Byrd Book Query: Council of Trent

Received 24 May 2011

Dear Andrew,

I bought a copy of this booklet when I attended the concert at Stondon Massey 2 Saturdays ago & have enjoyed reading it. I am a little perplexed by a comment on p 10, 3rd paragraph. It says ‘The Council of Trent in 1563 had practically outlawed the Latin rite in the Church.’ The Council of Trent was a Roman Catholic Council which sought to resolve some of the justified criticisms levelled at it by protagonists of the Reformation. But it did not outlaw Mass in Latin in Roman Catholic churches, which I believe continued until Vatican II. Was the sentence in the booklet meant to refer to Queen Elizabeth I’s Act of Uniformity of 1558 which stipulated that (in England) only services in the Book of Common Prayer were lawful?

Christine Petch

Replied 28 May 2011

Dear Christine

Thank you for your e mail dated 24 May and your subsequent correspondence.

‘William Byrd: Some Notes’ has been compiled using a mixture of sources. I have to admit that the relationship of the fledgling Anglican Church and its relationship, both political and religious, with Catholicism is not an area with which I am familiar, so clearly your knowledge is greater than mine.

Looking at Wikipedia, reference to the Council of Trent looks to be an error. Its inclusion in the booklet comes from a phrase taken from Edmund H Fellowes biography of William Byrd (1936). I think that Fellowes is wrong.

Having looked at the history of Stondon Massey by Reeve (1900), the then Rector mentions two events: firstly “a fresh edition of the Prayer-book was issued in the spring of 1559, and ordered to be generally adopted by June 24^th. … A copy of the Bible was once more directed to by placed publicly in every church”. Secondly, “in 1563, Archbishop Parker published the thirty-nine Articles as a standard of belief, and a commission was opened at Lambeth to enquire into the tenets of the clergy”. Reeve adds that, “This appears to have been a too searching tribunal for [Revd. John ] Alford, [Rector of Stondon Massey, 1558 to 1563,] and he was deprived of his benefice”.

The thirty-nine Articles of Religion appear in the Book of Common Prayer and remain valid for anyone entering the clergy today in the Church of England. These Articles but would not be acceptable to Catholics e.g. allowing priests to marry. Article XIX states that “the Church of Rome hath erred” in not preaching the “pure word of God”; Article XXII describes purgatory as “vainly invented”; and especially Article XXIV: “It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, , and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have publick prayer in the Church, or to minister the sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people”.

I suspect that Fellowes was referring to this ruling rather than the Council of Trent. The Articles would effectively bar Catholics from the “English Church” and the Latin rite was effectively banned.

The Articles more or less coincide with Byrd’s appointment to Lincoln Cathedral. In harbouring Catholic thoughts Byrd must have known the dangers he faced.

I would be interested to know your thoughts on the matter.

Regards

Andrew

Received 28 May 2011

Dear Andrew,

Thanks for your e-mail. I must stress that I am not an expert on these matters. I am merely one who is interested in the Tudor period & in the Reformation (in the English church). I think your research has demonstrated that the reference to the Council of Trent here is wrong. The Act of Uniformity of 1558 (which I believe came into force in 1559) outlawed any service other than those in the new Prayer Book, which was issued in 1559, and those services were all in English. So, indeed, the Latin Mass became illegal in the Church of England from the moment that the new Prayer Book was published, which you have found to be the Spring of 1559. (I’m calling it the ‘new’ Prayer Book because Edward VI issued a Prayer Book too, but that would have been withdrawn during Mary Tudor’s reign & I’m assuming that the Prayer Book issued by Queen Elizabeth was a new and/or revised version.) I assume that this Prayer Book did not include the 39 Articles as you say that they were not published till 1563 (I know a shorter version, i.e. with fewer articles was produced in Henry VIII’s time & gradually expanded upon). Anyway, from my limited knowledge, I think the Latin Mass became illegal in the Church of England in 1559 rather than 1563.

So you and I are saying much the same thing. Thank you very much for taking time to look into this. Perhaps the sentence in the booklet should be amended for future editions.

Christine

Reeve Family Archive to go on display

Books, manuscripts and documents relating to a Victorian Rector and his family will go on display for the first time at Stondon Massey on Saturday 15 October.

The archive highlights the life and times of a well-to-do family from the Essex / Suffolk border.  

Edward Reeve (1785-1867) served in the West Suffolk Militia before purchasing Stondon Massey Rectory in 1849 for his clergyman son and moving himself and his family into comfortable retirement.  Among the items on display at St Peter & St Paul Church will be his commonplace book written in the last years of his life and another manuscript of 'Jottings' written in 1881 by his grandson, Lisle.  Edward Henry Lisle Reeve, the subject of a recent biography, was born in the village and was the Rector of Stondon Massey, succeeding his father, from 1893 to 1935.  He died 75 years ago this year. 'Jottings' is a combination of family history and stories, told presumably after dinner. It is a fascinating social history about the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.  Reeve's cycling trophy (dated 1880) and photograph can also be seen. A Book of Common Prayer, dated 1817, will be on display which contains prayers associated with the Gunpowder Plot and the Martyrdom of King Charles I.

Canon Reeve is credited by many for bringing William Byrd to local public attention during his incumbency in the early twentieth century.

