Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors Sacred Music


Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors

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This is the story of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd

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two musicians living in an age of uncertainty

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500 years ago

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in England where only one religion was allowed,

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where worship was compulsory

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and where every time a new monarch came to the throne,

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they changed the national faith.

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Two composers in an age of adversity for whom choral music was the profoundest expression

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of deeply held religious beliefs.

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Through the reigns of six monarchs and 100 years of social and religious upheaval

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singing the Lord's song in a strange land.

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ORGAN PLAYS

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My journey will take me from the solemnity of cathedrals

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to the despair of the place of execution.

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From the private chapel of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

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to the Holy Mass celebrated in secret, deep in the English countryside,

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as I discover how two Roman Catholic musicians, Thomas Tallis and his younger colleague William Byrd

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survived and flourished during the tempestuous foundation

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of the Protestant Church in England.

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There are few documents from Thomas Tallis's long life.

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No birth certificate,

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no accounts of his parents

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or of where he learned to write and to sing.

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In a sense, the only biography is the music he composed.

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CHOIR SINGS IN PARTS

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One of the first facts we can be sure of

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is that in his early 20s he was appointed organist

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at this small and rather undistinguished priory in Dover.

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He like everyone else was Roman Catholic,

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growing up and learning his music in the great Medieval tradition

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of plainchant and polyphony.

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# Nobilis

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# humilis

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# Magne

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# martyr

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# stabilis

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# Habilis

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# utilis

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# comes venerabilis... #

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But in the five years he spent here beside the sea

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his world changed.

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Or rather Henry VIII changed the world.

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Henry's Act Of Supremacy declared the King to be "the only supreme head on Earth

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"of the Church Of England."

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He backed this up with his Treasons Act, which made it High Treason, and therefore punishable by death,

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to refuse to acknowledge this fact.

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Officially, England was no longer a Roman Catholic country.

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CHOIR SINGS

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Thomas Tallis was a gifted musician at a time when virtually the only outlet for his talents

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was through the Church.

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The huge upheavals in religion and society over the coming decades

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are central to the life of this man who, whatever his own private faith,

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worked diligently at the business of making sacred music.

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These are the original main gates of Waltham Abbey.

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When Tallis passed through them in the autumn of 1538

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to take up his post as organist,

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it must have been with mixed feelings.

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# Gloria in excelsis Deo. #

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At the time, Waltham Abbey was a massive establishment,

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the church, the only substantial surviving building, was four times' its current size.

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CHOIR SINGS "Mass: Puer Natus" by Tallis

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Harry Christophers is the artistic director of The Sixteen,

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a choir of specialist early music singers.

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He chose Waltham Abbey as the space in which to record the music for this programme

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because of its powerful association with Tallis.

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What amazes me about his music is the amount I, as a conductor, can interpret.

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I look at things like the Puer Natus Mass

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which on a page looks very confined,

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but actually it can take a vast amount of interpretation.

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For me, Tallis is first and foremost a great composer,

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one of the finest, and I have to constantly remind myself

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that Tallis worked for the Church.

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Those were the jobs in music in the Tudor times.

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However, for the previous couple of years, since Henry VIII's break with the Church of Rome,

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monasteries, priories and abbeys had been closing down left, right and centre.

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CHOIR CONTINUE TO SING "Puer Natus"

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Monks were forced to declare that their way of life

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was a vain and superstitious round of dumb ceremonies.

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They were evicted, their lands were seized, chapels and cloisters left empty or demolished.

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Any resistance was punished by execution.

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MUSIC: "Mass: Puer Natus" by Tallis

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By now, monasteries were closing at a rate of 20 a month.

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The new organist must have been well aware that Waltham Abbey's days were numbered.

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In fact, it was less than two years before the Abbey was finally dissolved

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and Thomas Tallis was looking for another job.

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Although documents relating to Tallis are rare,

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there are some and I've been told that the British Library in St Pancras

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held something rather special.

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Nicolas, you've found a book

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for me to see

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and I don't know anything about it really.

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-But it's something to do with Tallis.

-Yes.

-So show me.

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It's written by a man called John Wylde who's written his name at the front.

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So, "This book belongs to John Wylde,

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"sometime precentor at the monastery of the Holy Cross in Waltham."

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-So he's from Waltham Abbey.

-Which is where Tallis worked.

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This must have been part of the library of Waltham Abbey

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and it's got lots of different music theory treatises in it,

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-including at one point a few pictures as well...

-That's rather lovely.

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..showing the way that the breve can be divided into semibreves and so on.

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-Beautiful.

-And then at the end of it is Tallis's signature.

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He's written "Thomas Tallis". You can ignore that bit because it...

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It looks more like...

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It's just that one at the top.

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It's such a beautiful signature.

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It's quite spidery but it's rather elegant.

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This is the only example we have of his handwriting.

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-No letters survive, certainly no music.

-Yeah.

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There's no reason to doubt that it is Tallis himself.

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Unfortunately we've stamped over it. SIMON RUSSELL BEALE LAUGHS

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-Not you personally.

-But you can still make it out.

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Of course Tallis was at Waltham Abbey until its dissolution in 1540

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so I imagine he took this book away with him

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when the Abbey was dissolved.

