Transcript William Byrd

William Byrd
All music
heard in this
presentation
was
composed by
William
Byrd, unless
otherwise
stated.
William Byrd
was born in
England in
1543 during the
reign of Queen
Elizabeth I.
Who is the current
monarch of
England?
William learned
composition
from one of the
best teachers in
England at the
time. He was
another great
composer
named Thomas
Tallis.
You are listening to Tallis
right now.
At age 20,
William
became the
organist at
the Lincoln
Cathedral in
Lincolnshire,
England.
After staying at the Lincoln Cathedral for 10
years, Byrd moved to London to become a
gentleman of the “Chapel Royal.”
The “Chapel Royal” was the Chapel that the Queen
and other royalty attended for church services.
Only the finest singers and musicians in England
were permitted to be members.
Queen Elizabeth
I was fond of
music and was
said to be
musically skilled
as well. One
biographer of
her time wrote,
“she sings quite
exceptionally.”
Queen Elizabeth I grew fond of William
Byrd and his teacher, Thomas Tallis, and
she granted them a monopoly on all
music printing in England.
Byrd
Tallis
What is a monopoly?
A monopoly is complete control over a
product or service.
If McDonald’s bought all of the other fast food
restaurants and changed them to McDonald’s, they
would have a monopoly on fast food. They could
charge you high prices because they would have no
competition.
A monopoly is illegal in the United States. It’s
bad for the consumer when there’s no competition.
One computer company has a monopoly on the
computer market and they get fined about 1 million
dollars a day by the government. Who is it?
Microsoft – They make so much money that 1 million a day
is like a drop in a bucket to them.
This monopoly
gave Byrd and
Tallis absolute
control over all
music that was
printed in England
in all languages,
AND the ruled
paper upon which
music is composed.
Staff paper
Byrd was a devout
Roman Catholic, but
the Queen and all of
England was
Protestant. It was
illegal to be Catholic.
Byrd wrote Catholic
masses, but he kept
them secret and didn’t
put a title on them just
in case they were
found.
Most of Byrd’s
music is
acapella and
was written to
be performed in
a church
service. This
type of music is
called
SA_ C
_ _R_E_.D
However, some of
Byrd’s music was
intended to be
performed at
home by people
looking for something to do after
dinner. The lyrics to these songs were
not religious in any way. This type of
R
music is called S E
_ _C U
_ _L A
_ _.
The most popular form of secular music
that Byrd wrote is called a “madrigal.” The
madrigal style came from Italy. A
madrigal is a vocal song that uses music
to paint a clear picture of the words. This
is known as …
Text painting – Also used by Josquin des Prez
Just like Josquin
des Prez,
William Byrd
also has
musical groups
named after
him. This is the
William Byrd
Ensemble.
William
Byrd died in
England on
July 4, 1623.
He is
considered
one of
England’s
finest
composers.
Composer:
William
Byrd
Song Title:
Laudibus in
Sanctis
(even though he spoke
English, Latin was still
the language of the
church)