The archive is a generous donation by descendants of the family. 

Visitors will be able to purchase for the first time three booklets transcribing extracts from the commonplace books.  Also available will be the recently published biography and 'William Byrd Some Notes'. Booklets are £2 each and support the upkeep of the church and churchyard.

St Peter & St Paul Church will be open on Saturday 15 October 2011 from 10.00am to 3.00pm.  Refreshments will also be available on what will be the church's annual Gift Day.

Was Byrd buried at Stondon Massey?

Stondon Massey churchyard will have a newly constructed Garden of Remembrance this year. The money has been raised from an anonymous donation and the receipts from a highly successful William Byrd Festival held in May. It will be a three-sided commemorative wall on which plaques will be placed to the memory of those who have cremated burials in the churchyard.

William Byrd, the great composer, is thought to have been buried in Stondon Massey churchyard. However there is no conclusive evidence that the wishes expressed in his Last Will and Testament were carried out. The absence of the Parish Burial Register before 1708 means that Byrd’s burial place may never be truly known but, to date, there is no evidence to the contrary. There are some who believe that the lack of evidence to the contrary is not proof of confirming evidence.

It is interesting to look back over the recognition of William Byrd’s death over the past one hundred years or so. In 1906 William Barclay Squire expressed an interest to the then Rector of Stondon Massey that, “if by chance you ever succeed in proving that Byrd is really buried at Stondon … I will collect enough to put up a memorial to him in the church or churchyard”. The Rector was Revd. Edward Henry Lisle Reeve (1858 – 1936), a minister of religion and amateur historian.

At the time of the Tercentenary of Byrd’s death in 1923 Reeve wrote to ‘The Times’ suggesting, “Is it not time (in these broader-minded days) that some local monument were erected to his memory?” The London concerts realised a sufficient surplus which was employed towards the memorial inside St Peter & St Paul Church being erected. But the words on the Memorial carefully ignore any suggestion that Byrd was buried at Stondon: He “lived … for the last thirty years of his life. He died 4 July 1623 aged eighty”. This was historically accurate at the time.

Reeve suggests that since Stondon is the only place named in the Will “we can claim Byrd for our own”. He adds elsewhere in his notes, “I little thought, twenty years ago, that I should have witnessed such a Service [referring to the Memorial’s dedication] … or found Stondon so generally accepted as Byrd’s home and burial place”.

LMMC Sing Byrd at Stondon

London Motet & Madrigal Club visit to St Peter & St Paul Church Stondon Massey

The Choir run through an extract from the 'Four Part Mass', which has a
strong association with  Ingatestone Hall

Over thirty members of the London Motet and Madrigal Club visited St Peter & St Paul Church Stondon Massey today to sing music by Byrd and his contemporaries.  It was part of their annual visit to places associated with the great composers of the golden era.  Their informal programme included 'Ave Verum Corpus' by Byrd as well as 'Laetentur Coeli' and extracts from the 'Mass for Four Voices' - (Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei).   They also sang two pieces by Tallis: 'O Nata Lux' and 'If Ye Love Me'.  Before they sang, the church's local historian gave a short talk on William Byrd and his association with Stondon Massey and Ingatestone Hall, considering how Byrd's Catholic faith was known but quietly ignored because of this friends in high places. Pictured here is the Club in full voice. 

A coach outing to sing at Stondon where Byrd lived

London Motet and Madrigal Club sing Byrd at Stondon

The London Motet and Madrigal Club's annual summer visit is held today exploring the music and places associated with William Byrd in Essex. Leaving Shenfield railway station by coach, the party will come along the lanes to St Peter & St Paul Church here in Stondon Massey, the village where the great composer lived in semi-retirement until his death in 1623. After morning refreshments the group will be entertained with a short talk about William Byrd and his association with the parish. This is the first time our local historian has given a talk on the subject. He is the author of ‘William Byrd: Some Notes’ a booklet on sale in aid of church funds. Following the talk the focus will be on singing. After lunch the LMMC move on to Ingatestone Hall, still the home of the Petre family where Byrd was their musician.

The Club was formed in 1942 for “the cultivation of the art of singing motets, madrigals and other similar music”. They sing for pleasure. Annual visits have taken place since the early 1960s to churches and stately homes associated, where possible, with the great madrigalists. Their last visit to Stondon Massey was in 1988, so they make a very welcome return thanks to a connection with the Rector and an LMMC member, a former organist in the parish where she came from. Members of the congregation are delighted to act as hosts in return for a donation to church funds.

On their very first outing to this part of Essex in 1965 the Club sang music by Byrd and his pupils Morley and Tomkins, in the Long Gallery of Ingatestone Hall. They then sang the ‘Agnus Dei’ from Byrd’s Four Part Mass and music by Tallis “in the fine acoustic of Stondon Church”.

This year the LMMC will sing an all Byrd selection: anthems in the morning at Stondon, and madrigals in the afternoon at Ingatestone.

For more about the London Motet and Madrigal Club visit http://www.londonmotetandmadrigalclub.org.uk/Home_Page.html

First Performance of Byrd's Jubilate

Stondon Massey’s inaugural William Byrd Festival claimed a first last week with a performance of the Byrd piece not heard for over 200 years. At the lecture / recital entitled ‘William Byrd: His Essex Years’, the Stondon Singers performed ‘Jubilate’, thanks to the research of speaker and early music expert Richard Turbet (photographed), who co-presented the event.