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Maybe they gave it to him because they had no further use for it.

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When you say they had no further use for it,

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do you think that what was in this book was somehow Catholic and therefore of no use

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-or just...?

-Well, it's Catholic in the sense that all of it is about the performance of plainchant.

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That was Catholic and now abolished, so it was no use to anybody.

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THEY SING IN PARTS

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We don't know when Tallis the singer became Tallis the composer.

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The body of his work that has survived is relatively small and almost impossible to date.

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But all display his ear for subtle melody and his gift for close harmony.

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Tallis's music has this amazingly ethereal quality

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and in something like O Nata Lux

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it's an amazing gem.

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Within that, he's produced something that has an incredible celestial quality.

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It's the way Tallis distributes the voices in a very sensitive way.

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# ..effici

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# Tui beati corporis. #

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He does set very much one note to a syllable,

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but there is always a part that has a little melisma, a little moving line,

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that adds a nuance to it.

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That gives the music a very tender approach.

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# Tui

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# beati

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# corporis. #

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For me, as a conductor, there's no doubt about Tallis's music, that all the lines are very singable.

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They lie very well for each voice.

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You can't say that of every composer of the Tudor period.

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# O Lord, in thee is all my trust

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# Give ear unto my woeful cries

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# Refuse me not, that am unjust

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# but bowing down thy heav'nly eyes

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# behold... #

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Tallis was one of the first professional musicians.

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Quite simply an employee who looked to the Church

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to provide him with work,

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whatever the political or religious climate.

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His new job as a professional singer or lay clerk was here in Canterbury,

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at the heart of a religious revolution,

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lending his voice to the development of a new style of liturgy for the Church Of England.

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# No, no, not so! Thy will is bent... #

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Gone was the Latin language and the elaborate ornamental ritual associated with it,

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to be replaced by plain, simple music with the words in English.

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# ..where angels sing continually

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# To thee be praise, world without end. #

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But he didn't stay here for long.

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He'd landed a job for life as a member of His Majesty's private chapel choir.

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# If ye love me

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# keep my commandments

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# and I will pray the Father

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# and he shall... #

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I think what's important to remember is that singing the music for the Daily Office

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and composing the music were not two different things. They were the same thing.

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You were employed to make music

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for the devotions of the Chapel Royal

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in a most literal way.

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You'd write it, turn up, hand it out and sing it.

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So a lot of the gentlemen are providing music on a week-in, week-out basis

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for the Chapel to sing.

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# ..he may abide with you for ever... #

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Can you tell me when it was built?

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The room itself dates from the end of the 15C.

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But it was turned into a chapel in about 1530 by Henry VIII

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when he appropriated this complex of buildings from a leper hospital

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-and turned it into a royal palace and that's when this room became a chapel.

-So, in fact...

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Thomas Tallis would have known this room.

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Certainly he would have done.

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There's a certain amount here that Tallis would recognise,

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principally the ceiling, which was painted probably by Holbein,

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but certainly in honour of Henry's fourth marriage in 1540 to Anne of Cleves.

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-Not a successful marriage.

-Well, no, I think the ceiling was probably the best thing that came put of it!

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I think it's important to be clear that the Chapel Royal in one sense is not really a place at all.

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It's a body of people, part of the monarch's personal entourage, part of the household

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and it's a body of clergy and musicians that attends the spiritual needs of the sovereign,

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wherever the sovereign happens to be.

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The King would move around an awful lot, partly to go hunting

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and partly to impress and intimidate nobles in various parts of the country.

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And, in Tallis's time, trying to work out what his first title would be...

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-The Gentlemen Of The Chapel Royal.

-Oh, right.

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It was all very much on order of seniority.

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You joined at the bottom of the list and you move up the list as people die.

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# ..e'en the spirit of truth. #

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Still a young man,

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somewhere in his mid-thirties,

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but his talent has thrust him into the heart of the state,

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serving first Henry VIII and then his son Edward VI,

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as the new religion found its feet.

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But the establishment of a Protestant church in England

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was about to come to a sudden stop

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as Henry's eldest daughter, Mary Tudor, took the throne.

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She re-established the Catholic faith and promptly executing Protestants.

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Bloody Mary sent almost 300 martyrs to their death during her five-year reign.

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Tallis, as a loyal member of Her Majesty's Chapel,

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was instrumental in his employer's policy

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of re-imposing the Catholic liturgy.

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THEY SING "Mass: Puer Natus" by Tallis

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She also found a suitable husband to father a Catholic heir.

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Here at Winchester Cathedral Mary married Philip of Spain.

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Tallis, as a member of Her Majesty's choir,

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was at the ceremony.

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The marriage could hardly be described as a happy one

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and Mary died childless.

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Under the terms of her father Henry VIII's will,

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her half-sister took the throne.

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The new queen, Elizabeth, was determined that Protestantism should return.

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# O ye tender babes

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# of England. #

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Citizens now had either to convert back to the Church of England

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or hold onto the old faith in secret.

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Creative, adaptable and immersed in the English choral tradition,

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Tallis seems to have managed to balance his private religious beliefs

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with the demands made by the new Anglican Church.

