Byrd, William (1)
Byrd, William
(c.1543-1623) Composer and organist, born probably Lincoln, England ; died London. He became, in 1575 , organist of the Chapel Royal, being an orthodox polyphonist. He excelled in liturgical compositions although he also founded the English Madrigal School and was a prolific composer for the virginals. “Psalms, Sonnets and Songs,” several masses, “Graduals,” and “Sacred Songs,” have survived.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Byrd, William
English composer, born in London in 1542 or 1543; died 4 July, 1623. He was the son of a musician, and studied music principally under Thomas Tallis. He became organist at Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, chorister in the Chapel Royal in 1570, and in 1575 received the title of Organist of the Chapel Royal without being obliged to perform the functions of that office. Byrd was the most distinguished contrapuntist and the most prolific composer of his time in England. Fétis calls him the English Palestrina. He was the first Englishman to write madrigals, a form which originated in Italy in the thirteenth century, and received its highest development in the sixteenth century at the hands of Arcadelt and other masters. An organist and performer of the first order upon the virginals, Byrd wrote for the latter instrument an enormous number of compositions, many of which are played today. His chief significance lies, however, in his compositions for the Church, of which he produced a great many. In 1607 he published a collection of gradualia for the whole ecclesiastical year, among which is to be found a three-part setting of the words of the multitude in the Passion according to St. John. A modern edition of this setting was published in 1899. In 1611 “Psalms, Songs and Sonnets, Some Solemn, Others Joyful, Framed to the Life of the Words, Fit for Voyces or Viols, etc.” appeared. Probably in the same year was issued “Parthenia”, a collection of virginal music, in which Byrd collaborated with J. Bull and Orlando Gibbons. Three masses — for three, four, and five voices, respectively — belong to the composer’s best period. The one for five voices was reprinted by the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1841, and in 1899 the same work was issued by Breitkopf and Hartel. Two of his motets, “Domine, ne irascaris” and “Civitas sancti tui”, with English texts, are in the repertoire of most Anglican cathedrals. In spite of the harrowing religious conditions under which he lived, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I, Byrd remained faithful to his principles and duties as a Catholic, as is shown in his life and by his works. In his last will and testament he prays “that he may live and dye a true and perfect member of the Holy Catholike Churche withoute which I beleeve there is noe salvacon for me”.
———————————–
The Music Story Series: English Music, 1604 to 1904 (London and New York, 1906); RITTER, Music in England (New York, 1833); GROVE, Dictionary of Music.
JOSEPH OTTEN Transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook Laudate Dominum in chordis et organo.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IIICopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Byrd, William (1)
an English minister of the Society of Friends, was born at Uffculme, Devonshire, in 1757. He was converted when about twenty-two years of age, and entered. the ministry in 1794. He was “sound in doctrine, and his ministry was exercised in simplicity, and in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” From conscientious reasons he abstained from the use of the produce of West India slavery. His ministry for several years was confined within the limits of Devonshire and parts adjacent, but afterwards he travelled in England, Ireland, and to the Orkney Islands. Catholic in his spirit, “he was a lover of good men of every denomination, and of enlarged charity and liberal views.” He died Dec. 16, 1835. See Testimonies of Deceased Ministers, 1836, p. 3-16. (J. C. S.)