0:00:26 > 0:00:29This is the story of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd
0:00:29 > 0:00:32two musicians living in an age of uncertainty
0:00:32 > 0:00:33500 years ago
0:00:33 > 0:00:37in England where only one religion was allowed,
0:00:37 > 0:00:39where worship was compulsory
0:00:39 > 0:00:42and where every time a new monarch came to the throne,
0:00:42 > 0:00:44they changed the national faith.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02Two composers in an age of adversity for whom choral music was the profoundest expression
0:01:02 > 0:01:04of deeply held religious beliefs.
0:01:04 > 0:01:11Through the reigns of six monarchs and 100 years of social and religious upheaval
0:01:11 > 0:01:15singing the Lord's song in a strange land.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41ORGAN PLAYS
0:01:43 > 0:01:46My journey will take me from the solemnity of cathedrals
0:01:46 > 0:01:49to the despair of the place of execution.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53From the private chapel of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I
0:01:53 > 0:01:57to the Holy Mass celebrated in secret, deep in the English countryside,
0:01:57 > 0:02:04as I discover how two Roman Catholic musicians, Thomas Tallis and his younger colleague William Byrd
0:02:04 > 0:02:08survived and flourished during the tempestuous foundation
0:02:08 > 0:02:10of the Protestant Church in England.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23There are few documents from Thomas Tallis's long life.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25No birth certificate,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27no accounts of his parents
0:02:27 > 0:02:29or of where he learned to write and to sing.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33In a sense, the only biography is the music he composed.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38CHOIR SINGS IN PARTS
0:03:10 > 0:03:13One of the first facts we can be sure of
0:03:13 > 0:03:16is that in his early 20s he was appointed organist
0:03:16 > 0:03:20at this small and rather undistinguished priory in Dover.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22He like everyone else was Roman Catholic,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26growing up and learning his music in the great Medieval tradition
0:03:26 > 0:03:28of plainchant and polyphony.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30# Nobilis
0:03:31 > 0:03:34# humilis
0:03:34 > 0:03:35# Magne
0:03:35 > 0:03:37# martyr
0:03:37 > 0:03:39# stabilis
0:03:39 > 0:03:41# Habilis
0:03:41 > 0:03:44# utilis
0:03:44 > 0:03:49# comes venerabilis... #
0:03:49 > 0:03:51But in the five years he spent here beside the sea
0:03:51 > 0:03:53his world changed.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57Or rather Henry VIII changed the world.
0:04:00 > 0:04:06Henry's Act Of Supremacy declared the King to be "the only supreme head on Earth
0:04:06 > 0:04:08"of the Church Of England."
0:04:08 > 0:04:14He backed this up with his Treasons Act, which made it High Treason, and therefore punishable by death,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17to refuse to acknowledge this fact.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Officially, England was no longer a Roman Catholic country.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28CHOIR SINGS
0:04:36 > 0:04:41Thomas Tallis was a gifted musician at a time when virtually the only outlet for his talents
0:04:41 > 0:04:43was through the Church.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47The huge upheavals in religion and society over the coming decades
0:04:47 > 0:04:51are central to the life of this man who, whatever his own private faith,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55worked diligently at the business of making sacred music.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03These are the original main gates of Waltham Abbey.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06When Tallis passed through them in the autumn of 1538
0:05:06 > 0:05:08to take up his post as organist,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11it must have been with mixed feelings.
0:05:12 > 0:05:19# Gloria in excelsis Deo. #
0:05:19 > 0:05:23At the time, Waltham Abbey was a massive establishment,
0:05:23 > 0:05:29the church, the only substantial surviving building, was four times' its current size.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34CHOIR SINGS "Mass: Puer Natus" by Tallis
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Harry Christophers is the artistic director of The Sixteen,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41a choir of specialist early music singers.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48He chose Waltham Abbey as the space in which to record the music for this programme
0:05:48 > 0:05:52because of its powerful association with Tallis.
0:06:07 > 0:06:13What amazes me about his music is the amount I, as a conductor, can interpret.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17I look at things like the Puer Natus Mass
0:06:17 > 0:06:19which on a page looks very confined,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23but actually it can take a vast amount of interpretation.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31For me, Tallis is first and foremost a great composer,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35one of the finest, and I have to constantly remind myself
0:06:35 > 0:06:37that Tallis worked for the Church.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Those were the jobs in music in the Tudor times.
0:06:48 > 0:06:54However, for the previous couple of years, since Henry VIII's break with the Church of Rome,
0:06:54 > 0:06:59monasteries, priories and abbeys had been closing down left, right and centre.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07CHOIR CONTINUE TO SING "Puer Natus"
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Monks were forced to declare that their way of life
0:07:10 > 0:07:14was a vain and superstitious round of dumb ceremonies.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19They were evicted, their lands were seized, chapels and cloisters left empty or demolished.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Any resistance was punished by execution.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28MUSIC: "Mass: Puer Natus" by Tallis
0:07:28 > 0:07:32By now, monasteries were closing at a rate of 20 a month.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36The new organist must have been well aware that Waltham Abbey's days were numbered.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41In fact, it was less than two years before the Abbey was finally dissolved
0:07:41 > 0:07:45and Thomas Tallis was looking for another job.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Although documents relating to Tallis are rare,
0:07:50 > 0:07:54there are some and I've been told that the British Library in St Pancras
0:07:54 > 0:07:56held something rather special.
