Drinkall

John Stow                                               Kevin Wood

Father William Weston                           Steve Drinkall

The Times reporter                                 Sandra Wood

Stondon Massey churchwarden             Jan Macintosh

Father Henry Garnet                              Steve Drinkall

Earl of Northampton                               Kevin Wood

Non-speaking parts:

Mrs Jane Shelley                                    Sandra Keeble

Mrs Bellamy                                           Elaine Smith

 Still to come:

Sunday 2 July:    3.00pm.   William Byrd Commemorative Service.

Tuesday 4 July:  8.00pm.   Stondon Singers Concert – all seats sold.

 Listen to ‘Composer of the Week’ on BBC Radio 3 at midday every day week commencing 3 July. Andrew Smith was interviewed ‘on location’ about Byrd’s time at Stondon Massey and will appear in the programmes on Monday and Friday.

 Our story unfolds as follows:

The Prologue

1.  Introduction

2.  Queen Elizabeth I

 3.  William Byrd. Biography

 4.  The Paget Family. A web of intrigue

 5.  Priests and Plotters. Father Edmund Campion and others

 6.  Questionable Company

 

-      Interval -

Our Byrd table may have

seeds and nuts but there will be wine to partake,

and other drink.

We will be hawking Byrd books:

“The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History” £5.00

“William Byrd: Some Notes” £3.00. (or buy both for £7.00)

 7.  The Petre Family

 8.  William Byrd at Stondon Massey

 9.  Gradualia and the Gunpowder Plot

 10. William Byrd Tercentenary Celebrations

 11. Epilogue

For more information about William Byrd, our church, and our project please visit: www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com .

'The Life and Times of William Byrd. A Local History'. Friday 30 June 2023, 7.30pm

 

Tickets for our local celebration of William Byrd are for sale here: Fri. 30 June: 7.30-9.30pm The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local Histo Tickets, Fri 30 Jun 2023 at 19:30 | Eventbrite 

Final preparations are under way for the talk on William Byrd at St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey, CM15 0LD. Book covers are printed with content to be run off and stapled in readiness for the evening which is a talk on the composer's life and times.  It will include the voices of the former Rector and historian of Stondon, the churchwarden, Jesuit priests and William Byrd himself all played by local members of our benefice. 

We are looking forward to meeting you too and hope you will join us in interval refreshments, buy a book, and contribute towards our planned project to commemorate Byrd in his 400th year - of which more about later. (We have a plaque inside the Church marking the Tercentenary.)

'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History'. A 400th anniversary talk.

'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local History' is one of the events planned to commemorate Stondon Massey's great Elizabethan composer who died 400 years ago. 

The talk, written by local historian Andrew Smith, will be presented by church members and friends beginning at 7.30pm on Friday 30 June at St Peter & St Paul's Church, Stondon Massey. Further details will follow. Tickets for the limited seated event will be £6.13 on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fri-30-june-730-930pm-the-life-and-times-of-william-byrd-a-local-histo-tickets-566517467997 

A book will also be available for purchase, being a longer version of the script. 

The talk will be repeated at the High Country History Group on Thursday 27 July at 8.00pm at Toot Hill Village Hall, Stanford Rivers. Admission for non members, including refreshments will be £5.00.

Concert at Ingatestone Hall. Saturday 25 March 2023.

Chamber Choir, Vocalium are holding a concert to celebrate William Byrd's 400th anniversary at Ingatestone Hall on Saturday 25 March beginning at 7.30pm. Vocalium has members who are alumi of the Elizabethan Madrigal Society based at Aberystwyth University. The concert includes the 'Mass for Four Voices' undoubtedly sung at Ingatestone Hall during Byrd's lifetime. Follow this link for more information and tickets: William Byrd: A celebration of his sacred works Tickets, Sat 25 Mar 2023 at 19:30 | Eventbrite

Cardinall's Musick at Stondon Massey: Review of Event

Cardinall's Musick at Stondon Massey

The Cardinall’s Musick under their music director Andrew Carwood gave two concerts at Stondon Massey Church as part of their ‘Byrd Tour 2012’ yesterday.  The eagerly anticipated event was one of the highlights of a year-long programme celebrating William Byrd’s Latin work and the successful recording cycle by the internationally known Choir.  The first concert included the Mass for Three Parts and the second a number of Byrd’s motets.  Cardinall’s Musick’s members’ voices blended together in an extraordinary and powerful way filling every corner right up to the belfry with the most beautiful sound.  The Mass was interspersed with the Propers for Lady Mass from Christmas to the Purification and performed as a sequence without applause ending ‘Ite missa est’ (‘The Mass is ended’).  In the audience one or two were visibly moved by the music and many bought copies of the Cardinall’s CDs including a recording of ‘The Great Service’ which is not on general release by Hyperion Records until 1 October.