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#..whereby you may do your duty to God... #

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My guess is that Tallis was a Roman Catholic at heart

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all the way through his life.

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But, like any other professional musician,

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you're not going to get yourself sacked

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by speaking out and not toeing the line.

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# Make glad your parents... #

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Tallis is a very practical composer. He does what's expected of him.

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He's a pure professional.

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Any professional would say, "This is what I do. If the rules have changed, I'll change with them."

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Elizabeth was very keen to promote a new form of singing

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to complement the liturgy.

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"For the comforting of such that delight in music," she said,

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"it may be permissible to sing a hymn or suchlike song

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"to the praise of Almighty God."

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This hymn tune, composed by Tallis, for a collection made by the first Anglican archbishop, Matthew Parker,

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may be familiar.

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# Why fum'th in fight the Gentiles spite

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# In fury raging stout?

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# Why tak'th in hand the people fond

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# Vain things to bring about?

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# The Kings arise the Lords devise

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# In counsels met thereto

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# Against the Lord with false accord

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# Against His Christ they go. #

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Elizabeth had issued injunctions forbidding elaborate Church music.

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She required a modest and distinct song which may be as plainly understood

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as if it were read without singing.

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This, of course, did not apply to her own church services.

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Although technically speaking, this was a place where Protestant worship was held,

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it was a private household chapel of the monarch, not a public space.

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A lot of the people who visited it were foreigners and Roman Catholics.

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The chances are that what went on there was a bit of a compromise.

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The services could be held in Latin, they could therefore include quite a lot of Latin texts of music.

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I think it would be wrong to think of the Chapel Royal as being a place where staunch Anglicanism

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is being bashed down your throat. Quite the opposite, I think.

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Elizabeth's private attitude was perhaps unexpectedly tolerant.

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"There is one Jesus Christ, one faith, the rest is dispute about trifles."

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And then William Byrd, a gifted young singer, choirmaster,

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organist and composer,

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was recruited by Her Majesty's Chapel.

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Tallis at that time was approaching 70 and had already served the Chapel Royal for 30 years.

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But over the next decade he and Byrd would work closely together

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to the greater glory of God and of course of Queen Elizabeth.

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Elizabeth claimed to have, in her own words,

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"an affection for the science of music."

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In recognising that she had the country's two greatest composers in her choir,

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she gave them a gift.

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The monopoly for printing music in England.

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The business wasn't exactly a success.

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But they published one book, Cantiones Quae Ab Argumento Sacrae Vocantur

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composed by Thomii Tallisio et Guilielmo Birdo.

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They couldn't flatter Elizabeth enough.

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The book is dedicated to the most high, mighty and magnificent Empress.

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They lavished praise upon her musical skills.

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"Compared to the greatest masters," they said, "you easily surpass them,

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"whether by refinement of voice or agility of fingers."

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At this point, Queen Elizabeth had been on the throne for 17 years.

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Tallis and Byrd decided not only to incorporate that number into the structure of their book,

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their 34 songs, 17 by each composer, but they also decided to let it echo within the songs themselves.

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Within the heart of Tallis's extremely complex piece, Miserere Nostri Domine,

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is a 17-note melody.

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# Miserere

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# nostri

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# Domine

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# Miserere

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# nostri... #

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I didn't actually check whether there were 17.

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17 notes to either a syllable or a change of note.

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And that can only work if it's had some, presumably, emotional or spiritual impact.

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The amazing thing about this is it's a technical feat of just amazing brilliance.

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But like all feats like this, in the hands of some composers,

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they can just be technical, academic and boring.

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But in the hands of Tallis, it's the most phenomenal piece.

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Let's just hear the first few bars.

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THEY SING IN PARTS "Miserere Nostri Domine" by Tallis

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Tallis must have felt an affinity for his junior colleague.

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Perhaps he saw something of himself in this talented young professional musician

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and like him William Byrd seems to have come from humble origins.

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The first sure fact we have about William Byrd's life

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is that in the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign

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he came here to the Cathedral Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary in Lincoln

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to take up his post as organist and master of the choristers.

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THEY SING "Christus Resurgens" by Byrd

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Byrd spent 10 years in Lincoln.

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He lived here in Minster Yard in a house that's no longer standing.

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He married a local woman, Juliana Birley, at St Margaret's-In-The-Close Church,

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which was around here, although it's been long since demolished.

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This is Byrd's first workplace.

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The choir stalls, which have barely changed over the last 400 years.

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I think we can imagine him here, a young man, gifted,

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perhaps ambitious,

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producing the streamlined music for the Anglican Church,

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all the while surrounded by this very elegant but heavily ornamented stone and woodwork,

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a nagging reminder of the old faith.

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ORGAN PLAYS

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Lincoln Cathedral has an archive of documents that goes back nearly 1,000 years.

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Here we have the official record of William Byrd's appointment

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as organist and master of the choristers here at Lincoln Cathedral.

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It's like a minute book. It's a record of the meetings of the Dean and Chapter.

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This is all in a typical Elizabethan secretary hand.

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It's mostly in Latin, which was the great language of legal records.

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And here we have the official record of William Byrd's appointment.