0:07:56 > 0:07:57Nicolas, you've found a book
0:07:57 > 0:07:59for me to see
0:07:59 > 0:08:02and I don't know anything about it really.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05- But it's something to do with Tallis.- Yes.- So show me.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09It's written by a man called John Wylde who's written his name at the front.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12So, "This book belongs to John Wylde,
0:08:12 > 0:08:18"sometime precentor at the monastery of the Holy Cross in Waltham."
0:08:18 > 0:08:21- So he's from Waltham Abbey. - Which is where Tallis worked.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24This must have been part of the library of Waltham Abbey
0:08:24 > 0:08:27and it's got lots of different music theory treatises in it,
0:08:27 > 0:08:32- including at one point a few pictures as well...- That's rather lovely.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36..showing the way that the breve can be divided into semibreves and so on.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39- Beautiful.- And then at the end of it is Tallis's signature.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44He's written "Thomas Tallis". You can ignore that bit because it...
0:08:44 > 0:08:45It looks more like...
0:08:45 > 0:08:47It's just that one at the top.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49It's such a beautiful signature.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53It's quite spidery but it's rather elegant.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56This is the only example we have of his handwriting.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59- No letters survive, certainly no music.- Yeah.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02There's no reason to doubt that it is Tallis himself.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Unfortunately we've stamped over it. SIMON RUSSELL BEALE LAUGHS
0:09:05 > 0:09:09- Not you personally. - But you can still make it out.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Of course Tallis was at Waltham Abbey until its dissolution in 1540
0:09:14 > 0:09:17so I imagine he took this book away with him
0:09:17 > 0:09:19when the Abbey was dissolved.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Maybe they gave it to him because they had no further use for it.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25When you say they had no further use for it,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29do you think that what was in this book was somehow Catholic and therefore of no use
0:09:29 > 0:09:35- or just...?- Well, it's Catholic in the sense that all of it is about the performance of plainchant.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39That was Catholic and now abolished, so it was no use to anybody.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50THEY SING IN PARTS
0:09:56 > 0:10:02We don't know when Tallis the singer became Tallis the composer.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06The body of his work that has survived is relatively small and almost impossible to date.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10But all display his ear for subtle melody and his gift for close harmony.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18Tallis's music has this amazingly ethereal quality
0:10:18 > 0:10:20and in something like O Nata Lux
0:10:20 > 0:10:22it's an amazing gem.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27Within that, he's produced something that has an incredible celestial quality.
0:10:27 > 0:10:33It's the way Tallis distributes the voices in a very sensitive way.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41# ..effici
0:10:41 > 0:10:49# Tui beati corporis. #
0:10:49 > 0:10:53He does set very much one note to a syllable,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57but there is always a part that has a little melisma, a little moving line,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59that adds a nuance to it.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02That gives the music a very tender approach.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03# Tui
0:11:03 > 0:11:07# beati
0:11:07 > 0:11:11# corporis. #
0:11:19 > 0:11:25For me, as a conductor, there's no doubt about Tallis's music, that all the lines are very singable.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27They lie very well for each voice.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30You can't say that of every composer of the Tudor period.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35# O Lord, in thee is all my trust
0:11:36 > 0:11:40# Give ear unto my woeful cries
0:11:42 > 0:11:47# Refuse me not, that am unjust
0:11:47 > 0:11:53# but bowing down thy heav'nly eyes
0:11:53 > 0:11:55# behold... #
0:11:55 > 0:11:57Tallis was one of the first professional musicians.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Quite simply an employee who looked to the Church
0:12:00 > 0:12:02to provide him with work,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04whatever the political or religious climate.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10His new job as a professional singer or lay clerk was here in Canterbury,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13at the heart of a religious revolution,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17lending his voice to the development of a new style of liturgy for the Church Of England.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24# No, no, not so! Thy will is bent... #
0:12:24 > 0:12:29Gone was the Latin language and the elaborate ornamental ritual associated with it,
0:12:29 > 0:12:34to be replaced by plain, simple music with the words in English.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36# ..where angels sing continually
0:12:36 > 0:12:43# To thee be praise, world without end. #
0:12:44 > 0:12:46But he didn't stay here for long.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51He'd landed a job for life as a member of His Majesty's private chapel choir.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55# If ye love me
0:12:59 > 0:13:05# keep my commandments
0:13:05 > 0:13:12# and I will pray the Father
0:13:20 > 0:13:22# and he shall... #
0:13:22 > 0:13:26I think what's important to remember is that singing the music for the Daily Office
0:13:26 > 0:13:31and composing the music were not two different things. They were the same thing.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33You were employed to make music
0:13:33 > 0:13:35for the devotions of the Chapel Royal
0:13:35 > 0:13:37in a most literal way.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40You'd write it, turn up, hand it out and sing it.
0:13:40 > 0:13:46So a lot of the gentlemen are providing music on a week-in, week-out basis
0:13:46 > 0:13:47for the Chapel to sing.
0:13:47 > 0:13:55# ..he may abide with you for ever... #
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Can you tell me when it was built?
0:13:58 > 0:14:00The room itself dates from the end of the 15C.
0:14:00 > 0:14:06But it was turned into a chapel in about 1530 by Henry VIII
0:14:06 > 0:14:10when he appropriated this complex of buildings from a leper hospital
0:14:10 > 0:14:16- and turned it into a royal palace and that's when this room became a chapel.- So, in fact...
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Thomas Tallis would have known this room.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Certainly he would have done.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24There's a certain amount here that Tallis would recognise,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27principally the ceiling, which was painted probably by Holbein,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31but certainly in honour of Henry's fourth marriage in 1540 to Anne of Cleves.
