William Byrd: This Day Christ Was Born

In case you're not up on your English Reformation history, let me give you a quick crash course, because it's relevant to this week's music.

You're likely familiar with Henry VIII, the guy who famously had six wives and had two of them killed, all because he was trying desperately to get a male heir to the throne. The history of Henry VIII is interesting for a lot of reasons, but the relevant bit for us here is that after being named Defender of the [Catholic] Faith, an honor given to Henry by the pope himself after Henry repudiated Martin Luther's grievances against the church, Henry wanted a divorce, and when he couldn't get one, he broke from the Catholic church and became head of the protestant Church of England. Long story short (and very simplified): Catholicism became illegal in England for quite a while.

This was no small thing. There were, obviously, a lot of practicing Catholics in England. Though people had always been encouraged to attend services, there had been compulsory church attendance in England from about the 13th century, which became a bit more enforceable during the Reformation because there were more regular church services---but since Catholicism was outlawed, all public services were protestant. You can read some interesting stories about this here, but what you really need to know is that those who chose not to attend could be fined and hassled legally. In fact, at one point being Catholic was even considered treasonous. Catholics who wanted to continue attending their own worship services had to do so in secret. It was not exactly a calm and peaceful time.

From the mid-16th century to the late 18th-century, this was the reality for Catholics in England. William Byrd, a devout Catholic, lived from 1540--1623. You see the problem?

William Byrd is such an interesting figure because he was openly and loudly Catholic, but while there are plenty of records of him getting fined for not attending protestant services, he managed to stay largely out of trouble and, in fact, very much in the favor of Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558--1603. When James VI succeeded Elizabeth, he continued the prosecutions against Catholics. In 1605, a group of Catholics tried to blow up parliament (the Gunpowder Plot), which increased anti-Catholic sentiment. The main effect on Byrd, though, seems to be that he simply had to delay publishing some of his music for a while.

So what's the deal? In his feature on William Byrd, musicologist Peter Seibert writes, "the fact that Byrd was able to flourish despite being a Catholic reflects both his reputation as a composer and his adroitness at politics. He had influential friends among the aristocracy, some of whom were also Catholic. The Queen herself appears to have provided for him to live safely" despite the fact that he continued to be fined for not attending protestant services (you can read the whole article here, which I highly recommend).

It's that first bit of what Seibert says that I want to focus on for a minute: Byrd's reputation as a composer. There's a lot to be said about him working with fellow composer Thomas Tallis and their monopoly on music publication and sales, but even that must certainly go back to his reputation. Before we delve into that, let's listen to "This Day Christ Was Born" so that if you're unfamiliar with Byrd you can have at least one glorious example of his music in your ears:

Okay, first let's just take a moment to point out how intricate and marvelous this music is. Byrd is a master at part-writing and using meter to best advantage. The music is ebullient; when the text talks about the angels singing, the voices build on each other in ways that make it feel like there's a large, happy choir of angels. When the archangels are glad, Byrd introduces melismas to increase the level of jubilation. This leads into a literal section of rejoicing, emphasized by even more melismas and a change of meter that helps draw attention to the moment.

But what is everyone rejoicing about? Lest you miss it, Byrd suddenly changes meter and uses almost a fully homophonic setting on the word "saying" for a moment, drawing focus to the message of the song: "Glory be to God on high." This section also features the most soaring notes in the piece; Byrd engages in a bit of word painting when he sets "on high" well . . . on high. This is definitely the most reverential and worshipful section of the piece as well, before it ends with a joyous "alleluia."

Go ahead, listen to it again. You know you want to.

This piece was first published in 1611 during the reign of James I. In fact, 1611 is the same year that the King James Bible came to be. Clearly a pretty religiously/politically charged time, right? But Byrd was obviously talented. That earned him a lot of status. He was also sneaky, though---even subversive.

At this time, Catholic services were exclusively in Latin. This piece---and many others like it by Byrd during the time---is in English, which would make it suitable for an Anglican service. I can't speak to the text of this piece in particular, but the book it was published in, Psalmes, Songs, and Sonnets, is known to contain a lot of music that heavily drew its English texts from a book that was regularly in use by Catholics practicing in secret. (Byrd was also writing a lot in Latin---there's so much to be said about the fact that he more or less thumbed his nose at the Catholic prohibition at the time.) So did he actually write a Catholic piece in the guise of a protestant one? Was he sitting somewhere in a required church service he actually went to, secretly grinning as the choir sang music that professed his Catholic faith all while thinking they were performing something written specifically for an Anglican service?

Knowing the environment in which Byrd was writing doesn't make his music any more or less glorious---it's just an interesting addition to the context. You can draw your own conclusions about it and about Byrd, but no matter where you land, I think you can agree that he was a master of his craft and he left the world a legacy of music that continues to enrich us some 400 years later.

Get a bundle of this score, practice tracks, and a full recording here.