During the period between the two concerts – a prolonged interval for some who attended the whole event – Andrew Carwood spoke about William Byrd in context of anti-Catholicism which was sweeping the country at the time.  The music of the middle period of his life (1580s) is darker and perhaps reflects a time when he was under house arrest on suspicion of involvement in the Throckmorton Plot (to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne).  Byrd knew the ringleader, Thomas Paget.  A year later, in 1585, Thomas Tallis, his good friend and fellow composer was dead (“and music dies”).  Byrd appears to come out of his mid-life crisis through his friendship with the Petre family.  While other composers and Catholic sympathisers fled the country Byrd stayed.  He moved to Stondon Massey by the mid-1590s in semi-retirement where he began to write his very best and joyful music.  Andrew Carwood believes that ‘The Great Service’ was a farewell piece to his colleagues in the Chapel Royal Choir.  Although Byrd remained a member of the Gentlemen his visits were far less frequent.

The central work in the second concert was the Propers for The Annunciation.  Concerts in which conductors turn round and engage with the audience are always appreciated.  Andrew Carwood is both informative and entertaining.  One of the shorter pieces in the second concert was ‘Dileges Dominum’ (known to Anglicans as the ‘Summary of the Law’).  It is a Canon in which the first sings a number of notes, but is followed by the second who sings the notes in reserve: a kind of mirror musically.  Byrd clearly intended this in the mirroring the words “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.

Andrew Carwood commented on the lovely acoustics the church has.

The focus of local organisers is inevitably turned 180 degrees towards the audience: ensuring that those who came had an enjoyable time and knew where to go for refreshments (in addition to the complex car parking arrangements at the small church).  Some who attended had never heard music of William Byrd.  Others were seasoned aficionados and knowledgeable about Byrd and his music.  We met someone who had just completed a dissertation on William Byrd – and had come from Dublin to be in Essex on a kind of pilgrimage.  Some had travelled many miles to Stondon while others were members and supporters of local choirs including the Stondon Singers.  Someone gave me an old newspaper cutting of Stondon Place, Byrd’s home (although subsequently rebuilt), which was for sale at that time for (wait for it!) £55,000.

The queue outside the church before the first concert stretched the entire length of the path to the gate.  The event was advertised as two concerts but for many was an enriching and spiritual occasion.  

Andrew Carwood and The Cardinall's Musick:
in rehearsal at Stondon

The Cardinall's Musick:
Sopranos: Amy Haworth, Charlotte Mobbs
Altos: Patrick Craig, David Gould
Tenors: William Balkwill, Ashley Turnell
Baritones: Robert Rice, Greg Skidmore
Basses: Edward Grint, Reuben Thomas 

Cardinall's Musick at Stondon Massey: Byrd Tour Concert #2

Sunday 2 September 2012: 5.30pm

Cardinall’s Musick, under their music director Andrew Carwood, are at St Peter & St Paul Church Stondon Massey for the second of two concerts dedicated to the music of William Byrd.

PROGRAMME 2

Laudate pueri

Da mihi auxilium

Ave regina caelorum [a 5 MS]

Propers for Annunciation:

Vultum tuum

Diffusa est gratia

Ave Maria

Ecce virgo concipies

Domine tu iurasti

Haec dies [a 3 Gr]

O Domine adjuva

Diliges Dominum

Tribue Domine

Cardinall's Musick at Stondon Massey: Byrd Tour Concert #1

Sunday 2 September 2012: 3pm

Cardinall’s Musick, under their music director Andrew Carwood, are at St Peter & St Paul Church Stondon Massey for the first of two concerts dedicated to the music of William Byrd.

PROGRAMME 1

Mass for Three Voices

Propers for Lady Mass from Christmas to the Purification Vultum tuum

Speciosus forma Post partum virgo Gaude Maria Felix namque est Beata viscera

Miserere mihi Domine

Te lucis ante terminum

Domine secundum actum meum

O quam gloriosum

Top Choir to Sing at Stondon

William Byrd fans should not miss this final opportunity to buy tickets for the Cardinall's Musick concerts at Stondon Massey Church on Sunday 2 September.  Tickets are likely to sell out shortly. 

There will be two concerts, with two separate programmes: one starting at 3.00pm, the second at 5.30pm.  Between the two hour-long performances, Andrew Carwood, the artistic director of the Choir, will talk to ticket holders of either concert about Byrd. 

Contact us, or the Civic Theatre Box Office in Chelmsford, for ticket information.  

Watch this video by Cardinall's Musick in recent rehearsal and hear Andrew Carwood enthuse about this group and about Byrd himself and his music.

