William ByrdAll music heard in

this presentatio

n 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 S _ _ _ _ _.

A 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 music is called S _ _ _ _ _ _.

E C U L A R

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)