0:27:570:28:01

Point him out for me, just for the sheer thrill of it.

0:28:010:28:04

Here we have, "To all faithful Christian people,

0:28:040:28:07

"know that we have granted the office of Master of the Choristers

0:28:070:28:10

to our beloved in Christ - delicto nobis in christo -

0:28:100:28:14

Willalmo Byrd - William Byrd

0:28:140:28:17

for the term of life.

0:28:170:28:19

ORGAN MUSIC

0:28:190:28:22

One of the few church organ pieces of Byrd's to be preserved

0:28:220:28:26

is this, an improvisation on the starting note the choir master gives to the choir.

0:28:260:28:31

ORGAN MUSIC

0:28:310:28:34

And another entry in the account book uncovers an interesting story.

0:28:370:28:41

September 1570. Basically, the chapter is insisting that in services,

0:28:420:28:48

rather than playing the organ, he was just to give the starting note for the choir

0:28:480:28:53

and then to sing with the choir, and not to play the organ.

0:28:530:28:57

Now this suggests to me that Byrd had been experimenting on the organ

0:28:570:29:01

and that the Dean and chapter didn't like this.

0:29:010:29:04

It was not simple enough,

0:29:040:29:05

it wasn't the basic Puritan simplicity that was what they wanted.

0:29:050:29:10

But it was in a ledger book for 1567 that we found something

0:29:120:29:15

that made me profoundly grateful for Elizabethan bureaucracy.

0:29:150:29:19

There we are.

0:29:190:29:21

This particular section here deals with

0:29:210:29:25

miscellaneous payments made to various cathedral staff and employees.

0:29:250:29:29

Over here we have this amazing signature - Wyllyam Byrde

0:29:290:29:33

Oh, wow!

0:29:330:29:34

-Master of the choristers.

-Oh, wow!

0:29:340:29:37

Acknowledging nine shillings for livery,

0:29:370:29:40

which would be for whatever he was required to wear during cathedral services.

0:29:400:29:44

This is extraordinary, it's a very, very, very elaborate signature.

0:29:440:29:47

I think we get some impression from that of the way Byrd saw himself.

0:29:470:29:51

He wasn't shy and retiring.

0:29:510:29:54

He knew he was a great musician and I think that says it.

0:29:540:29:58

How thrilling to see it.

0:29:580:30:00

-Yes.

-It's a beauty.

0:30:000:30:01

Seeing Byrd's signature gave me a powerful sense of direct connection with him.

0:30:010:30:06

But can modern techniques of handwriting analysis

0:30:060:30:08

provide a further insight into his psychological make-up?

0:30:080:30:12

This signature of William Byrd's

0:30:120:30:15

appears on the account books of Lincoln Cathedral,

0:30:150:30:19

where he worked as a young man in his twenties,

0:30:190:30:23

as "pulsator of the organs".

0:30:230:30:25

I love that phrase!

0:30:250:30:26

And as Master of the Choristers

0:30:260:30:28

And you see it looks stiff, it looks formal,

0:30:280:30:33

it's decorated with these figure of eight patterns

0:30:330:30:36

which are about the image that he's trying to create.

0:30:360:30:41

Signature is about your public image.

0:30:410:30:43

And you sense, from this,

0:30:430:30:45

that William Byrd is trying to project an image

0:30:450:30:49

of, maybe being quite grand,

0:30:490:30:53

maybe he's trying to grow into this job that he's been given as a young man.

0:30:530:30:58

But, as he finishes these figure of eight patterns,

0:31:000:31:03

he dispenses with the last loop very swiftly.

0:31:030:31:07

And I sense in this a certain impatience with this formality -

0:31:070:31:12

that although he'll go along with it,

0:31:120:31:15

really that is not what is essential to him,

0:31:150:31:17

and he's really interested in deeper, more spiritual concerns.

0:31:170:31:23

Fifteen miles west of central London,

0:31:290:31:31

and squeezed in between Heathrow airport and the M4 motorway,

0:31:310:31:35

lies the Middlesex village of Harlington.

0:31:350:31:38

After leaving Lincoln, this is where Byrd and his family settled.

0:31:380:31:42

Apparently taking possession of Harlington Manor

0:31:420:31:45

The Manor is long gone

0:31:530:31:55

and there's no real trace of Byrd or the village that he knew here now.

0:31:550:32:00

As ever, it's a few surviving documents that give us a clue

0:32:040:32:07

that at this point, there are two of particular significance.

0:32:070:32:11

Firstly there's a petition to Her Majesty

0:32:140:32:16

written jointly by Tallis and Byrd.

0:32:160:32:18

Curiously it concerns neither music nor religion,

0:32:180:32:21

but property.

0:32:210:32:22

Pleading poverty, they ask Her Majesty to grant them a bundle of leases

0:32:220:32:26

for nearly a dozen properties scattered across southern England.

0:32:260:32:30

These were lands seized after the dissolution of the monasteries.

0:32:300:32:33

and their leases entitled Tallis and Byrd to various rents and tithes.

0:32:330:32:37

So our two composers were landlords.

0:32:370:32:40

The other document from the same year is perhaps more telling.