Cardinall's Musick at Fotheringhay: An Amazing Concert

It is difficult to describe in words the marvellous sound of Cardinall's Musick at Fotheringhay Church last evening.  This was the ninth of a series of fifteen 'Byrd Tour' concerts, but the first in a Parish Church setting. It was good to be part of the audience.  Andrew Carwood, their Artistic Director, wanted to bring the Choir to this Northamptonshire village because of Fotheringhay's association with Mary Queen of Scots, who was executed at the Castle in 1587. Byrd never went to Fotheringhay but the Catholic association for the Choir was irresistible.   There had been many fanatical Catholic plots to rid Elizabeth I and substitute Mary her cousin in her place. The Throckmorton Plot in the early 1580s was the most notorious and William Byrd himself came under some suspicion for a while because of his friendship with Lord Thomas Paget, the main ring-leader.

The first half of the programme could be regarded as a service of devotion and meditation. Andrew Carwood asked for applause at the end of a 45 minute sequence which included a complete performance of the 'Four Part Mass' interspersed with Mass settings for Lady Day and Easter.  The joy of the Easter sequence of music could be heard in contrast to the Propers. The sound was glorious and moving. Few voices, clear, audible diction: a sublime balance. Single out the words of the 'Credo': "Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, sub Pontio Pilato passus et sepultus est" ("He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate: he died and was buried"), and you could hear anguish in the voices; then the next line, "Et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas, et ascendit in caelum" ("And he rose on the third day according to the scriptures and ascended into heaven"), the sheer uplifting joy of that Easter event. Incredible word painting by this Choir from the pen of Byrd.

The second half contained a range of Byrd's Latin text output.  Andrew Carwood described 'Regina caeli laetare' ('Rejoice, O queen of heaven') as a symphony in four movements but with only three voices: the final 'Alleluia' being passed around between the singers.

After the Winchester Festival on Tuesday (10 July) the next 'Byrd Tour' concerts are at St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey on Sunday 2 September.  If you love early music and fabulous choral singing then make sure you are there at what will be Cardinall's Musick's smallest and most intimate venue. 

Cardinall's Musick at Stondon: 2 September 2012

The Cardinall's Musick

coming to Stondon Massey

where William Byrd lived until 1623

Cardinall's Musick to perform Byrd at Stondon Massey

The multi-Gramophone Award winning Choir the Cardinall’s Musick will be coming to St Peter and St Paul Church Stondon Massey on Sunday 2 September to perform two short concerts as part of their Byrd Tour 2012. 

Cardinall’s Musick is an internationally recognised Choir specialising in early music.  In 2010, under the direction of Andrew Carwood, the singers released their 13^th disc concluding the complete Latin choral works of William Byrd.  ‘Infelix Ego’ won them the Recording of the Year. 

The Byrd Tour 2012 celebrates the recording achievement by taking the music of the great Elizabethan composer to venues both great and small.  St Peter and St Paul Church, the only stop planned in Essex, is one of the smallest on the tour but has such a strong association with Byrd that Andrew Carwood felt that the opportunity to perform here should not be missed.  The tour will be extensively advertised by Cardinall’s Musick in national newspapers and the music press.  The Choir can be heard on the cover CD of the BBC Music Magazine soon.

Members of Stondon’s congregation will be there on the day to supervise car parking, provide front of house support and post-concert refreshments.  The professional Choir will be offering tickets for sale online for about £10 for each of the two concerts.  (However please indicate to us now whether you are interested so that we can seek to secure tickets for sale locally).

Provisional times for the concerts are 3.00pm and 5.30pm on Sunday 2 September 2012.  Each hour-long offering will include motets by Byrd.

Contact us for further information.

Notes:

The Financial Times carried an interesting article giving information on Byrd and heralding the Byrd Tour 2012, which begins at the Wigmore Hall in London on Monday 5 March: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/73e967be-597c-11e1-abf1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nN4pStYi . For the latest tour information go to http://www.cardinallsmusick.com/news/byrd-tour-2012 and specifically, for Stondon Massey Essex, follow the link to the William Byrd Festival blog, http://www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com/ .

'Allegri Miserere and other choral masterpieces'. St Barnabas, Great Tey. Saturday 1 October 2011

Ten powerful voices in perfect balance of sound gave a memorable recital at St Barnabas Church Great Tey near Colchester on Saturday as part of the Roman River Festival.  The Armonico Consort under the direction of Christopher Monks performed an a cappella programme entitled ‘Naked Byrd’ which explored pieces composed by composers who, according to the Director, “wore their hearts on their sleeves”, writing some of the music in difficult circumstances.  William Byrd, of course, wrote music for the catholic liturgy at a time when the celebration of mass was illegal. The programme spanned 800 years of choral music from Hildegard of Bingen through to the modern Morten Lauriden’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’, a Christmas Matins piece beautifully sung.  