0:14:31 > 0:14:37- Not a successful marriage.- Well, no, I think the ceiling was probably the best thing that came put of it!
0:14:37 > 0:14:42I think it's important to be clear that the Chapel Royal in one sense is not really a place at all.
0:14:42 > 0:14:48It's a body of people, part of the monarch's personal entourage, part of the household
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and it's a body of clergy and musicians that attends the spiritual needs of the sovereign,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55wherever the sovereign happens to be.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59The King would move around an awful lot, partly to go hunting
0:14:59 > 0:15:03and partly to impress and intimidate nobles in various parts of the country.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07And, in Tallis's time, trying to work out what his first title would be...
0:15:07 > 0:15:10- The Gentlemen Of The Chapel Royal. - Oh, right.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13It was all very much on order of seniority.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18You joined at the bottom of the list and you move up the list as people die.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23# ..e'en the spirit of truth. #
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Still a young man,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38somewhere in his mid-thirties,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41but his talent has thrust him into the heart of the state,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45serving first Henry VIII and then his son Edward VI,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48as the new religion found its feet.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54But the establishment of a Protestant church in England
0:15:54 > 0:15:56was about to come to a sudden stop
0:15:56 > 0:16:00as Henry's eldest daughter, Mary Tudor, took the throne.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05She re-established the Catholic faith and promptly executing Protestants.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11Bloody Mary sent almost 300 martyrs to their death during her five-year reign.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Tallis, as a loyal member of Her Majesty's Chapel,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18was instrumental in his employer's policy
0:16:18 > 0:16:20of re-imposing the Catholic liturgy.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24THEY SING "Mass: Puer Natus" by Tallis
0:16:27 > 0:16:31She also found a suitable husband to father a Catholic heir.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Here at Winchester Cathedral Mary married Philip of Spain.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Tallis, as a member of Her Majesty's choir,
0:16:38 > 0:16:40was at the ceremony.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03The marriage could hardly be described as a happy one
0:17:03 > 0:17:05and Mary died childless.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Under the terms of her father Henry VIII's will,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11her half-sister took the throne.
0:17:11 > 0:17:17The new queen, Elizabeth, was determined that Protestantism should return.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23# O ye tender babes
0:17:23 > 0:17:26# of England. #
0:17:26 > 0:17:31Citizens now had either to convert back to the Church of England
0:17:31 > 0:17:34or hold onto the old faith in secret.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Creative, adaptable and immersed in the English choral tradition,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43Tallis seems to have managed to balance his private religious beliefs
0:17:43 > 0:17:46with the demands made by the new Anglican Church.
0:17:46 > 0:17:54#..whereby you may do your duty to God... #
0:17:54 > 0:17:57My guess is that Tallis was a Roman Catholic at heart
0:17:57 > 0:17:59all the way through his life.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01But, like any other professional musician,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04you're not going to get yourself sacked
0:18:04 > 0:18:06by speaking out and not toeing the line.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10# Make glad your parents... #
0:18:10 > 0:18:14Tallis is a very practical composer. He does what's expected of him.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16He's a pure professional.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21Any professional would say, "This is what I do. If the rules have changed, I'll change with them."
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Elizabeth was very keen to promote a new form of singing
0:18:27 > 0:18:29to complement the liturgy.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33"For the comforting of such that delight in music," she said,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36"it may be permissible to sing a hymn or suchlike song
0:18:36 > 0:18:38"to the praise of Almighty God."
0:18:38 > 0:18:45This hymn tune, composed by Tallis, for a collection made by the first Anglican archbishop, Matthew Parker,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47may be familiar.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55# Why fum'th in fight the Gentiles spite
0:18:55 > 0:19:00# In fury raging stout?
0:19:01 > 0:19:08# Why tak'th in hand the people fond
0:19:08 > 0:19:14# Vain things to bring about?
0:19:14 > 0:19:21# The Kings arise the Lords devise
0:19:21 > 0:19:26# In counsels met thereto
0:19:26 > 0:19:34# Against the Lord with false accord
0:19:34 > 0:19:42# Against His Christ they go. #
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Elizabeth had issued injunctions forbidding elaborate Church music.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55She required a modest and distinct song which may be as plainly understood
0:19:55 > 0:19:57as if it were read without singing.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01This, of course, did not apply to her own church services.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22Although technically speaking, this was a place where Protestant worship was held,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25it was a private household chapel of the monarch, not a public space.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29A lot of the people who visited it were foreigners and Roman Catholics.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36The chances are that what went on there was a bit of a compromise.
0:20:36 > 0:20:42The services could be held in Latin, they could therefore include quite a lot of Latin texts of music.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47I think it would be wrong to think of the Chapel Royal as being a place where staunch Anglicanism
0:20:47 > 0:20:51is being bashed down your throat. Quite the opposite, I think.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56Elizabeth's private attitude was perhaps unexpectedly tolerant.
0:20:56 > 0:21:03"There is one Jesus Christ, one faith, the rest is dispute about trifles."
0:21:07 > 0:21:11And then William Byrd, a gifted young singer, choirmaster,
0:21:11 > 0:21:13organist and composer,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16was recruited by Her Majesty's Chapel.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21Tallis at that time was approaching 70 and had already served the Chapel Royal for 30 years.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25But over the next decade he and Byrd would work closely together
0:21:25 > 0:21:30to the greater glory of God and of course of Queen Elizabeth.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Elizabeth claimed to have, in her own words,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57"an affection for the science of music."