0:32:450:32:49

On a list compiled by the recently enthroned Bishop of London

0:32:490:32:52

of those who were guilty of not attending church in his diocese

0:32:520:32:56

is the entry, "Wife of William Byrd, one of the gents of Her Majesty's chapel."

0:32:560:33:01

The first explicit evidence of the family's Roman Catholicism.

0:33:010:33:06

CHOIR SINGS

0:33:060:33:08

Being a Catholic at this time was a dangerous game.

0:33:180:33:22

Recusancy, which means refusal,

0:33:220:33:24

was punished by increasingly harsh fines.

0:33:240:33:27

£20 for not attending a place of common prayer.

0:33:270:33:31

and even more for singing, saying or even just hearing Mass.

0:33:310:33:36

CHOIR SINGS

0:33:360:33:38

Over the years, Byrd and his wife, and his servants,

0:33:450:33:49

were repeatedly named for refusing to worship at this church.

0:33:490:33:52

The punishments not deterring them, who knows.

0:33:520:33:55

Byrd, it seems, was a stubborn, strong-minded individual.

0:33:550:33:59

Perhaps a sense of persecution even strengthened his faith.

0:33:590:34:03

Then, at the age of 80,

0:34:070:34:09

Tallis dies.

0:34:090:34:11

That's all we know.

0:34:110:34:12

But Byrd was moved to write an extraordinary elegy to his old friend.

0:34:120:34:17

The imagery is pagan, we don't know who wrote the words.

0:34:170:34:21

It could have been William Byrd himself.

0:34:210:34:23

But the sentiments are heartfelt.

0:34:230:34:25

# Ye sacred Muses, race of Jove,

0:34:250:34:34

# Whom Music's lore delighteth,

0:34:370:34:45

# Come down

0:34:500:34:53

# Come down

0:34:550:34:59

# from crystal heav'ns above. #

0:34:590:35:04

Tallis was buried in Greenwich.

0:35:040:35:08

His grave has disappeared

0:35:080:35:09

but a few words from his epitaph have survived.

0:35:090:35:13

"As he did live, so also did he die,

0:35:130:35:17

"In mild and quiet sort, (O! Happy man);

0:35:170:35:21

"To God full oft for mercy did he cry,

0:35:210:35:25

"Wherefore he lives, let death do what it can."

0:35:250:35:30

# Tallis is dead

0:35:300:35:34

# Tallis is dead

0:35:340:35:38

# And music dies

0:35:380:35:44

# And music dies

0:35:460:35:55

# And music dies. #

0:35:550:36:04

In the years that followed Tallis's death

0:36:080:36:10

Byrd began to publish regular collections of his vocal music,

0:36:100:36:14

sacred and secular.

0:36:140:36:15

Or as he termed it, "Some of gravity, others of mirth."

0:36:150:36:19

# For pleasure, for pleasure, for pleasure

0:36:190:36:23

# All for joy, full time for joy, full time.

0:36:230:36:27

# For joy, full time. #

0:36:270:36:29

Designed to be used in private music making,

0:36:290:36:32

the books were carefully dedicated

0:36:320:36:34

to prominent and influential members of the Elizabethan aristocracy

0:36:340:36:38

One such family were the Peters of Ingatestone Hall.

0:36:480:36:52

Faithful servants of the crown, keen amateur musicians,

0:36:520:36:55

and recusant Catholics.

0:36:550:36:59

-Good morning. Do come in.

-Nice to meet you.

0:36:590:37:01

The present Lord Peter is the 18th holder of the title.

0:37:010:37:06

Byrd was a friend of both the first lord,

0:37:060:37:08

and of his father the Tudor politician, William Peter.

0:37:080:37:12

Let's go through there and then round to your right.

0:37:120:37:15

And that's a Tudor portrait.

0:37:150:37:18

That's right. That's Sir William who was John, the first lord's father.

0:37:180:37:22

He was the one who really founded the family fortunes.

0:37:220:37:25

A shrewd politician.

0:37:250:37:27

He was. He was secretary of state to all four Tudor monarchs.

0:37:270:37:31

But still remained a Catholic, or at least the household here was Catholic.

0:37:310:37:36

He just regarded his public life as totally separate from his private life, really, in essence.

0:37:360:37:42

Sir William built this house on land surrendered by the church

0:37:440:37:48

after the dissolution of the monasteries.

0:37:480:37:50

'His son and heir, John, was another astute politician -

0:37:500:37:53

'defiantly retaining his Catholicism

0:37:530:37:56

'even whilst giving loyal service to Queen and country.'

0:37:560:38:00

He went out of his way

0:38:000:38:02

to move against Catholics in order to sort of,

0:38:020:38:06

in a way, sabotage what was going on.

0:38:060:38:09

So he actually prosecuted Catholics or...?

0:38:090:38:11

Well, he was... They had a commission to discover Catholics

0:38:110:38:16

in which he was one of the joint chairmen

0:38:160:38:19

and, er, they weren't very good at it.

0:38:190:38:22

THEY CHUCKLE

0:38:220:38:24

Very good. Very good.

0:38:240:38:25

-And these portraits here?

-That's him in that portrait there.