The representative piece by Byrd was the ‘Agnus Dei’ from the ‘Mass for four voices’ in a slower reading then I had heard before, but never lacking in movement and certainly not a forensic dissection of the parts employed. Other pieces of that era included Victoria’s ‘Libera Nos, Salve Nos’ from the ‘Officium Defunctorum’ and an arrangement by the director of Tallis’ psalter setting ‘Why fum’th in fight the Gentiles spite’.  It would be entirely wrong to pick a highlight from the programme because all seventeen pieces were beautifully rendered.  No single voice overpowered another.  All blended harmoniously.  Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ was emblazoned across the tickets (not ‘Naked Byrd’) and clearly was a big draw to the sold out event. John Tavener’s  ‘Funeral Ikos’ and ‘Song for Athene’ were central works in the second half of the concert.

The ‘Armonico Consort’ have been formed for just a decade and are a highly sought after choir, which is small wonder judging by the wonderful sacred sound on Saturday.  If the two CDs entitled ‘Naked Byrd’ are as good as the live performance, and I have no reason to doubt otherwise, then these will act as a marvellous memento of a warm October evening in the Essex countryside.

The Roman River Festival is an annual event now in its eleventh season. For more information visit www.romanrivermusic.org.uk

Photo: St Barnabas Church Great Tey (pictured in 1985) inset on cover of this year’s Festival programme.http://www.romanrivermusic.org.uk

William Byrd Festival: "Every man should learne to sing"

The 'William Byrd Festival' has migrated!!

Our 'Top 10 hymns' service is repeated at the Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore. Once again Anthea Gray is officiating but with John Hatt playing the organ.

The Service was inspired by William Byrd's famous appeal to everyone to take up singing. In his preface to the First Book of Cantiones Sacrae he wrote:

Reasons briefly set downe by th' auctor to perswade every one to learne to sing.

First it is a Knowldge easely taught, and quickly learned where there is a good Master, and an apt Scoller.

2. The exercise of singing is delightfull to Nature & good to preserve the health of Man.

3. It doth strengthen all the parts of the brest, & doth open the pipes.

4. It is a singular good remedie for a stutting & stammering in the speech.

5. It is the best meanes to procure a perfect pronunciation & to make a good Orator.

6. It is the onely way to know where Nature hath bestowed the benefit of a good voyce: which guift is so rare, as there is not one in a thousand, that hath it: and in many, that excellent guift is lost, because they want Art to express Nature.

7. There is not any Musick of Instruments whatsoever, comparable to that which is made of the voyces of Men, where the voyces are good, and the same well sorted and ordered.

8. The better the voyce is, the meeter it is to honour and serve God there-with: and the voyce of man is chiefly to be imployed to that ende.

omis spiritus laudet Dominum.

Since singing is so good a thing

I wish all men would learne to sing.

William Byrd Festival: "Every man should learne to sing"

Our Festival Service this morning is a Top Ten hymns service. It is led by our reader, Anthea Gray. Our organist today is Brian Scott.

The Top Ten

2011 survey	2004 survey
1	(3)	O Lord My God (How Great Thou Art)
2	(7)	I The Lord of Sea and Sky (Here I am, Lord)
3	(4)	All Things Bright and Beautiful
4	(16)	Great Is Thy Faithfulness
5	(2)	Lord The Light of Your Love (Shine Jesus Shine)
6	(24)	Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind
7	(15)	Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace
8	(5)	Be Still For The Presence Of The Lord
9	(13)	O Jesus I Have Promised
10	(10)	Love Divine All Loves Excelling

Forty three people participated in our survey to find out what are Stondon and Blackmore’s favourite hymns. Unlike the last survey, conducted for the Flower Festival at Blackmore in 2004, there was from the commencement of voting a very clear favourite. ‘How Great Thou Art’ led the field by a mile, with 13 people putting the hymn on their list. The rest of the Top 10 was much closer with chart placings changing through until closure day. ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ failed to pick up any votes until the last week but secured a number 5 place (down from 2). In 2004 these two hymns were in close contention with ‘Jerusalem’ for the top spot. However, ‘And Did Those Feet (Jerusalem)’ has toppled out of the ten: it is now number 14.

‘Favourite Hymns’ services are a great way to celebrate the end of a special event. The William Byrd Festival has been an enjoyable fortnight or so at Stondon.

William Byrd Festival: "William Byrd: Loyal Heart or Traitor?"

We welcome the Writtle Singers this evening for the first time to Stondon Massey Church for their concert. ‘William Byrd: Loyal Heart or Traitor?’ explores in words and music Byrd's recusant Catholic faith and his honoured relationship with Queen Elizabeth I.