0:21:57 > 0:22:02In recognising that she had the country's two greatest composers in her choir,
0:22:02 > 0:22:03she gave them a gift.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07The monopoly for printing music in England.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16The business wasn't exactly a success.
0:22:16 > 0:22:22But they published one book, Cantiones Quae Ab Argumento Sacrae Vocantur
0:22:22 > 0:22:27composed by Thomii Tallisio et Guilielmo Birdo.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38They couldn't flatter Elizabeth enough.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43The book is dedicated to the most high, mighty and magnificent Empress.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46They lavished praise upon her musical skills.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51"Compared to the greatest masters," they said, "you easily surpass them,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54"whether by refinement of voice or agility of fingers."
0:23:01 > 0:23:05At this point, Queen Elizabeth had been on the throne for 17 years.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Tallis and Byrd decided not only to incorporate that number into the structure of their book,
0:23:09 > 0:23:17their 34 songs, 17 by each composer, but they also decided to let it echo within the songs themselves.
0:23:17 > 0:23:23Within the heart of Tallis's extremely complex piece, Miserere Nostri Domine,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27is a 17-note melody.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31# Miserere
0:23:31 > 0:23:34# nostri
0:23:34 > 0:23:37# Domine
0:23:37 > 0:23:40# Miserere
0:23:41 > 0:23:48# nostri... #
0:23:48 > 0:23:51I didn't actually check whether there were 17.
0:23:51 > 0:23:5617 notes to either a syllable or a change of note.
0:23:56 > 0:24:02And that can only work if it's had some, presumably, emotional or spiritual impact.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07The amazing thing about this is it's a technical feat of just amazing brilliance.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10But like all feats like this, in the hands of some composers,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13they can just be technical, academic and boring.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17But in the hands of Tallis, it's the most phenomenal piece.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19Let's just hear the first few bars.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28THEY SING IN PARTS "Miserere Nostri Domine" by Tallis
0:25:18 > 0:25:22Tallis must have felt an affinity for his junior colleague.
0:25:22 > 0:25:27Perhaps he saw something of himself in this talented young professional musician
0:25:27 > 0:25:32and like him William Byrd seems to have come from humble origins.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48The first sure fact we have about William Byrd's life
0:25:48 > 0:25:51is that in the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign
0:25:51 > 0:25:55he came here to the Cathedral Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary in Lincoln
0:25:55 > 0:25:59to take up his post as organist and master of the choristers.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04THEY SING "Christus Resurgens" by Byrd
0:26:22 > 0:26:25Byrd spent 10 years in Lincoln.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30He lived here in Minster Yard in a house that's no longer standing.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37He married a local woman, Juliana Birley, at St Margaret's-In-The-Close Church,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40which was around here, although it's been long since demolished.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56This is Byrd's first workplace.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00The choir stalls, which have barely changed over the last 400 years.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03I think we can imagine him here, a young man, gifted,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05perhaps ambitious,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08producing the streamlined music for the Anglican Church,
0:27:08 > 0:27:15all the while surrounded by this very elegant but heavily ornamented stone and woodwork,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18a nagging reminder of the old faith.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21ORGAN PLAYS
0:27:29 > 0:27:35Lincoln Cathedral has an archive of documents that goes back nearly 1,000 years.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40Here we have the official record of William Byrd's appointment
0:27:40 > 0:27:43as organist and master of the choristers here at Lincoln Cathedral.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48It's like a minute book. It's a record of the meetings of the Dean and Chapter.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51This is all in a typical Elizabethan secretary hand.
0:27:51 > 0:27:57It's mostly in Latin, which was the great language of legal records.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01And here we have the official record of William Byrd's appointment.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04Point him out for me, just for the sheer thrill of it.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07Here we have, "To all faithful Christian people,
0:28:07 > 0:28:10"know that we have granted the office of Master of the Choristers
0:28:10 > 0:28:14to our beloved in Christ - delicto nobis in christo -
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Willalmo Byrd - William Byrd
0:28:17 > 0:28:19for the term of life.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22ORGAN MUSIC
0:28:22 > 0:28:26One of the few church organ pieces of Byrd's to be preserved
0:28:26 > 0:28:31is this, an improvisation on the starting note the choir master gives to the choir.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34ORGAN MUSIC
0:28:37 > 0:28:41And another entry in the account book uncovers an interesting story.
0:28:42 > 0:28:48September 1570. Basically, the chapter is insisting that in services,
0:28:48 > 0:28:53rather than playing the organ, he was just to give the starting note for the choir
0:28:53 > 0:28:57and then to sing with the choir, and not to play the organ.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Now this suggests to me that Byrd had been experimenting on the organ
0:29:01 > 0:29:04and that the Dean and chapter didn't like this.
0:29:04 > 0:29:05It was not simple enough,
0:29:05 > 0:29:10it wasn't the basic Puritan simplicity that was what they wanted.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15But it was in a ledger book for 1567 that we found something
0:29:15 > 0:29:19that made me profoundly grateful for Elizabethan bureaucracy.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21There we are.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25This particular section here deals with
0:29:25 > 0:29:29miscellaneous payments made to various cathedral staff and employees.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33Over here we have this amazing signature - Wyllyam Byrde
0:29:33 > 0:29:34Oh, wow!
0:29:34 > 0:29:37- Master of the choristers.- Oh, wow!
0:29:37 > 0:29:40Acknowledging nine shillings for livery,
0:29:40 > 0:29:44which would be for whatever he was required to wear during cathedral services.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47This is extraordinary, it's a very, very, very elaborate signature.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51I think we get some impression from that of the way Byrd saw himself.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54He wasn't shy and retiring.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58He knew he was a great musician and I think that says it.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00How thrilling to see it.
