william byrd all music heard in this presentation was composed by william byrd, unless otherwise...
TRANSCRIPT
William ByrdAll music heard in
this presentatio
n was composed by William
Byrd, unless
otherwise stated.
William Byrd was born in England in
1543 during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I.
Who is the current monarch
of England?
William learned
composition from one of
the best teachers in England at
the time. He was another
great composer
named Thomas Tallis.
You are listening to Tallis right now.
After staying at the Lincoln Cathedral for 10 years, Byrd moved to London to become a gentleman of the “Chapel
Royal.”
The “Chapel Royal” was the Chapel that the Queen and other royalty attended for church services. Only the finest singers
and musicians in England were permitted to be members.
Queen Elizabeth I was fond of music and was said
to be musically
skilled as well. One
biographer of her time
wrote, “she sings quite
exceptionally.”
Queen Elizabeth I grew fond of William Byrd and his teacher,
Thomas Tallis, and she granted them a monopoly on all music
printing in England.
Byrd
Tallis
What is a monopoly?
A monopoly is complete control over a product or service.
If McDonald’s bought all of the other fast food restaurants and changed them to McDonald’s,
they would have a monopoly on fast food. They could charge you high prices because
they would have no competition.A monopoly is illegal in
the United States. It’s bad for the consumer when there’s no competition. One computer company has a monopoly on the computer market and they get fined about 1 million
dollars a day by the government. Who is it?Microsoft – They make so much money that 1 million a day is like a drop in a bucket to them.
This monopoly gave Byrd and Tallis absolute control over all music that was
printed in England in all
languages, AND the ruled paper
upon which music is
composed.
Staff paper
Byrd was a devout Roman Catholic,
but the Queen and all of England was Protestant. It was
illegal to be Catholic. Byrd wrote Catholic masses, but he
kept them secret and didn’t put a
title on them just in case they were
found.
Most of Byrd’s music is acapella and was
written to be performed in
a church service. This type of music is called S _ _ _ _ _.
A C R E D
However, some of Byrd’s music was intended to be performed at home by people looking for something to do after dinner. The lyrics to these songs were not religious in any way. This type of music is called S _ _ _ _ _ _.
E C U L A R
The most popular form of secular music that Byrd wrote is called a “madrigal.” The madrigal style
came from Italy. A madrigal is a vocal song that uses music to paint a clear picture of the words. This is
known as …
Text painting – Also used by Josquin des Prez
Just like Josquin des
Prez, William Byrd also has
musical groups
named after him. This is the William
Byrd Ensemble.