The Programme

trad. Fanfare

Claude Gervaise (c.1525 – c.1560): Bransle Double

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth

William Byrd (c.1540 – 1623): O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth c. 1577

Protestant worship

William Byrd: Kyrie from Mass for four voices c.1592

Catholic Persecution and Edmund Campion

William Byrd: Why do I use my paper, inke and pen c.1581/2

The Lord's song in a strange land

Philippe de Monte (1521 – 1603): Super flumina Babylonis (psalm 136 vv 1,3,4,2) 1583

Foreign correspondent

William Byrd: Quomodo cantabimus (psalm 136 vv 4-7) 1584

Patronage

William Byrd: Gloria from Mass for four voices

Interval

Thomas Weelkes (c.1575 – 1623): Since Robin Hood

Recusant catholics

William Byrd: Credo from Mass for four voices

The Bye Plot and the Main Plot

William Byrd: Sanctus & Benedictus from Mass for four voices

The Gunpowder Plot

William Byrd: Rejoice, rejoice! 1589

Loyal hearts or traitors?

William Byrd: Agnus Dei from Mass for four voices

The Performers

Writtle Singers

Conductor: Christine Gwynn

www.writtlesingers.org

Sopranos: Glyn Buckmaster, Alison Connolly, Jenny Haxell, Clare Oddy, Frances Quintrell, Jean Rose, Liz Saward, Helen Sismey

Altos: Audrey Cassidy, Anne Fradd, Gavin Oddy, Elizabeth Tiplin, Nanette Wright

Tenors: Stephen Burdge, Graham Frankel, Martin Mason, Graham Reeve

Basses: Clive Beale, John Buckmaster, Martin Clarke, Peter Quintrell, Andrew Taylor

Writtle Singers is a chamber choir based near Chelmsford, Essex. In addition to featuring a diverse range of smaller, unaccompanied pieces, the Singers’ repertoire embraces many larger scale works, recently: J S Bach Mass in B minor, Mozart Mass in C minor, Rutter The Wind in the Willows, Finzi In Terra Pax and, Chelmsford Cathedral last year, Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Janáček Otče Náš and Panufnik Westminster Mass.

2004 saw the choir’s first continental tour, which featured high mass in the magnificent cathedral of Antwerp. Subsequent trips have included performances in Prague, York Minster, Bolton Abbey, Caius College Cambridge, and, just last month, in Zurich. Writtle Singers has performed live on BBC radio and recorded three CDs: Wrelax was released in 2001, Wrejoice! (Christmas music) in 2003 and Wroving, musical highlights from their tours, in 2009.

Christine Gwynn ~ Conductor

Christine read music at Southampton University and subsequently studied at the Guildhall with Norman Beedie, laying the foundations for a freelance career involving many facets and styles of music. Christine has been musical director of Writtle Singers since 1997. In addition to an extensive choral repertoire, Christine’s conducting experience embraces orchestral direction and music theatre, from Dido & Aeneas to West Side Story and contemporary pieces – a wide variety of experience which she has brought to bear on her work in the choral field. In 2008 Christine co-founded Arbutus Music which seeks to encourage and enhance participation in group singing within the community; she also leads workshops for pianists and is musical director of Valentine Singers and Jericho Ensemble.

Martyn Richards ~ Narrator

Martyn has narrated many Writtle Singers’ concerts, with readings ranging from scripture to the children’s tale by Rutter, Brother Heinrich’s Christmas, as well as historical scripts around several Tudor projects. As a speaker of French and Italian he has helped with translations of choral works for his local choir. Martyn is a specialist in primary education as well as a choral singer himself, and has a special love of the sacred choral repertoire. Writtle Singers are delighted to be working with him once again.

William Byrd: Loyal Heart or Traitor?

The second weekend of the ‘William Byrd Festival’ at Stondon Massey features the Writtle Singers in a programme entitled ‘William Byrd: Loyal Heart or Traitor?” (Saturday 14 May 2011. 7.30pm) The inspiration behind the programme, devised by Christine Gwynn their director, comes from two previous performances by the Choir: one celebrating Gloriana, the other ‘The Gunpowder Plot’ of 1605. The title come from Queen Elizabeth I’s anti-Spanish, anti-Catholic rhetoric delivered at Tilbury in Essex when the nation faced the threat of the Armada.

She said:

“My loving people,

“We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood even, in the dust.

“I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

“I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”

William Byrd trod the fine line of being a ‘loyal heart’ to the Queen by writing music which she simply adored and that of ‘treachery’ or being a ‘traitor’ in being a recusant Catholic writing illegal and subversive music.

Roman Catholic religious services were illegal in England and Wales between 1559 and 1778. The fear of revolution and invasion from Catholic Spain caused the law to be strengthened, in 1581 and 1585, whereupon the saying of Mass, even in a private home, was illegal; priests so doing faced the death penalty.