0:38:250:38:29

A good-looking chap.

0:38:310:38:32

In the winter of 1585,

0:38:350:38:38

a servant was sent by the Peter family

0:38:380:38:41

to fetch Mr Byrd down from London.

0:38:410:38:44

he arrived with a few fellow musicians

0:38:440:38:46

and spent the Christmas holiday here in private celebration.

0:38:460:38:49

There would have been a Catholic priest in attendance

0:38:490:38:53

which, in effect, would have made the whole event treasonable.

0:38:530:38:56

The fact that it was illegal to celebrate Mass

0:38:560:39:00

didn't deter Byrd from publishing a trio of full Latin Masses for three, four and five voices.

0:39:000:39:07

And these represent a new phase in Byrd's career -

0:39:070:39:10

liturgical music written specifically for performance in secret.

0:39:100:39:14

BYRD'S LATIN MASS IN HARMONY

0:39:140:39:17

That was lovely, Harry and the choir. It's lovely to hear the four voices, isn't it?

0:39:460:39:50

And here you get that sense of...

0:39:500:39:52

-It's so intimate.

-..something illicit, actually.

-Yes.

0:39:520:39:55

Presumably Byrd...was trying to do something different

0:39:550:39:59

-in that it was a new situation for a new composer.

-Yes.

0:39:590:40:02

I mean, Byrd here, he's writing it in private.

0:40:020:40:05

And so the three, the four, the five part Masses are incredibly intimate, personal

0:40:050:40:10

statements, really. Everything's very individual. He's starting with this beautifully simple line...

0:40:100:40:15

CHORISTERS SING IN THE ROUND

0:40:150:40:17

# Agnus Dei

0:40:170:40:24

Agnus Dei

0:40:180:40:24

# Qui tollis peccanta

0:40:240:40:31

Qui tollis peccanta

0:40:260:40:31

# Mundi

0:40:310:40:35

Mundi. #

0:40:320:40:35

Very simple. And then suddenly he will allow this very expressive line to come from the bass later on.

0:40:350:40:40

# Miserere nobis. #

0:40:420:40:53

-That's quite elaborate.

-Incredibly elaborate.

0:40:530:40:56

And then when he brings the final dona in, it's one of total intimacy,

0:40:560:41:00

total plaintive nature.

0:41:000:41:03

# Dona nobis

0:41:030:41:09

# Dona nobis

0:41:060:41:09

# Nobis dona nobis

0:41:090:41:13

# Dona nobis pacem

0:41:130:41:24

# Dona nobis pacem... #

0:41:170:41:24

Mixed single voices.

0:41:240:41:25

You are literally passing one phrase and one line very delicately

0:41:250:41:29

and quietly from voice to voice.

0:41:290:41:31

It was lovely to do it that way

0:41:310:41:35

at Ingatestone Hall and it was absolutely right for that setting.

0:41:350:41:38

It's very still and very quiet in there. I think it definitely made sense.

0:41:380:41:42

Byrd sincerely believed in the redemptive power of singing.

0:41:550:41:59

He wrote that "since it is so good a thing, I wish all men would learn to sing".

0:41:590:42:05

He believed it was easily taught and quickly learnt.

0:42:050:42:08

And that the better the voice,

0:42:080:42:10

the better it is to the honour and glory of God.

0:42:100:42:13

Byrd's compact and intimate Masses and motets -

0:42:140:42:17

their concentration of emotional energy and superlative technical skill -

0:42:170:42:22

is a practical demonstration of that philosophy in very troubled times.

0:42:220:42:27

Many Catholics suffered gruesome deaths because of their beliefs.

0:42:310:42:34

Byrd's response to the public execution of the Jesuit preacher Edmund Campion

0:42:340:42:40

was this elegantly subversive song.

0:42:400:42:42

# Why do I use

0:42:420:42:45

# My paper ink and pen?

0:42:450:42:51

# And calm my wits

0:42:530:42:57

# From whence there was truth said... #

0:42:570:43:02

This is part of a tunnel through which prisoners were taken to their death at Tyburn -

0:43:020:43:06

the present day Marble Arch.

0:43:060:43:09

After the publication of Decem Rationes - his ten reasons against the Anglican Church -

0:43:100:43:15

Edmund Campion was arrested and taken to the Tower.

0:43:150:43:18

There he was tortured and questioned -

0:43:180:43:21

a process in which Queen Elizabeth herself took part -

0:43:210:43:23

but he would not renounce his faith.

0:43:230:43:26

The only possible outcome was his execution or, if you prefer it, his martyrdom.

0:43:260:43:32

Intrigued by this sophisticated musical expression of despair and anger,

0:43:420:43:46

I went to King's College, London,

0:43:460:43:48

to consult David Trendell,

0:43:480:43:50

an authority on the stylistic interpretation and performance practice of English church music.

0:43:500:43:55

It's quite sober, quite melancholic.

0:43:580:44:01

Absolutely, yes.

0:44:010:44:02

It very much reflects the almost helpless note

0:44:020:44:06

of the text, "Why do I use...?" "Why do I bother...using my paper, ink and pen

0:44:060:44:10

"and call my wits to counsel..."