Byrd enthusiasts may know that nowhere in his repertoire is there a piece called ‘Jubilate’, which is the shorter canticle to the Benedictus in the Book of Common Prayer Matins service.

Richard Turbet said, “Jubilate is an arrangement, or musically an abridgment, of the Benedictus from Byrd's Short Service, made by Robert Shenton (1730-98), dean's vicar in the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, from 1757.

“The sole source for this arrangement is a manuscript in Durham Cathedral Library, copied by John Matthews while a stipendiary of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Matthews sent the manuscript to Durham Cathedral in 1777. The following year he was appointed a vicar choral there.

This version must have shared a place with the ‘Great Service’ discovered at the Cathedral by Edmund Fellowes, “Byrd’s cheer leader” in the early 1920s.

Richard added, “I am confident that the performance of Byrd's so-called Jubilate was a coup for the Festival, especially for those at the matinee [4pm performance on 7 May 2011], and the first in over two centuries. The publisher told me that the Stondon Singers were the first choir to purchase a job lot since he had published it.”

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.

The Singing Church In Essex

An extract from a booklet entitled ‘The Singing Church in Essex’, published in 1955 to coincide with the Exhibition of Essex Church Music held in the Chelmsford Cathedral Chapter House.

William Byrd was one of the greatest musicians of the sixteenth century, quite equal in stature to the great contemporary foreigners Palestrina and Lassus. His art shows a great step forward beyond that of Tallis in every way. The rhythmic and harmonic range has widened considerably and now, from some years’ experience in the setting of English words, we find a new sureness and freedom. We find Byrd writing with an engaging lilt.

In an age when the English language was at its finest the music of the period was to give the words their own importance, taking from them a new freedom. Byrd, like his master, Tallis, was a genius. Of his music it is possible to write as C. Henry Philips has written of his Three-part Agnus Dei, “Nothng so lovely has ever appeared from any pen”. Byrd caught the nobility of Tallis’s firmness of technique which has seldom been surpassed. There is something comparable between Shakespeare and Byrd in their creation of great art.

Byrd first comes into the Essex picture in 1574 when “the Earl of Oxenford made a lease for 31 years of the manor of Battylshall” at Stapleford Abbotts to take place at the death of the occupant. There followed a considerable amount of legal dispute concerning this lease, one of the many cases in which Byrd was concerned, and eventually the case went against him, rather unjustly as far as one can see. The next time we hear of Byrd in Essex is in the company of the Petre family. There are seven entries between 1586-90 in the Petre accounts which refer to visits made by Byrd. Mostly they are concerned with the purchase of horse-meat! The first entry is in October 1586:

Payed to John Reynoldes the lackey for Mr Bydes horsemeat and his sonnes at their comyng down from London ii s.

We know from other sources that Byrd had been friendly with the Petre family long before that. There is in the Britidh Museum a certificate which together with a letter in the Public Record Office, was sent by Byrd to William Petre concerning the case of a certain Mrs Tempest. Mrs Tempest was one of the instances of Byrd’s assistance to the Roman Catholic cause, which despite the wonderful Anglican settings that he wrote, he never forsook. Byrd remained a Roman Catholic – but a broadminded one – to the end of his days. This act of sympathy was in 1581.

In 1593 Byrd became an Essex man; he moved into Stondon Place at Stondon Massey, and so far as we know remained resident of Essex until his death in 1623, a period of thirty years. Of the three Byrd Masses that survive, two of them, the two four-part masses, belong to this period, as does the third volume of madrigals and songs. There is a note in the Essex Record Office, of the year 1608, which refers to the books of William Byrd:

2 Setts of Mr Bird’s books intituled Gradualia, the first and second sett.

One other sett of Mr Bird’s bookes contayninge songs of 3, 4, 5 and 6 parts.

One other of Mr Bird’s bookes of 5 parts.

The Gradualia belong to the Essex period. The first book includes the Ave Verum Corpus with its perfection of melodic outline. The Second Book is actually dedicated to John, first Lord Petre, Byrd’s next door neighbour at Stondon.

One of the Petre part-books, already mentioned, has a considerable number of Byrd’s compositions in it, mostly from the two books of Cantiones Sacrae. The First Book of Cantiones Sacrae has in it 11 pieces that are found in the Petre Book, including the short but brilliant Easter motet In resurrectione tua, which ends on a dazzling and complex Alleluia; and the Domine tu iurasti which John Alcock records as: “This piece in ye opinion of Mr Bird himself is ye best he ever compos’d”, a statement difficult to believe, since there is nothing special of note of it.

From the Second Book of Cantiones Sacrae we find six motets also to be found in the Petre collection, including the very beautiful Haec dicit Dominus with its unsurpassed tender expression and pathos: the fine Exsurge, Domine; and the Infelix ego which differs from all the other motets in that the words are neither biblical nor liturgical. There is one motet in the Petre part-book that is not found elsewhere, but of course it is only part of the six parts needed to make up the whole.

It was, of course, William Byrd who made the famous appeal to everyone to take up singing, in the prefix of his first collection.