One such priest was John Payne, who was imprisoned during the winter of 1576-77 for being present with the Petre family of Ingatestone Hall. He is recorded in 1577 as a servant to Lady Petre, Sir William Petre’s widow. She died in 1582, ten years after her husband. After celebrating Mass at the house of William More, in Haddon, Oxfordshire, Payne was again arrested, betrayed into the hands of the authorities by the notorious priest-catcher George ‘Judas’ Eliot, who he had met at Ingatestone Hall in Christmas 1579. Unable to secure a conviction, a charge was made that he had tried to enlist Eliot in a plot to murder the Queen. Tortured on the rack, he was subsequently found guilty and hung, drawn and quartered at Chelmsford in 1582. Revd Reeve of Stondon Massey wrote, “The manuscripts of the Custos Rotulorum preserved at Chelmsford yield up the information that in April, 1582, one John Gaye, of Blackmore, was examined as to his knowledge of ‘Payne the traytour’, recently executed and of his accomplices. He confessed to having said at Writtle that Payne was reported to have ‘belonged to one Master Shelley’ [William Shelley of Stondon Massey]”. The irony was that Shelley was later effectively evicted from his home at Stondon Place, only to be rented by Byrd himself.

Byrd was the protest singer of his day, a kind of Bob Dylan figure, who, on the execution or martyrdom of Edmund Campion penned ‘Why Do I Use My Paper Ink and Pen’. Eliot too had betrayed Campion at Lyford in Berkshire in July 1581, as he had done a further thirty priests.

Byrd would have known of Payne’s execution too. He was friendly with the Petre family at that time: a friendship which became closer after Lady William Petre’s death, when John Petre became lord of the manor.

Byrd also set to music the secret text of Psalm 137, anglicised as ‘How Do We Sing The Lord’s Song In a Strange Land’, an undercover reference to his alien Catholicism in a protestant country.

Payne was later beatified by the Catholic church and was among forty martyrs canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970. His feast day is remembered on 6 May.

Bibliography

Stewart Foster. The Catholic Church in Ingatestone

D.W.Coller. A Peoples History of Essex

F.G.Emmison. Tudor Secretary (Sir William Petre)

William Byrd Festival: Come and See Stondon Massey

Opening the church this afternoon is as much a tribute to Revd. Edward Henry Lisle Reeve (pictured) as it is to William Byrd. Reeve, as is written elsewhere, was a keen local historian and in no small measure brought the great composer of Stondon Massey to public attention. Illustrative of his hobby is a note of a visit he made 100 years ago today.

Now preserved in the Essex Record Office for all to see, the Archdeacon of Essex and of Colchester records dating back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I were stored in a quite different way a century ago. Revd. Reeve, the rector of Stondon Massey and a keen local historian, made a visit on 8^th May 1911 to Mr Gepp, the Registrar at Chelmsford. He wrote, “Matters had improved since my last visit [11 years ago]. The books had been brought downstairs from the loft, and had been lodged in shelves. This, however, without any regard at all to order or classification. I was treated by Mr Gepp & his Clerks with the kindest consideration and given free access to the library, with a candle in wire lantern to assist me in the dark corner to which it was relegated, and a duster with which to move away so much dust as should be necessary and to keep my fingers free for movement.” Reeve noted the work of Mr Hollingsworth-Browne who was in the process of transcribing the records: “but only some 15 have yet been examined, and I suppose there must be over 150 volumes”.

Source: ERO T/P 188/2 loose paper between f612-613.

William Byrd Festival: Book of Common Prayer Matins

Andrew Smith writes about today's Festival Service at St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey.

On Bartholomew’s Day in 1662 the Church of England replaced its previous Book of Common Prayer with a new version. Ministers who were unwilling to follow the new Anglican liturgy were, under the Act of Uniformity, deprived of their living: they were dismissed.

Although little altered from the 1559 Prayer Book, in use while William Byrd was alive, the new Book of Common Prayer (known to us as BCP) sought to bring harmony to religious worship after what had been turbulent times since Henry VIII’s break with Rome and Catholicism in the 1530s. Byrd was privately a determined Catholic at a time when it was illegal to say Mass and attendance of communion at the Established Church compulsory. Byrd failed to attend this church and consequently was reported by the priest and churchwardens of Stondon Massey for non-compliance.

“William Birde, gent, for a Recusant Papist and for absenting himself from church for a long tyme and for standing excommunicate seaven yeares”.

