William Byrd
William Byrd wrote English Renaissance polyphony that still defines the choral repertory: Latin motets of fierce concentration, three Masses of luminous restraint, Anglican services and anthems, plus keyboard and consort music of dancing invention.
His motets lean into pathos and petition, lines that curve and lock in imitation until a miserere clause burns at the centre. The Mass for Four Voices pares everything back to suave contour and rhythmic poise; anthems such as Sing joyfully show the same craft turned outward in bright, athletic counterpoint. Beside the sacred works sit pavans, galliards and fantasias for the virginals, and consort pieces that train the ear as much as they delight it. Whether set for clandestine Catholic devotion or the Chapel Royal, the music keeps its grip through clarity, heat and unshowy splendour.
William Byrd is featured on the following titles
Bach Byrd Britten
The Choir of Ormond College, directed by Douglas Lawrence, presents Bach, Byrd and Britten. Bach’s motet Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden and Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices stand beside Britten’s Five Flower Songs and A Ceremony of Carols.
Compositions by William Byrd also appear on
Music from Heaven
The Choir of Ormond College, directed by Douglas Lawrence, in a highly acclaimed programme of unaccompanied sacred works by Allegri, Byrd, Poulenc, Britten, Barber and J.S. Bach.
The Choir of Ormond College Melbourne
Directed by Douglas Lawrence, who led chapel music at Ormond College, Melbourne, for more than twenty years, this recording presents the college choir in English church music of the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.
Walsingham
Renowned Australian lutenist Rosemary Hodgson’s Walsingham gathers Elizabethan lute variations on a sacred ballad into a contemplative Marian rondo of mysticism and pilgrimage.
Josquin to Martin
A miscellany spanning High and Late Renaissance motets and nineteenth- and twentieth-century sacred works, drawn from Ensemble Gombert’s first European tour in 2004. The programme was chosen to complement Hommage à Gombert, then in production, with Gombert, Lassus and Monteverdi.
Sing to the Lord, ye Heavenly Hosts
The Choir of The Scots' Church offers sacred music from sixteenth-century Palestrina to twenty-first-century Australian composer Andrew Batterham, crowned by a rare performance of Widor's Mass for choir, baritone choir and two organs.