0:44:100:44:12

It reflects that.

0:44:120:44:14

This very melancholic, slow-moving idea...

0:44:140:44:18

HE PLAYS PIANO

0:44:180:44:19

# Why do I use...? #

0:44:270:44:31

That circular theme, coming back...

0:44:310:44:34

And then you have this falling figure, melancholic figure...

0:44:350:44:39

HE SINGS It's pre-echoed in the instrumental part.

0:44:390:44:44

# And call my wits to counsel... #

0:44:490:44:56

That's lovely.

0:44:560:44:58

It's beautiful.

0:44:580:45:00

When it gets to the word, "an angel's trump" - trumpet -

0:45:000:45:06

you get almost a fanfare type of figure in the top voice.

0:45:060:45:10

# An angel's trump... #

0:45:160:45:19

The really interesting thing is at the end.

0:45:190:45:24

It's very dissonant.

0:45:240:45:25

We have this note suspended over in one of the middle voices.

0:45:250:45:30

If I just play the last little bit.

0:45:300:45:32

# ..earth were found... #

0:45:320:45:37

I love that.

0:45:370:45:39

Which you don't find anywhere else and very rarely in anybody else's music.

0:45:390:45:43

-But Byrd is very expressive.

-He uses it as an emotional tool.

-Yes.

0:45:430:45:48

It shouldn't work, but it does. Beautiful.

0:45:480:45:52

HE PLAYS PIANO

0:45:560:45:57

"The Tower sayeth the truth he did defend

0:46:030:46:06

"The Bar bears witness of his guiltless mind

0:46:060:46:10

"Tyburn doth tell he made a patient end

0:46:100:46:13

"On every gate his martyrdom we find."

0:46:130:46:17

Clearly whatever public acknowledgement of Protestant faith was required

0:46:210:46:25

by his being a member of the Chapel Royal concealed some deep and intensely private beliefs

0:46:250:46:30

that he was determined to explore.

0:46:300:46:32

In 1593, the plague swept through London, claiming 10,000 lives

0:46:490:46:53

in six months.

0:46:530:46:54

Byrd and his wife left the city and came to the village of Stondon Massey in Essex.

0:46:540:47:00

Close to the Peter family and close enough to London that Byrd could keep up his association

0:47:000:47:04

with the Chapel Royal.

0:47:040:47:06

It was here that he was to spend the last 30 years of his life.

0:47:060:47:10

He took out a very long lease on this property. This is not the original building,

0:47:190:47:25

which was demolished in the early 18C to be replaced by a house that burned down in the 1880s.

0:47:250:47:31

This building is late Victorian.

0:47:310:47:34

Byrd quickly became entangled in a number of legal disputes with his neighbours,

0:47:400:47:44

particularly with Mrs Shelley,

0:47:440:47:46

who claimed the freehold of his house and with whom he conducted a 20-year feud.

0:47:460:47:51

She accuses him of vile and bitter words

0:47:510:47:54

and insisted he claimed that if he could not hold onto the property by right,

0:47:540:47:59

he would hold onto it my might.

0:47:590:48:01

Perhaps one of the reasons he fought so hard to retain the house

0:48:050:48:09

was that it was ideal for a secretive Roman Catholic.

0:48:090:48:12

We know that at this time there was a concealed footpath that led over the fields to nearby Kelvedon,

0:48:120:48:17

a notorious centre for recusancy.

0:48:170:48:19

We know this because inevitably there was a legal dispute over it.

0:48:190:48:25

Shaded by the woodland,

0:48:250:48:27

it would have made a clandestine route for Byrd and his family to visit

0:48:270:48:31

their Catholic friends there, safe from the eyes of prying Anglican neighbours.

0:48:310:48:35

This was an age of coded messages, of hidden secret meanings.

0:48:410:48:45

When the Italian composer Philip Demonte, who was working for the King of Spain,

0:48:450:48:50

sent Byrd his arrangement of Psalm 136,

0:48:500:48:54

By The Waters Of Babylon,

0:48:540:48:56

it might have been seen as merely one composer asking his revered English colleague

0:48:560:49:00

to admire the exquisite eight-part writing.

0:49:000:49:04

# Super flumina

0:49:060:49:18

# Babylonis illic

0:49:180:49:28

# Sedimus et flevimus... #

0:49:280:49:39

And exquisite it certainly is.

0:49:410:49:44

Byrd felt compelled to reply with his own version of the psalm,

0:49:440:49:48

although he started it with different words,

0:49:480:49:50

"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"

0:49:500:49:54

OVERLAPPING VOICES # Quomodo cantabimus... #

0:49:540:50:05

And so here it seemed were two composers innocently sharing their delight in setting biblical texts,

0:50:170:50:24

but De Monte was a Catholic safe in a country that still owed allegiance to the Pope.

0:50:240:50:29

Byrd had to hide his Catholicism

0:50:290:50:33

in a country that had exiled itself from the Church in Rome.

0:50:330:50:37

So their exchange had a deeper political significance.

0:50:370:50:42

And Byrd was to add a touch of defiance to his setting of the psalm.

0:50:420:50:46

He would not forget Rome.

0:50:460:50:48

"If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning.