And indeed in the hands of William Byrd all men might wish to sing. These words were printed in Psalms, Sonets & songs in 1588: a delightful collection some of which may be classed as madrigals but differ in style from others of the English School, like Wilbye. The last section includes the sublime little Lullaby.

There is no known epitaph to Byrd; it is believed that he was buried at Stondon as requested in his will. His only epitaph the simple entry in the ‘cheque book’ of the Chapel Royal:

1623. Wm. Bird a Father of Musick died the 4 of July.

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.

Byrd at the Beeb: a transcript of the BBC Essex interview

William Byrd Festival organiser, Andrew Smith was on BBC Essex last Sunday morning (1 May 2011) bright and early to tell the county about what was happening at Stondon Massey over these two weekends. This is a transcript of the interview.

1.5.11 7.09am. Ian Wyatt (presenter): Before 7.30 we are going to be looking at the work of William Byrd: the famous Elizabethan composer William Byrd! No, I don’t think I have heard of him either to be honest with you but we will certainly find out about that man before half past seven – he came from Stondon Massey near Brentwood.

7.24am. Ian: Allow me to introduce you now to a musical star who lived in our county almost five centuries ago. His name was William Byrd. He was a composer and among his works was this ….

- Extract from ‘This Sweet and Merry Month of May’ sung by members of The Cambridge Singers directed by John Rutter -

That’s called ‘This Sweet and Merry Month of May’, quite fitting really being May Day, written by William Byrd who lived in Stondon Massey near Brentwood in the sixteenth century. And next weekend the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul in Stondon Massey will be celebrating his life and work with a William Byrd Festival. The man behind it is Andrew Smith. Andrew is with us this morning in the studio. Morning.

Andrew Smith: Good morning.

Ian: To use a well-known phrase ‘Not a lot of people know about ‘ William Byrd. Well certainly I don’t think I was that familiar with his work. Have you recently discovered him Andrew or have you been a lifelong fan?

Andrew: I wouldn’t say I have been a lifelong fan. I’ve lived around Stondon Massey for a lifetime and the Stondon Singers have an annual concert every July as a Memorial Concert to him. And I think I discovered William Byrd through that. William Byrd actually lived in Stondon Massey for the last thirty years of his life until his death in 1623.

Ian: Right.

Andrew: And perhaps he was buried in the churchyard there.

Ian: Oh right! What brought him then to Stondon Massey in the first place? Do we know?

Andrew: Yes. He was a Catholic, and Lord Petre lived at Ingatestone Hall who himself was a Catholic, and he was Byrd’s patron. Byrd wrote some very daring music for the time because Catholicism, was as such, was banned. The only established Church was the Church of England. And he managed to get away, as such, by what he did in writing Masses, religious music – and madrigals, such as you played – through his connections: his connections with the Petre family, with Queen Elizabeth and later King James I. He was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal – a Royal Wedding connection there.

Ian: And perhaps some then didn’t perhaps realise the messages in his music.

Andrew: Well I think there were some secret messages in there. There are some works that are clearly written as secret I suppose, shall I put it, protest songs.

Ian. Goodness. Who would have thought you would have had protest songs in the sixteenth century. How important is he in the great scheme of things? Obviously important in Stondon Massey in Essex but, you know, in the Elizabethan music scene was he known nationally at the time?

Andrew: At that time he was highly regarded by people in his circle – by Royalty, as I say, by the Petre family.

Ian: And he obviously wrote quite a bit of music because you have got enough to fill a Festival.

Andrew: He wrote the equivalent of seven CDs, not that CDs were around of course, of instrumental music, 13 CDs worth of Latin church music and several other pieces of music so quite a lot has been rediscovered, I suppose, during the twentieth century when Byrd’s music has become more, shall I say, acceptable.

Ian: Apart from the music at Festival, you’ve got a big Byrd expert coming haven’t you?

Andrew: Yes, a big Byrd expert. His name is Richard Turbet. He comes from the University of Aberdeen and is certainly an expert in the life and work of William Byrd. He’s in fact doing a major research project on Byrd and producing a third edition of ‘A Guide To Research’. We are looking forward very much to his first appearance at Stondon Massey. He is very keen to come and support the church in its work to raise money to build a new Garden of Remembrance.

Ian: Oh lovely. So that’s where the money from the Festival ticket sales are going for the Garden of Remembrance. And if you are interested in William Byrd and finding out a bit more or are going to google him of whatever it’s B-Y-R-D isn’t it? It’s lovely. I think it’s great when we discover more about Essex and I want to play a bit more of ‘This Sweet and Merry Month of May’, which is perfect for today and after this we’ll look at how you get tickets, is that alright Andrew.

Andrew: Yes fine.

- Reprise -

Ian: ‘This Sweet and Merry Month of May’ written by William Byrd of Stondon Massey near Brentwood in the sixteenth century – and we will add that to one of Tim’s list of 31 the songs Andrew, we can get away from that can’t we? If people want to find out more about tickets the Festival covers two weekends. It’s on from the seventh to the fifteenth of May in Stondon Massey Church. There’s a website for details.

Andrew: Yes, that’s right. It’s a blog actually but it’s William Byrd Festival, as one word, dot blogspot dot com.