0:30:00 > 0:30:01- Yes.- It's a beauty.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06Seeing Byrd's signature gave me a powerful sense of direct connection with him.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08But can modern techniques of handwriting analysis
0:30:08 > 0:30:12provide a further insight into his psychological make-up?
0:30:12 > 0:30:15This signature of William Byrd's
0:30:15 > 0:30:19appears on the account books of Lincoln Cathedral,
0:30:19 > 0:30:23where he worked as a young man in his twenties,
0:30:23 > 0:30:25as "pulsator of the organs".
0:30:25 > 0:30:26I love that phrase!
0:30:26 > 0:30:28And as Master of the Choristers
0:30:28 > 0:30:33And you see it looks stiff, it looks formal,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36it's decorated with these figure of eight patterns
0:30:36 > 0:30:41which are about the image that he's trying to create.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43Signature is about your public image.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45And you sense, from this,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49that William Byrd is trying to project an image
0:30:49 > 0:30:53of, maybe being quite grand,
0:30:53 > 0:30:58maybe he's trying to grow into this job that he's been given as a young man.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03But, as he finishes these figure of eight patterns,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07he dispenses with the last loop very swiftly.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12And I sense in this a certain impatience with this formality -
0:31:12 > 0:31:15that although he'll go along with it,
0:31:15 > 0:31:17really that is not what is essential to him,
0:31:17 > 0:31:23and he's really interested in deeper, more spiritual concerns.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31Fifteen miles west of central London,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35and squeezed in between Heathrow airport and the M4 motorway,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38lies the Middlesex village of Harlington.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42After leaving Lincoln, this is where Byrd and his family settled.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Apparently taking possession of Harlington Manor
0:31:53 > 0:31:55The Manor is long gone
0:31:55 > 0:32:00and there's no real trace of Byrd or the village that he knew here now.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07As ever, it's a few surviving documents that give us a clue
0:32:07 > 0:32:11that at this point, there are two of particular significance.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16Firstly there's a petition to Her Majesty
0:32:16 > 0:32:18written jointly by Tallis and Byrd.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Curiously it concerns neither music nor religion,
0:32:21 > 0:32:22but property.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Pleading poverty, they ask Her Majesty to grant them a bundle of leases
0:32:26 > 0:32:30for nearly a dozen properties scattered across southern England.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33These were lands seized after the dissolution of the monasteries.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37and their leases entitled Tallis and Byrd to various rents and tithes.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40So our two composers were landlords.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49The other document from the same year is perhaps more telling.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52On a list compiled by the recently enthroned Bishop of London
0:32:52 > 0:32:56of those who were guilty of not attending church in his diocese
0:32:56 > 0:33:01is the entry, "Wife of William Byrd, one of the gents of Her Majesty's chapel."
0:33:01 > 0:33:06The first explicit evidence of the family's Roman Catholicism.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08CHOIR SINGS
0:33:18 > 0:33:22Being a Catholic at this time was a dangerous game.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Recusancy, which means refusal,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27was punished by increasingly harsh fines.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31£20 for not attending a place of common prayer.
0:33:31 > 0:33:36and even more for singing, saying or even just hearing Mass.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38CHOIR SINGS
0:33:45 > 0:33:49Over the years, Byrd and his wife, and his servants,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52were repeatedly named for refusing to worship at this church.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55The punishments not deterring them, who knows.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59Byrd, it seems, was a stubborn, strong-minded individual.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03Perhaps a sense of persecution even strengthened his faith.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09Then, at the age of 80,
0:34:09 > 0:34:11Tallis dies.
0:34:11 > 0:34:12That's all we know.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17But Byrd was moved to write an extraordinary elegy to his old friend.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21The imagery is pagan, we don't know who wrote the words.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23It could have been William Byrd himself.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25But the sentiments are heartfelt.
0:34:25 > 0:34:34# Ye sacred Muses, race of Jove,
0:34:37 > 0:34:45# Whom Music's lore delighteth,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53# Come down
0:34:55 > 0:34:59# Come down
0:34:59 > 0:35:04# from crystal heav'ns above. #
0:35:04 > 0:35:08Tallis was buried in Greenwich.
0:35:08 > 0:35:09His grave has disappeared
0:35:09 > 0:35:13but a few words from his epitaph have survived.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17"As he did live, so also did he die,
0:35:17 > 0:35:21"In mild and quiet sort, (O! Happy man);
0:35:21 > 0:35:25"To God full oft for mercy did he cry,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30"Wherefore he lives, let death do what it can."
0:35:30 > 0:35:34# Tallis is dead
0:35:34 > 0:35:38# Tallis is dead
0:35:38 > 0:35:44# And music dies
0:35:46 > 0:35:55# And music dies
0:35:55 > 0:36:04# And music dies. #
0:36:08 > 0:36:10In the years that followed Tallis's death
0:36:10 > 0:36:14Byrd began to publish regular collections of his vocal music,
0:36:14 > 0:36:15sacred and secular.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19Or as he termed it, "Some of gravity, others of mirth."
0:36:19 > 0:36:23# For pleasure, for pleasure, for pleasure
0:36:23 > 0:36:27# All for joy, full time for joy, full time.