0:50:480:50:53

"If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

0:50:530:50:59

When James I of England and VI of Scotland

0:51:110:51:14

succeeded Elizabeth, he ramped up the penalties against Catholics.

0:51:140:51:18

His Act for the Better Discovering and Repressing of Popish Recusants

0:51:180:51:23

contained measures for the seizure of land

0:51:230:51:26

and imposed restrictions on where Catholics might live

0:51:260:51:29

and their freedom to travel more than five miles from home.

0:51:290:51:33

Byrd's response to this was to continue his project for secret Catholic music.

0:51:330:51:38

He compiled a collection of 109 compositions which became known as the Gradualia -

0:51:380:51:43

music for the whole cycle of the Church's year

0:51:430:51:47

including Feast days and Saints' days.

0:51:470:51:49

Glorious music but on an almost domestic scale.

0:51:490:51:53

# Animae in manu Dei sunt

0:51:530:52:09

# Et non tanget illos... #

0:52:090:52:17

"In the words themselves as I've learnt from experience

0:52:170:52:21

"there is such hidden and mysterious power

0:52:210:52:24

"that to a person thinking over divine things

0:52:240:52:28

"diligently and earnestly turning them over in his mind, the most appropriate measures come -

0:52:280:52:34

"I don't know how."

0:52:340:52:37

Byrd was very explicit that he liked to read the words and contemplate them before setting them to music.

0:52:420:52:47

You can tell listening to Justorum Animae

0:52:470:52:50

that he's read that he's read that text

0:52:500:52:52

and thought about it so carefully before get going

0:52:520:52:54

and he's held himself back because he wants the words to come through with maximum impact.

0:52:540:52:59

Byrd is expressing his own personal views at time when it was dangerous to do so

0:53:030:53:09

and writing for people who shared his view

0:53:090:53:12

and who wanted to use the Catholic words as a way of registering their protest and their belief.

0:53:120:53:17

# Illi autem sunt... #

0:53:170:53:28

But when he gets to the end about "The souls of the departed shall be in peace,"

0:53:280:53:33

he allows himself a much more luxuriant kind of music

0:53:330:53:36

and the reason he's done that, I'm sure, is he wants, through the music not just the word setting

0:53:360:53:42

but the actual musical flow to mimic the idea of peace as in the text.

0:53:420:53:46

It's like ripples going along.

0:53:460:53:48

It's got a calming effect.

0:53:480:53:50

SONG CONCLUDES

0:53:500:53:53

Time and time again, Byrd his wife, children and servants

0:54:260:54:30

were all summoned before the courts for failing to attend services here at Stondon Massey Parish Church.

0:54:300:54:36

Over the years, the family must have paid out many hundreds of pounds in fines - a fortune at the time.

0:54:360:54:42

But Byrd remained resolute in the old faith.

0:54:420:54:46

This is a small vestry.

0:55:010:55:03

Ah, here's William Byrd's will -

0:55:030:55:08

the way he asked to be buried here near his wife.

0:55:080:55:11

Which is sort of ironic, isn't it, considering he didn't come to church that often -

0:55:120:55:17

spent most of his time trying to avoid it.

0:55:170:55:19

I find this quite a sad signature, really.

0:55:290:55:32

A determined old man...82.

0:55:320:55:37

We see strokes in the lower part of the letters that are extremely thick and long.

0:55:370:55:44

To me, these represent the strength of Byrd's feeling

0:55:440:55:50

but he's an old man and you can see in the falling line of this signature

0:55:500:55:56

in comparison with the straight lines of the will itself.

0:55:560:56:01

How he was being dragged down and you feel that he's still determined,

0:56:010:56:07

he's still persistent.

0:56:070:56:09

But how much longer can he go on fighting.

0:56:090:56:12

Byrd died in the summer of 1623. The cause of death is not recorded.

0:56:150:56:21

In accordance with his wishes, he was buried here - in Stondon churchyard.

0:56:260:56:31

There's no sign of William or indeed, any of the Byrd family.

0:56:370:56:41

The oldest headstones seem to be about 17th Century

0:56:410:56:44

but then time and lichen have eroded so many of the inscriptions

0:56:440:56:47

and perhaps William had no headstone at all.

0:56:470:56:51

At this time, Catholic burial in consecrated ground was only just tolerated.

0:56:510:56:56

Most Catholic funerals took place at dusk -

0:56:560:56:59

an excuse for candles perhaps,

0:56:590:57:02

but this was still forbidden ritual.

0:57:020:57:05

THEY SING # Libera... #

0:57:050:57:11

MORE VOICES JOIN IN

0:57:110:57:17

Byrd's attitude to his chosen texts was uncompromising.

0:57:250:57:30

Holy words in which were sung the praises of God

0:57:310:57:34

deserve nothing less than a heavenly harmony to the extent we can attain it.

0:57:340:57:38

Time and time again, he stresses that his mission is to adorn divine things

0:57:380:57:44

with the highest art of which he's capable.

0:57:440:57:47

CHOIR SING

0:57:470:57:51

THEY HARMONIZE # Libera

0:57:580:58:04

# Me domine... #

0:58:040:58:12

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