Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s reforms as embodied in his new prayer book of 1549 were to have a profound, and some would say disastrous, impact on church music; indeed Cranmer’s own philosophy on the subject was clear: “ in mine opinion, the song that shall be made thereunto would not be full of notes, but, as near as may be, for every syllable a note”, and the Act of Uniformity let to a rather quick production of new compositions for the Reformed church. But the movement was short lived, and upon the death of Edward VI in 1553, his sister Mary came to the throne and reunited the country with the Catholic communion.
It was probably during this time that the young Byrd became a member of the Chapel Royal. One of his earliest surviving compositions is In exitu Israel, which he composed jointly with John Sheppard, a senior member of the chapel, and William Mundy. Sheppard, who died in 1558, was responsible for most of the work, setting seven of the verses, while Byrd and Mundy set three and four verses respectively (Mundy being a slightly older contemporary of Byrd). Other early works include Sacris solemniis and the rather enigmatic Regis tharsis, both of which also owe much to Sheppard’s influence during these formative years in Byrd’s musical training.
The Virgin Queen
Soon after Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 the Book of Common Prayer was reintroduced, and the English Church as it is known today was established. Elizabeth had all the makings of a great monarch: she was young, beautiful, clever, articulate, and her reign was seen by many as a time of religious and political settlement. Unlike the Protestant reformation of the early 1550s, under Elizabeth music was again allowed to flourish. In 1563 Byrd left London for Lincoln Cathedral, taking up the post of organist and instructor of the choristers, where it is thought that much of his English church music was composed. The so-called “Great” Service contains music for the morning and evening services and holy communion; it is of symphonic proportions, and is the only example of Byrd completely pulling out all of his compositional stops in this genre. The other three services and the anthems are all beautifully constructed, and, although serene, seem to lack a depth of spirituality so explicitly stated in his Latin works. When Byrd returned to London in 1572 as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (he replaced Robert Parsons, who drowned that year in the River Trent), he was already a highly respected composer, and we get our first true taste of Byrd’s musical disposition in his first collection of printed motets, Cantiones Sacræ (1575), which he published jointly with Thomas Tallis.
Tallis, then an “aged man”, and Byrd, who was in his mid to late 30s, were the first to secure a monopoly to print and sell music and music paper in England. On 22 January 1575 Elizabeth I granted the composers a 21 year licence “to imprint any and so many as they will of set songe or songes in partes, either in English, Latine, French, Italian, or other tongues that may serue for musicke either in Churche or chamber, or otherwise to be either plaid or soonge.” In appreciation for this licence the publication was dedicated to the Queen, who herself was highly skilled in singing and in playing the virginals: “ you approve of the art of singing in that you have always encouraged that art so that you are now outstandingly skilled in it " whether by the refinement of your voice or the nimbleness of your fingers.” As a tribute to their Queen, Tallis and Byrd each contributed seventeen motets to the collection, a number very possibly chosen to mark the seventeenth anniversary of Elizabeth’s accession which took place on 17 November 1575 (Tallis’s Suscipe quaeso/Si enim iniquitatis and Byrd’s Tribue Domine/Te deprecor/Gloria patri were given separate numbers to reach this total).
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