Ian: Tickets are £12.50 for the music and we’ll put details on the BBC Essex helpline. I hope that the next couple of weeks go really well. I think a lot of people in the area are going to find out more about an old local hero that they may have not known much about before.

Andrew: Thank you.

Ian: Andrew Smith from Stondon Massey.

Ends 7.31am.

BBC FOUR Schedule Byrd Programme for Eve of Festival

BBC FOUR will be televising 'Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors' on the eve of the William Byrd Festival. The programme, which is the third of four parts in Series 1, was first broadcast in April 2008 and features the life and work of two great Elizabethan Essex composers: Thomas Tallis (c1505 - 1585) who was one-time organist at Waltham Abbey, and our William Byrd (c1540 - 1623) originally from Lincoln, then Harlington in Middlesex, and latterly Stondon Massey.

The presenter is Simon Russell-Beale, with The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers.

This is a fabulous piece of scheduling by the BBC. The programme will, of course, be available on the I Player over the first week of Stondon's William Byrd Festival. This is a happy coincidence!

BBC FOUR. Friday 6 May 2011. 7.30 - 8.30pm.

BBC Essex: Spreading the word about Byrd

I have just returned from the BBC Essex studios in Chelmsford having participated in a live interview on Ian Wyatt’s Sunday morning ‘Faith and Fun’ programme, promoting the name of William Byrd and the Festival which commences at Stondon Massey next Saturday. Ian had confessed to not having heard of William Byrd while I waited my turn in the adjacent office. In suitable first of May mood the station played an extract from ‘This Sweet and Merry Month of May’, the madrigal composed by Byrd in 1590, and released 400 years ago this year.

The interview can be heard on the I Player for the next seven days. I appeared at 7.24am, between the travel bulletin and news summary. I should appear about 1 hour 24 minutes into the programme.

To listen to the programme go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=ian%20wyatt

This Sweet And Merry Month of May

The madrigal ‘This Sweet and Merry Month of May’ is in a set of pieces published by Byrd in 1611 entitled ‘Psalms, Songs, and Sonnets: some solemne, others joyfull’. But as Edmund Fellowes observes in his book ‘The English Madrigal Composers’ (1948): “The inclusion in this volume of the four part setting … suggests that by no means all of these pieces had been newly composed at the date of publication; this particular madrigal had already been printed with Watson’s ‘First sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished’ as early as 1590”.

This demonstrates the importance of this work in Byrd’s complete output.

The Stondon Singers will be performing this piece on Saturday 7 May (4.00 & 7.30pm) in a programme entitled ‘William Byrd: His Essex Years’. It is also the chosen piece by BBC Essex today heralding the William Byrd Festival.

The Madrigalian Era

Extracts from ‘A History of Music in England’ by Ernest Walker M.A., D.Mus. Balliol College, Oxford (published in 1907). [With additional notes taken from ‘The English Madrigal Composers’ by Edmund H. Fellowes (1948).]

The long-lived William Byrd is the typical figure of the music for this period, in every form of which – instrumental, secular vocal and ecclesiastical – he left numerous works. He is said to have been a pupil of Tallis, and was appointed organist of the Cathedral of Lincoln (of which town he was probably a native) when about twenty years of age; he subsequently joined the Chapel Royal, and remained in the service of the Court for throughout his life, though an avowed Romanist and suffering considerable persecution in consequence. The monopoly in music-making (for a term of years) granted to Tallis and Byrd, which on the death of the former in 1585 became Byrd’s sole property. The works published during his lifetime include two sets of Gradualia, Psalms Sonnets and Songs of Sadness and Piety, Songs of Sundry Natures, and Psalms Songs and Sonnets, beside some detached madrigals and anthems and instrumental pieces; three masses, the numerous pieces in the ‘Fitzwilliam Virginal Book’, and various other works are also available in modern editions, but a considerable amount remains in manuscript.

It is not until the close of the sixteenth century that the English madrigal proper makes its appearance. It is a combination of two elements originally totally separate, the contrapuntal secular music of the Italians and their resident masters of Netherlandish blood, and the harmonic Italian quasi-popular songs, the ‘Frottle’ and such-like, of which numerous examples were published in the earlier part of the century. All the English madrigal-writers show both contrapuntal and the harmonic elements I their works, and indeed generally combine them in the same composition.

The first madrigals published in England (if we exclude Byrd’s mixed collection of ‘Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs’) were due to the enterprise of an amateur ,music-lover named Nicholas Yonge, who had procured copies from the continent and had daily performances in his private house; in 1588 he brought out fifty-seven of the best Italian and Italianized Netherlandish composers, to English translations, with the addition of two by Byrd. [“Thomas Watson described as ‘excellent’ the two madrigals of ‘Master William Byrds’, composed at his request for his ‘First sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished’ in 1590” (Fellowes).] Twenty-four more were published by him nine years later, and in the meantime others had been issued under different auspices: but this interest in foreign works was quickly swamped by the flood of native madrigals that began to pour from the press. The most famous of these publications was that known as ‘The Triumphs of Oriana’ which was edited by Morley, and issued in 1601. [Byrd did not contribute to this cycle: “It so happens that the year 1601 comes in the course of that period from 1589 to 1605 in which none of his music was published. It cannot be supposed that his musical activity ceased during those years but it may possibly mean that he was avoiding publicity” (Fellowes).]