In holding a BCP Morning Prayer (or Matins) service we have a link back the time when Byrd lived in Stondon Massey. The service today is one of worship and not a historic recreation or performance. We will use words still in use in the Church of England. Admittedly BCP Matins is rarely used and unfamiliar to the congregation at St Peter & St Paul Church. So today’s service will be adapted slightly to allow those contributing to take a full part and to commemorate the life and work of William Byrd. Prayers, for example, will be said not chanted. As service leader I have to get my tongue around some unusual but poetic language. I hope that you enjoy the experience and will join in at the appropriate times.

We will use a combination of live and recorded music, both contemporary with Byrd’s day and of more recent times. This illustrates the thread of worship throughout the last 400 years or so in this church and elsewhere.

We are not being a congregation with a recent choral tradition so two of the canticles have been substituted with well-known congregational hymns: ‘Jubilate’ is a more recent arrangement of one of those.

‘The Great Service’ is a set of canticles written by Byrd for the Church of England. After Byrd’s death the work fell out of fashion perhaps because, as a whole, all of the composer’s output was deemed unsuitable for use in the English church. Byrd’s music was out of favour, at least in the Anglican Church, until the early twentieth century. It was the discovery of a set of manuscripts in Durham Cathedral by Edmund Fellowes that led to its first recent performance during the William Byrd Tercentenary Celebrations in London in 1923.

Canon Edward Henry Lisle Reeve, the Rector of Stondon Massey (from 1893 – 1935) attended the “Greate Service” Evensong at Westminster Abbey, recalling “the glorious effect produced by the 200 trained voices as the melodies floated around the pillars and arcades of the sacred building”. Since we do not have 200 voices, two shorter movements from the Morning Prayer service have been selected. The recording is by the Westminster Abbey Choir.

Edmund Fellowes was a well-known acquaintance of Reeve, and as an amateur historian Reeve championed Byrd. It was through this connection that the William Byrd Memorial was erected on the south wall of the church funded from the surplus which arose from the London Tercentenary celebrations. The Dedication Service in March 1924 closed with the hymn ‘For All The Saints’, sung to the tune ‘Sine Nomine’ (no name) composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958).

Vaughan Williams was a member of the London Tercentenary Committee and became, as we know, one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. It is said that his Mass in G Minor was the first to be composed since those of Byrd. Hymns have been chosen from the English Hymnal, edited by Vaughan Williams. A service such as this is the perfect opportunity to sing ‘To Be A Pilgrim’.

I have decided to use the Authorised Version of the Bible (the “King James Version”) for the readings, not least because it is 400 years old this year and is as great a literary work as that of William Shakespeare, another contemporary of Byrd’s era. Canon Reeve believed that William Byrd’s work ought to be as well-known as the bard. He suggested that the obscurity of Byrd’s music was due to the Latin rites of the Church which had since fallen into abeyance. He noted that had Shakespeare suffered a similar fate many would have difficulty quoting “To be or not to be”. He compared the availability of Byrd’s work to a reader knowing only a few disjointed scenes of Shakespeare’s plays. Nowadays, Byrd’s work is equally as available as that of Shakespeare but only recognised as such within a limited audience.

I have been deliberate in the selected readings. The Old Testament reading has been substituted by the epistle of Paul to Timothy. The pulpit in Stondon Church with the reading desk attached was erected during Revd. Nathaniel Ward’s incumbency, and bears the date 1630. “In all probability”, to quote Reeve again, “it was introduced into the Church in response to an order from Bishop Laud, but I think we may trace Ward’s handiwork also, and his personal superintendence. In the pulpit is carved “2 Tim. iv. 1-2”, the reference being to the words of St Paul, “Preach the word in season and out of season”, which no doubt was a favourite Apostolic injunction with the Puritan divine”. Ward, a Puritan, was suspended from the living and left these shores for America in 1634. His brother, Samuel, coincidentally was one of a large group of editors who compiled the Authorised Version which we know today.

Byrd’s descendants lived in the village until about 1651.

Today’s Gospel reading picks up the call of the faithful to obey Christ’s commandments, which is repeated in the setting Tallis’ anthem, ‘If Ye Love Me’, sung by Jubilate, our Choir drawn from the congregations of Stondon Massey and Blackmore churches. Thomas Tallis (c1505 -1585) was Byrd’s friend and mentor. He too was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in London, the sovereign’s choir, and has an Essex connection in that he was organist at Waltham Abbey in the two years before its dissolution in 1540.

Psalm 137 is highly appropriate for this service. Phillippe de Monte (1521 – 1603), a Flemish composer, sent Byrd a piece using text from Psalm 137: ‘Super Flumina Babylonia’. Byrd replied, in coded and secret language with ‘Quonmodo Cantabimus’, opening with the lines of verse 4 of the Psalm, “How do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land” (Ps 137:4).