0:36:27 > 0:36:29# For joy, full time. #
0:36:29 > 0:36:32Designed to be used in private music making,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34the books were carefully dedicated
0:36:34 > 0:36:38to prominent and influential members of the Elizabethan aristocracy
0:36:48 > 0:36:52One such family were the Peters of Ingatestone Hall.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Faithful servants of the crown, keen amateur musicians,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59and recusant Catholics.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01- Good morning. Do come in. - Nice to meet you.
0:37:01 > 0:37:06The present Lord Peter is the 18th holder of the title.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08Byrd was a friend of both the first lord,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12and of his father the Tudor politician, William Peter.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15Let's go through there and then round to your right.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18And that's a Tudor portrait.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22That's right. That's Sir William who was John, the first lord's father.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25He was the one who really founded the family fortunes.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27A shrewd politician.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31He was. He was secretary of state to all four Tudor monarchs.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36But still remained a Catholic, or at least the household here was Catholic.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42He just regarded his public life as totally separate from his private life, really, in essence.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48Sir William built this house on land surrendered by the church
0:37:48 > 0:37:50after the dissolution of the monasteries.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53'His son and heir, John, was another astute politician -
0:37:53 > 0:37:56'defiantly retaining his Catholicism
0:37:56 > 0:38:00'even whilst giving loyal service to Queen and country.'
0:38:00 > 0:38:02He went out of his way
0:38:02 > 0:38:06to move against Catholics in order to sort of,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09in a way, sabotage what was going on.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11So he actually prosecuted Catholics or...?
0:38:11 > 0:38:16Well, he was... They had a commission to discover Catholics
0:38:16 > 0:38:19in which he was one of the joint chairmen
0:38:19 > 0:38:22and, er, they weren't very good at it.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24THEY CHUCKLE
0:38:24 > 0:38:25Very good. Very good.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29- And these portraits here? - That's him in that portrait there.
0:38:31 > 0:38:32A good-looking chap.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38In the winter of 1585,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41a servant was sent by the Peter family
0:38:41 > 0:38:44to fetch Mr Byrd down from London.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46he arrived with a few fellow musicians
0:38:46 > 0:38:49and spent the Christmas holiday here in private celebration.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53There would have been a Catholic priest in attendance
0:38:53 > 0:38:56which, in effect, would have made the whole event treasonable.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00The fact that it was illegal to celebrate Mass
0:39:00 > 0:39:07didn't deter Byrd from publishing a trio of full Latin Masses for three, four and five voices.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10And these represent a new phase in Byrd's career -
0:39:10 > 0:39:14liturgical music written specifically for performance in secret.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17BYRD'S LATIN MASS IN HARMONY
0:39:46 > 0:39:50That was lovely, Harry and the choir. It's lovely to hear the four voices, isn't it?
0:39:50 > 0:39:52And here you get that sense of...
0:39:52 > 0:39:55- It's so intimate.- ..something illicit, actually.- Yes.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59Presumably Byrd...was trying to do something different
0:39:59 > 0:40:02- in that it was a new situation for a new composer.- Yes.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05I mean, Byrd here, he's writing it in private.
0:40:05 > 0:40:10And so the three, the four, the five part Masses are incredibly intimate, personal
0:40:10 > 0:40:15statements, really. Everything's very individual. He's starting with this beautifully simple line...
0:40:15 > 0:40:17CHORISTERS SING IN THE ROUND
0:40:17 > 0:40:24# Agnus Dei
0:40:18 > 0:40:24Agnus Dei
0:40:24 > 0:40:31# Qui tollis peccanta
0:40:26 > 0:40:31Qui tollis peccanta
0:40:31 > 0:40:35# Mundi
0:40:32 > 0:40:35Mundi. #
0:40:35 > 0:40:40Very simple. And then suddenly he will allow this very expressive line to come from the bass later on.
0:40:42 > 0:40:53# Miserere nobis. #
0:40:53 > 0:40:56- That's quite elaborate. - Incredibly elaborate.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00And then when he brings the final dona in, it's one of total intimacy,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03total plaintive nature.
0:41:03 > 0:41:09# Dona nobis
0:41:06 > 0:41:09# Dona nobis
0:41:09 > 0:41:13# Nobis dona nobis
0:41:13 > 0:41:24# Dona nobis pacem
0:41:17 > 0:41:24# Dona nobis pacem... #
0:41:24 > 0:41:25Mixed single voices.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29You are literally passing one phrase and one line very delicately
0:41:29 > 0:41:31and quietly from voice to voice.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35It was lovely to do it that way
0:41:35 > 0:41:38at Ingatestone Hall and it was absolutely right for that setting.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42It's very still and very quiet in there. I think it definitely made sense.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59Byrd sincerely believed in the redemptive power of singing.
0:41:59 > 0:42:05He wrote that "since it is so good a thing, I wish all men would learn to sing".
0:42:05 > 0:42:08He believed it was easily taught and quickly learnt.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10And that the better the voice,
0:42:10 > 0:42:13the better it is to the honour and glory of God.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17Byrd's compact and intimate Masses and motets -
0:42:17 > 0:42:22their concentration of emotional energy and superlative technical skill -
0:42:22 > 0:42:27is a practical demonstration of that philosophy in very troubled times.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34Many Catholics suffered gruesome deaths because of their beliefs.
0:42:34 > 0:42:40Byrd's response to the public execution of the Jesuit preacher Edmund Campion
0:42:40 > 0:42:42was this elegantly subversive song.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45# Why do I use
0:42:45 > 0:42:51# My paper ink and pen?
