Customer Reviews

Byrd: 3 Masses

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--William Byrd--
William Byrd was a composer of grace and power. A staunch Catholic in an increasingly Protestant country, Byrd maintained his church loyalties at high cost. However, as a recognised genius at liturgical music, he had powerful admirers and friends, perhaps including Queen Elizabeth herself. Producing musical settings to Latin texts in a new-regime English-dominated church environment took courage. However, Byrd persevered all his life to produce music that remains timeless while being firmly rooted in its time.

--Mass for Five Voices, Four Voices, Three Voices--
Each mass consists of five primary pieces: the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus & Benedictus, and the Agnus Dei. The five-voice mass is probably the latest composition of the three masses presented here. It requires two tenor parts, and has an elongated Credo ending vis-à-vis the other masses. Like other Byrd compositions, in Phillips words, 'remains true to the English preference for counterpoint.' Counterpoint is a particular kind of polyphony that has a different emphasis, but a way to think about it is of having a melody against a melody in the same piece. The four-voice mass was likely the first composition, and remains the most popular. The three-voice mass presented some difficulties of composition, according to Phillips, to present counterpoint for so few voices. Nonetheless, it remains an exquisite piece of liturgical music. The Mass for Five Voices, however, is probably one of Byrd's greatest works, and thus has pride of place in this collection.

--Ave Verum Corpus--
As an added bonus, the Tallis Scholars have provided the 4-minute motet Ave Verum Corpus, also by Byrd. A motet is typically a choral composition sung at services other than masses (often at Vespers, although sometimes as anthem music). Byrd, together with Tallis (from whom this ensemble derives its name), was considered a master of the Flemish style of motet.

--Liner Notes-
Being internationally acclaimed, the Tallis Scholars' CDs typically present their commentary and texts in English, French, German and Italian (together with any Latin texts); that is true of this disc. The cover art also typically represents visual arts contemporary with the compositions - here it is a piece by Rubens, who was a contemporary of William Byrd.

--The Tallis Scholars--
The Tallis Scholars, a favourite group of mine since the first time I heard them decades ago, are a group dedicated to the performance and preservation of the best of this type of music. A choral group of exceptional ability, I have been privileged to see them many times in public, and at almost every performance, their singing seems almost like a spiritual epiphany for me, one that defies explanation in words. Directed by Peter Phillips, the group consists of a small number of male and female singers who have trained themselves well to their task.

Their recordings are of a consistent quality that deserve more than five stars; this particular disc of pieces by Byrd deserves a place on the shelf of anyone who loves choral music, liturgical music or Gregorian chant, classical music generally, or religious music. It is astonishing.

GLORIUS! GLORIUS! GLORIUS! That's the best way I can describe this marvelous rendition by the Tallis Scholars of Byrd's three Masses.

William Byrd(1543-1623) was a Catholic in the Protestant England of Queen Elizabeth, and had to be careful to keep his head, in every sense of the phrase. By writing for the Protestant Church a Great Service and a Short Service, and for the Papists three Masses(on this disc),besides madrigals, anthems, and hymns, he remained in the good graces of both factions.

In his position as Master of Musicke, he was called upon for music for every sort of occasion, and rose nobly to the challenge, inventing new types of composition as need arose. He composed a number of songs with string quartet accompaniments, actually the first vocal solos in which instruments played the part purely for accompaniment.

Byrd published his three Mass-settings between c.1593 and c.1595 separately, in very small books. They have an unmistakable austerity of tone, and in this lies the peculiar power of these pieces. It is like a theme, to which each movement of each of these 3 Masses is a variation; but the theme is a MOOD, not a MELODY.

During the course of these pieces Byrd clearly explored every feeling a man may have when he is fighting for something he passionately believes in with his back to the wall. His 5-part Mass is one of the most convincingly argued, as well as sonorous, achievements in all his music.

There is no doubt in my mind that this Tallis Scholars recording is the greatest of all the recordings of these Masses. Peter Phillips has assembled his most accomplished singers for this disc (made in 1985). Singers such as:Sally Dunkely & Alison Gough (sopranos)-Michael Chance & Robert Harre-Jones (countertenors)-Charles Daniels, Mark Padmore,Rufus Miller & Nicolas Robertson (tenors)-Francis Steele and Jeremy White (basses). Their sound is sonorous;their emotional investment high and correct; their balance perfection and the diction is flawless! I have 2 other recordings of these Masses, and they just don't get to this SUPERIOR level.

GRAMOPHONE/Gordon Reynolds: "This for me is the sort of musical bliss which should never stop."

This is Thee music to listen to. The only possible Earthly candidate to eclipse the immortal Johann Sebastian (well, almost, or temporarily...) Listen especially for the true temperament and to the resonances evolving from deep within the vaults and savour the grand pauses between the cuts. Nothing like it. Enjoy.

Meistro

The harmonies written by Byrd will wrap you in a mysterious blend of piousness and beauty.

Wonderful for quiet time in an early childhood classroom.