Many collections of madrigals and similar works have on the title-page the words ‘apt for voices or viols (even when, as in Byrd’s ‘Psalms, Songs and Sonnets’ of 1611, the title-page also specially remarks that the music is ‘framed to the life of the words’); and, strange as it appears to us, there is no doubt that the compositions of Wilbye and Morley, and all the rest, were often played as purely instrumental pieces.

The secular vocal music of Byrd is a curious instance of the limitations of the great man. [Henry Peacham, writing in 1622, says of Byrd “as comparing favourably with the best Italian work” (Fellowes).] Thirty out of forty-seven ‘Songs of Sundry Natures’ are secular, and yet it is hard to discover any particular genius of any kind in any of them, while in the remaining seventeen there is really noble work. Indeed, in an age that was, on the whole, decidedly non-ecclesiastical in its art, the disposition of Byrd is noteworthy; he seems to have become a new man when he touches religious words. Somehow he, consciously or unconsciously, inclined to the view that vocal music should be primarily religious. A few exceptions there no doubt are; two of the ‘Psalms, Songs and Sonnets’ - No. 9, ‘This sweet and merry month of May,’ and especially No. 13, ‘Come jolly swains,’ with its delightful half-realistic setting of the refrain ‘We smiling laugh, while others sigh repenting’, are full of gay charm of a subtle kind.

Illegal Masses and Priest Holes

“You have all heard no doubt of the discovery of a hidden chamber at Ingatestone Hall in 1855. This was undoubtedly what is called a Priest’s Hole for hiding both Priest and vestments in the days when Mass was illegal. It measures 14ft. long, by 2ft. broad and 10ft. deep and was approached by a trap door and ladder and when discovered contained a chest for vestments and vessels”.

Laurie, Major Allan D. Antiquities of Essex (1946)

Ingatestone Hall Open To Visitors

Ingatestone Hall, the seat of the Petre family, opens its doors once again to the public from Easter Sunday (next Sunday, 24 April) through until the end of September. The Hall was the location of frequent visits of the local composer William Byrd, both before and whilst in semi-retirement at Stondon Massey in Essex.

According to the website www.ingatestonehall.com the Hall and gardens are open from 12.00 – 5.00pm (last admission 4pm) on Wednesdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays (except Wednesdays in June).

Pictured here is an old postcard showing, to the right, the former Chapel (now demolished) used by the family and local Catholic community for Services.

The present Lord Petre is coming to the William Byrd Festival on 7 May at 4pm.

Puns on Byrd

Both congregations at Stondon Massey and Blackmore have been very good in responding to requests to distribute leaflets and posters around the local community and to organisations whose members might be interested in attending the William Byrd Festival. This has meant me giving a notice at the beginning of the service each week.

Readers of our church magazine had a form enclosed which enabled them to buy tickets at a slightly reduced price for a short period of time. I called it the ‘Early Byrd discount’, which got a groan from those in church one Sunday. When I said that many people were buying tickets and flocking to the Byrd Festival, I got a “That’s terrible” remark from one of the congregation sitting in the front row. I then explained that the Festival has two objectives: to raise the awareness of the great composer and musician, and to raise money towards the creation of a new Garden of Remembrance in Stondon churchyard. By attending the Festival members of the congregation would be “killing two birds with one stone”. Of course the choirs will be engaging in bird song when they present their programmes in May. The Services on the Sunday mornings will be full of music: a dawn chorus. When a photographer comes to the event he or she will ask people to watch the birdie.

Once these play on words start you cannot stop, and find that others join in the fun.

One elderly lady came up to me after the service and said “Thanks for making me laugh”.

These puns however are perfectly justifiable! John Harley’s Byrd book, ‘Gentleman of the Chapel Royal’ notes that when John Bull gave a lecture about Byrd in 1597, he compared the great composer to “the Eagle”. Others referred to Byrd’s musical skill, describing him as “our phoenix”. There is also a drawing of an owl with the caption, “I wyll not sing shut in a cage”. This reference is surely to Byrd’s restricted life as a recusant Catholic, but equally someone who wrote protest songs. We learn also that Byrd himself revelled in punning too. On dedication of the first book of Gradualia to Henry Howard, the Earl of Northampton, he wrote (translated): “They say the swan sings more sweetly when death is near. If, in my old age, that BIRD’S sweetness has eluded me in these songs which I have decided ought to be dedicated to you, most illustrious Henry, I have had two powerful defences or incentives in trying in some way to imitate it”.

William Byrd, Stondon Massey and the Authorised Version of The Bible

When Kerry McCarthy gave a lecture last week to guests at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge she said, according to an Internet source (http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/2011/01/william-byrd-and-the-king-james-bible-he-was-agin-it/ ), that William Byrd (c1540 - 1623) set none of his music to the text of the King James Version of the Bible. The lecture was given in celebration of the 400^th anniversary of its publication.

Kerry McCarthy is an influential authority on Stondon Massey’s great composer, an Associate Professor of Duke University in the United States, and prime mover and shaker of the Byrd Festival in Portland, Oregon.