0:42:53 > 0:42:57# And calm my wits
0:42:57 > 0:43:02# From whence there was truth said... #
0:43:02 > 0:43:06This is part of a tunnel through which prisoners were taken to their death at Tyburn -
0:43:06 > 0:43:09the present day Marble Arch.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15After the publication of Decem Rationes - his ten reasons against the Anglican Church -
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Edmund Campion was arrested and taken to the Tower.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21There he was tortured and questioned -
0:43:21 > 0:43:23a process in which Queen Elizabeth herself took part -
0:43:23 > 0:43:26but he would not renounce his faith.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32The only possible outcome was his execution or, if you prefer it, his martyrdom.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46Intrigued by this sophisticated musical expression of despair and anger,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48I went to King's College, London,
0:43:48 > 0:43:50to consult David Trendell,
0:43:50 > 0:43:55an authority on the stylistic interpretation and performance practice of English church music.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01It's quite sober, quite melancholic.
0:44:01 > 0:44:02Absolutely, yes.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06It very much reflects the almost helpless note
0:44:06 > 0:44:10of the text, "Why do I use...?" "Why do I bother...using my paper, ink and pen
0:44:10 > 0:44:12"and call my wits to counsel..."
0:44:12 > 0:44:14It reflects that.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18This very melancholic, slow-moving idea...
0:44:18 > 0:44:19HE PLAYS PIANO
0:44:27 > 0:44:31# Why do I use...? #
0:44:31 > 0:44:34That circular theme, coming back...
0:44:35 > 0:44:39And then you have this falling figure, melancholic figure...
0:44:39 > 0:44:44HE SINGS It's pre-echoed in the instrumental part.
0:44:49 > 0:44:56# And call my wits to counsel... #
0:44:56 > 0:44:58That's lovely.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00It's beautiful.
0:45:00 > 0:45:06When it gets to the word, "an angel's trump" - trumpet -
0:45:06 > 0:45:10you get almost a fanfare type of figure in the top voice.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19# An angel's trump... #
0:45:19 > 0:45:24The really interesting thing is at the end.
0:45:24 > 0:45:25It's very dissonant.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30We have this note suspended over in one of the middle voices.
0:45:30 > 0:45:32If I just play the last little bit.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37# ..earth were found... #
0:45:37 > 0:45:39I love that.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43Which you don't find anywhere else and very rarely in anybody else's music.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48- But Byrd is very expressive.- He uses it as an emotional tool.- Yes.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52It shouldn't work, but it does. Beautiful.
0:45:56 > 0:45:57HE PLAYS PIANO
0:46:03 > 0:46:06"The Tower sayeth the truth he did defend
0:46:06 > 0:46:10"The Bar bears witness of his guiltless mind
0:46:10 > 0:46:13"Tyburn doth tell he made a patient end
0:46:13 > 0:46:17"On every gate his martyrdom we find."
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Clearly whatever public acknowledgement of Protestant faith was required
0:46:25 > 0:46:30by his being a member of the Chapel Royal concealed some deep and intensely private beliefs
0:46:30 > 0:46:32that he was determined to explore.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53In 1593, the plague swept through London, claiming 10,000 lives
0:46:53 > 0:46:54in six months.
0:46:54 > 0:47:00Byrd and his wife left the city and came to the village of Stondon Massey in Essex.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04Close to the Peter family and close enough to London that Byrd could keep up his association
0:47:04 > 0:47:06with the Chapel Royal.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10It was here that he was to spend the last 30 years of his life.
0:47:19 > 0:47:25He took out a very long lease on this property. This is not the original building,
0:47:25 > 0:47:31which was demolished in the early 18C to be replaced by a house that burned down in the 1880s.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34This building is late Victorian.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44Byrd quickly became entangled in a number of legal disputes with his neighbours,
0:47:44 > 0:47:46particularly with Mrs Shelley,
0:47:46 > 0:47:51who claimed the freehold of his house and with whom he conducted a 20-year feud.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54She accuses him of vile and bitter words
0:47:54 > 0:47:59and insisted he claimed that if he could not hold onto the property by right,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01he would hold onto it my might.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09Perhaps one of the reasons he fought so hard to retain the house
0:48:09 > 0:48:12was that it was ideal for a secretive Roman Catholic.
0:48:12 > 0:48:17We know that at this time there was a concealed footpath that led over the fields to nearby Kelvedon,
0:48:17 > 0:48:19a notorious centre for recusancy.
0:48:19 > 0:48:25We know this because inevitably there was a legal dispute over it.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27Shaded by the woodland,
0:48:27 > 0:48:31it would have made a clandestine route for Byrd and his family to visit
0:48:31 > 0:48:35their Catholic friends there, safe from the eyes of prying Anglican neighbours.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45This was an age of coded messages, of hidden secret meanings.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50When the Italian composer Philip Demonte, who was working for the King of Spain,
0:48:50 > 0:48:54sent Byrd his arrangement of Psalm 136,
0:48:54 > 0:48:56By The Waters Of Babylon,
0:48:56 > 0:49:00it might have been seen as merely one composer asking his revered English colleague
0:49:00 > 0:49:04to admire the exquisite eight-part writing.
