Byrd: Madrigals, Motets, Anthems & Keyboard Works - The Saltire Singers, Roy Jesson

Byrd Madrigals, Motets, Anthems and Keyboard Music

Nothing is known of the early years of William Byrd beyond the date of his birth, 1543, and the fact reported by Anthony a Wood that he was "bred up to musicke under Thomas Tallis". He was appointed organist of Lincoln Cathedral in 1563 and remained there until 1572, in which year he left for London to take the post at the Chapel Royal to which he had been appointed three years earlier. In 1575 Queen Elizabeth granted Byrd and Tallis a license for the monopoly of printing music, and in return they presented her with a volume of "Cantiones Sacrae" (motets). Although a devout Catholic and associated with prominent fellow-Catholics, Byrd remained politically loyal to the Queen and in fact wrote a substantial amount of music for the English Church. His later life saw an unpleasant series of litigations on the one hand, an acceptance of him as England's greatest composer on the other. In 1623 he died, "being old and full of days".