Thinking somewhat laterally, it seems to almost state the obvious that William Byrd would disregard the ‘new’ Anglican Bible of 1611. Byrd was an ardent recusant Catholic living in semi-retirement at Stondon Place in the quiet village of Stondon Massey in Essex. Four hundred years ago he had just published an entire edition of two cycles of Gradualia: illegal settings of Masses for the complete liturgical year to be sung in secret by ‘papist sympathisers’ at such places as Ingatestone Hall, the home of the Petre family, Byrd’s patrons. The year 1611 also marked the final publication of the composer’s work. Here was a man of at least three score and ten years who probably could not be bothered with the new-fangled version of the Bible.

The origin of the King James Version of the Bible is admirably covered in Derek Wilson’s new book, ‘The People’s Bible’ (2010). He tells the story of how churchman of various persuasions, mainstream Anglicans and Puritans, in 1604 flattered King James I into the creation of a unifying work bearing his name. Over six years six teams of scholars in Westminster, Cambridge and Oxford toiled over existing English language translations to create, as a Committee, a definitive work for its time.

Derek Wilson devotes the first seventy pages of his two hundred page book to those Bibles which had already translated and printed in English during the sixteenth century. Among those was the illegally imported translation by Tyndale, which cost him his life in 1536. Ironically only three years later King Henry VIII decreed that another translation, the Great Bible, be made available in all churches up and down the land. The Geneva Bible was published abroad in 1560; the Bishops Bible of 1568 followed which omitted controversial margin notes of the Geneva Bible; and the Rheims Bible published in the Low Countries in 1582. The Douai-Rheims Bible was the fruit of an English College, founded by William Allen, an exiled Jesuit biblical scholar, completed by Gregory Martin.

Byrd’s religious sympathies must have been towards the Rheims Bible, a ‘Catholic translation’ probably used covertly during the services at Ingatestone Hall. We need only think too of Byrd’s reaction to the martyrdom of Edmund Campion in Byrd’s motet, ‘Why Do I Use My Paper Ink and Pen’, and known friendship with Father Henry Garnett who was later arrested and hung in connection with the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 because he had heard, in a confessional, the plans of the conspirators. Garnett was a marked man. Throughout his trial was referred to as “Mr Garnett” because the authorities did not recognise his Jesuit priesthood.

1605 and 1607 were the years of publication of Byrd’s two books of Gradualia. This merely illustrates the dangerous path Byrd trod.

Byrd’s frequent naming before the Essex Archdeaconry Court by the parson and churchwardens of Stondon Massey for non-attendance at St Peter & St Paul Church, coupled with heavy fines, is further illustration of his refusal to embrace the established church. What is interesting is that his wife, who died c1606, was consistently named Ellen and not Juliana. Byrd biographer John Harley (1997) suggests this was the same person. We can deduce that whilst Byrd was not known in his immediate local community he moved nonetheless in influential circles and avoided the penalties associated with blatant Catholicism, that of imprisonment, confiscation of property and death. Nowhere could the Catholic mass be legally celebrated.

There is, perhaps, another reason why Byrd did not use the Authorised Version of the Bible. Derek Wilson points out that although the research was completed in 1610, the work itself was hurriedly proof-read; compiled for publication and printed the following year. The finished work was littered with errors and despite stringent efforts to ensure that the King James Version was the only Bible produced in England, copies of the Geneva Bible continued to be imported until the 1640s. In the early days the Authorised Version was hardly a roaring success, but its monopoly, and corrections, ensured its longevity.

The King James Bible was intended to be read out aloud during Divine Worship. Even today its seventeenth century text seems to work through being heard. The success of the King James Version was due to an accident of history. It became the vogue in seventeenth century worship for the pulpit to take more importance than the altar. Lengthy sermons were not uncommon. At Stondon Massey we find part of a triple-decker pulpit. Reverend Reeve, a former Rector, wrote: “The pulpit in Stondon Church with the reading desk attached was erected during [Nathanial] Ward’s incumbency, and bears the date 1630. In all probability 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. On the panels of the desk we find the words “Christ is All in All” the text of the famous discourse of his brother Samuel, “preacher of Ipswich”, which was published in 1627, while 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.”

It is to the Wards that we must look for the Stondon connection and the Authorised Version. Samuel Ward, the Ipswich preacher, became Master of Sidney Sussex College in 1610. But he was also a member of the Cambridge II team of translators responsible, with others, for the Apocrypha. His brother, Nathanial, became incumbent at Stondon Massey in 1628, and was one of the foremost Puritan preachers in Essex.

Nathaniel Ward’s nemesis was William Laud, the Bishop of London who on appointment in 1628 immediately forbade the printing of the Geneva Bible. Laud is described by Wilson as “the scourge of the Puritans” and Reeve as “determined to strengthen the traditional and Catholic position of the Church of England.”

Reeve takes up the story: “The Rector of Stondon was “presented” … “for not wearing a surplice in Church for the two last years past, and that prayers were not constantly read in Church on Wednesdaies, Fridaies and Holydaies”.

“A few years later, however, the end came. The Bishop’s books in the Registry of St Paul’s record that on 27^th Sept. 1632 Nathaniel Ward was suspended; on 30^th Oct. of the same year he was excommunicated for non-obedience to the Canons, and on 16^th Dec. he was deprived.