Perhaps all of these threads suggest how, in twenty-first century Britain, people might respond to a changed society where belief in anything seems at times unfashionable. Perhaps the answer to 2 Tim 4:2 lies within all that has been said or sung within the service. Like Byrd, to proclaim the word of God in season and out of season.

William Byrd Festival: "William Byrd: His Essex Years"

Our evening performance of 'William Byrd: His Essex Years' at St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey, is under way.

THE PROGRAMME

Richard Turbet: William Byrd: His Essex Years (Part 1)

Stondon Singers:

Jubilate (first performance for two centuries)

Susanna fair a3

Susanna fair a5

This sweet and merry month a4

This sweet and merry month a6

Agnus Dei, Mass for 4 Voices *

Interval

Richard Turbet: William Byrd: His Essex Years (Part 2)

Stondon Singers:

Ave verum corpus

Come woeful Orpheus

Who looks may leap

I have been young

Arise Lord into Thy rest

Sing joyfully

William Byrd Festival: "William Byrd: His Essex Years"

Curtain Up! (if we had one) on the William Byrd Festival. This is the first performance (of two) of “William Byrd: His Essex Years”.

THE PERFORMERS

The Stondon Singers were formed in 1968 originally to perform the music of William Byrd at Stondon Massey, where he spent the last thirty years of his life. The annual William Byrd Memorial Concert has been a highlight of their performing schedule ever since, taking place on the first Tuesday in July.

Whilst the works of Byrd and his contemporaries remain at the core of their repertoire, the Singers perform a wide and varied range of music. In recent years this has included performances of Bach’s St John Passion, Monteverdi’s Vespers 1610 and Fauré’s Requiem as well as concerts with madrigals and music of the present era, and their accompanists have ranged from Baroque ensembles to jazz trios.

The Stondon Singers have performed in many venues, including our two local cathedrals, Brentwood and Chelmsford, and also those in Southwark and Bury St Edmunds. Other memorable occasions include mass at St Paul’s Knightsbridge and a Handel concert as part of the Chelmsford Festival.

The Stondon Singers are resident in the atmospheric Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore.

Sopranos: Katharine Adams, Michelle Arthur, Jenny Evans, Mavis Holmes, Catherine Kelly, Julie Lorkins, Annabel Malton, Faith Marchal, Karen Mortley, Mary Seckleman, Sally Walker

Altos: Mavis Brown, Audrey Cassidy, Julia Dimon, Jill Evans, Josephine Gordon, Marjolein Hillman

Tenors: Matthew Butt, David Hampson, Alan Haward, David Lloyd, John Waggett

Basses: Michael Aves, David Evans, Phil Holmes, Chris Overy, David Schacht, Derek Taggart

Conductor: Christopher Tinker

Christopher Tinker was educated at the Royal College of Music with studies in organ (Ralph Downes), composition and conducting (Denys Darlow). Postgraduate studies were undertaken at Durham, and later at Lancaster University from where he obtained a Doctorate in music. Following his first post as Organist to The King’s School, Canterbury, he has held positions as Director of Music at a number of schools and colleges both in the UK and overseas, whilst sustaining a broad portfolio as a freelance musician.

His conducting career, embracing amateur and professional fields, has taken him throughout Britain, to many parts of Europe and also to Japan. He has worked with such ensembles as the London Mozart Players, Ulverston Choral Society, Aldeburgh Music Club, Pietermaritzburg Philharmonic Society, Haffner Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lakeland Singers. He directs the music at St Margaret’s Church, Ipswich, and the concerts season of the Ipswich G&S Society. He is a composer, and his works include choral and instrumental music and a children’s opera. He is currently collaborating with the South African poet, Moira Lovell.

Following a move from London to Ipswich in 2003, an area with which he has a long association through the Aldeburgh Festival, he has been involved with Imogen Holst’s Centenary, including contributions to the book Imogen Holst – A Life in Music (Boydell and Brewer 2007) and a series of lecture recitals at such establishments as the Royal College of Music, Dartington College of Arts and the Holst Birthplace Museum. This also resulted in the production of a CD of Imogen Holst’s string music which won the premier award 2010 from the BBC Music Magazine.

Richard Turbet. Richard is a leading authority on William Byrd, having written or edited over one hundred published works about the composer and related subjects. Richard has given talks at several universities in Britain and the USA, and at the William Byrd Festival in Portland, Oregon, and edited its tenth anniversary commemorative book. He has contributed to the Grove and to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and is currently compiling the third edition of his book, “William Byrd. A Guide to Research”.

Richard is a retired librarian from the University of Aberdeen where latterly he was Special Collections Cataloguer and subject specialist for Music. For fifteen years he was a cathedral lay clerk.

We are especially grateful to Richard for giving his time in support of St Peter & St Paul Church. He will be giving the address at the Book of Common Prayer: Matins service tomorrow morning at 9.00am.