0:49:06 > 0:49:18# Super flumina
0:49:18 > 0:49:28# Babylonis illic
0:49:28 > 0:49:39# Sedimus et flevimus... #
0:49:41 > 0:49:44And exquisite it certainly is.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48Byrd felt compelled to reply with his own version of the psalm,
0:49:48 > 0:49:50although he started it with different words,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"
0:49:54 > 0:50:05OVERLAPPING VOICES # Quomodo cantabimus... #
0:50:17 > 0:50:24And so here it seemed were two composers innocently sharing their delight in setting biblical texts,
0:50:24 > 0:50:29but De Monte was a Catholic safe in a country that still owed allegiance to the Pope.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33Byrd had to hide his Catholicism
0:50:33 > 0:50:37in a country that had exiled itself from the Church in Rome.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42So their exchange had a deeper political significance.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46And Byrd was to add a touch of defiance to his setting of the psalm.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48He would not forget Rome.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53"If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning.
0:50:53 > 0:50:59"If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
0:51:11 > 0:51:14When James I of England and VI of Scotland
0:51:14 > 0:51:18succeeded Elizabeth, he ramped up the penalties against Catholics.
0:51:18 > 0:51:23His Act for the Better Discovering and Repressing of Popish Recusants
0:51:23 > 0:51:26contained measures for the seizure of land
0:51:26 > 0:51:29and imposed restrictions on where Catholics might live
0:51:29 > 0:51:33and their freedom to travel more than five miles from home.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38Byrd's response to this was to continue his project for secret Catholic music.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43He compiled a collection of 109 compositions which became known as the Gradualia -
0:51:43 > 0:51:47music for the whole cycle of the Church's year
0:51:47 > 0:51:49including Feast days and Saints' days.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53Glorious music but on an almost domestic scale.
0:51:53 > 0:52:09# Animae in manu Dei sunt
0:52:09 > 0:52:17# Et non tanget illos... #
0:52:17 > 0:52:21"In the words themselves as I've learnt from experience
0:52:21 > 0:52:24"there is such hidden and mysterious power
0:52:24 > 0:52:28"that to a person thinking over divine things
0:52:28 > 0:52:34"diligently and earnestly turning them over in his mind, the most appropriate measures come -
0:52:34 > 0:52:37"I don't know how."
0:52:42 > 0:52:47Byrd was very explicit that he liked to read the words and contemplate them before setting them to music.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50You can tell listening to Justorum Animae
0:52:50 > 0:52:52that he's read that he's read that text
0:52:52 > 0:52:54and thought about it so carefully before get going
0:52:54 > 0:52:59and he's held himself back because he wants the words to come through with maximum impact.
0:53:03 > 0:53:09Byrd is expressing his own personal views at time when it was dangerous to do so
0:53:09 > 0:53:12and writing for people who shared his view
0:53:12 > 0:53:17and who wanted to use the Catholic words as a way of registering their protest and their belief.
0:53:17 > 0:53:28# Illi autem sunt... #
0:53:28 > 0:53:33But when he gets to the end about "The souls of the departed shall be in peace,"
0:53:33 > 0:53:36he allows himself a much more luxuriant kind of music
0:53:36 > 0:53:42and the reason he's done that, I'm sure, is he wants, through the music not just the word setting
0:53:42 > 0:53:46but the actual musical flow to mimic the idea of peace as in the text.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48It's like ripples going along.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50It's got a calming effect.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53SONG CONCLUDES
0:54:26 > 0:54:30Time and time again, Byrd his wife, children and servants
0:54:30 > 0:54:36were all summoned before the courts for failing to attend services here at Stondon Massey Parish Church.
0:54:36 > 0:54:42Over the years, the family must have paid out many hundreds of pounds in fines - a fortune at the time.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46But Byrd remained resolute in the old faith.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03This is a small vestry.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08Ah, here's William Byrd's will -
0:55:08 > 0:55:11the way he asked to be buried here near his wife.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17Which is sort of ironic, isn't it, considering he didn't come to church that often -
0:55:17 > 0:55:19spent most of his time trying to avoid it.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32I find this quite a sad signature, really.
0:55:32 > 0:55:37A determined old man...82.
0:55:37 > 0:55:44We see strokes in the lower part of the letters that are extremely thick and long.
0:55:44 > 0:55:50To me, these represent the strength of Byrd's feeling
0:55:50 > 0:55:56but he's an old man and you can see in the falling line of this signature
0:55:56 > 0:56:01in comparison with the straight lines of the will itself.
0:56:01 > 0:56:07How he was being dragged down and you feel that he's still determined,
0:56:07 > 0:56:09he's still persistent.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12But how much longer can he go on fighting.
0:56:15 > 0:56:21Byrd died in the summer of 1623. The cause of death is not recorded.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31In accordance with his wishes, he was buried here - in Stondon churchyard.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41There's no sign of William or indeed, any of the Byrd family.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44The oldest headstones seem to be about 17th Century
0:56:44 > 0:56:47but then time and lichen have eroded so many of the inscriptions
0:56:47 > 0:56:51and perhaps William had no headstone at all.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56At this time, Catholic burial in consecrated ground was only just tolerated.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59Most Catholic funerals took place at dusk -
0:56:59 > 0:57:02an excuse for candles perhaps,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05but this was still forbidden ritual.
0:57:05 > 0:57:11THEY SING # Libera... #
0:57:11 > 0:57:17MORE VOICES JOIN IN
0:57:25 > 0:57:30Byrd's attitude to his chosen texts was uncompromising.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34Holy words in which were sung the praises of God
0:57:34 > 0:57:38deserve nothing less than a heavenly harmony to the extent we can attain it.
0:57:38 > 0:57:44Time and time again, he stresses that his mission is to adorn divine things
0:57:44 > 0:57:47with the highest art of which he's capable.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51CHOIR SING
0:57:58 > 0:58:04THEY HARMONIZE # Libera
0:58:04 > 0:58:12# Me domine... #