“On his expulsion from his living, Ward determined to visit the New England about which he had heard so much, and in the following year (1634) he set sail.”

The book which these New England settlers took with them was the Authorised Version of the Bible. Over time wherever Britain colonised and created its Empire, wherever the atlas was coloured red, the Bible was present in the culture of each new society.

The influence of this Bible spread because of its association with the monarchy, with stability and of order in society. Melvyn Bragg, for example, lists the King James Bible in his set of essays, ’12 Books That Changed The World’ (2006). Shakespeare’s ‘The First Folio’, Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’, Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’ and ‘The Rule Book for Association Football’ are also listed in his hall of fame. Perhaps it is an overstatement to suggest that the AV played a part in the democratic influence of England on other nations, but it is no understatement that the book had no cultural affect worldwide. It is interesting to reflect that while Britain considers AV – alternative voting – in a referendum, elsewhere in the world there is unrest and uprising against leaders in Middle Eastern countries.

The King James Version became, certainly for over 300 years, a core work in the English language and the teaching of the English language both at home and abroad. It became part of England’s literary heritage. This was both its success and long term failure. Melvyn Bragg suggests that there are some Christians who believe that only a return to regular use of the King James Version will return the nation to “the true path”. Derek Wilson says that the study of the Christian faith adapts with each age and while the works of Shakespeare, a contemporary of the Bible, could not possibly be rewritten, likewise this was mistakenly felt with the King James Version.

Wilson also cites why the KJV’s popularity fell into decline, pointing to the First World War, the break-up of the hierarchical society and increasing secularisation of the nation. Changes in education too meant that learning text by rote is considered out dated and that widespread use of the Bible in teaching in schools is now politically incorrect.

In the Church of England this year, strenuous efforts are being made to encourage greater personal Bible reading. (See for example the Bishop of Chelmsford’s item on the diocese website: http://www.chelmsford.anglican.org/bishop-says-the-bible-is.html). Clergy say that the Bible provides moral compass for peoples’ lives and the King James Version is more than a piece of towering seventeenth century literature.

Bibliography:

Bragg, Melvyn. 12 Books That Changed The World (Hodder & Stourton, 2006).

Fraser, Antonia. The Gunpowder Plot. Terror and Faith in 1605 (Arrow, 1999).

Harley, John. William Byrd. Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (Ashgate, 1997)

Reeve, Rev. E. H. L.. A History of Stondon Massey in Essex (Wiles & Son, Colchester, 1906).

Wilson, Derek. The People’s Bible. The Remarkable History of the King James Version (Lion, 2010).

Other sources:

‘Great and Manifold Blessings: The Making of the King James Bible’. An exhibition (which runs until 18 June 2011) at Cambridge University Library. See http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/exhibitions/KJV/index.html

Andrew Smith

"William Byrd is England's Greatest Composer"

Richard Turbet is our guest speaker over the first weekend of the William Byrd Festival when he co-presents ‘William Byrd: His Essex Years’. Tickets are now on sale, priced £12.50 (under 16s £6).

Richard says, “I think it is appropriate to begin by saying simply ‘William Byrd is England's greatest composer’. No point in pussyfooting around.”

Byrd was born around 1540 and became a well known organist, musician and composer of his day, writing and publishing both sacred and secular music. He was engaged as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, as such Queen Elizabeth’s sacred choir, following the death of Robert Parsons.

Byrd moved to Stondon Massey around the year 1594 and spent thirty years in semi-retirement. It was at Stondon Massey that his true religious feelings came to the fore in the writing of his music. He was a great friend of the Petre family, who were Catholics and his Patrons, and made several visits to Ingatestone Hall, where his clandestine and illegal Catholic Masses were sung. He later wrote a complete set of music for the church year – two books of ‘Gradualia’, the second of which in 1607 was dedicated to his patron, John Petre. This was a most dangerous and daring pursuit.

“It was well known to the authorities that Byrd was composing and publishing music for the Roman Catholic church” Richard says. “Indeed, the person who licensed Byrd's two books of ‘Gradualia’ (the music he composed for the services of the RC Church throughout the liturgical year) was Richard Bancroft, successively the Anglican Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury.”

“Byrd was a formidable networker and had friends in the highest places - from the Queen and subsequent King downwards. He composed and published a large quantity of music for the illegal Roman Catholic rite. Such was his status with The Queen, by whom he was employed as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, no action was taken against him."

Byrd also composed a small but significant amount of music for the Church of England. This included the Great Service as well as other anthems.

“His Roman Catholic music could not be performed in the Anglican Church during his lifetime. His Latin music started to be published again in the 1840s, but even between his death and then it was never neglected, and it circulated in manuscripts among prominent London musicians. However during the earlier twentieth century it gained acceptability among the Anglican hierarchy”. Today his Latin work has been recorded by Cardinall’s Musick under its director Andrew Carwood. The completion of this cycle of work has been likened in importance to Bach’s Cantatas and Beethoven’s piano sonatas.

On his death in 1623 Byrd was described as the ‘Father of Music’, perhaps due more to his great age – and seniority in the Chapel Royal, much like is described ‘The Father of the House’ of the senior politician in the British Parliament – than being at the vanguard of new music.

In many respects William Byrd’s music is as well known as it has ever been.