Subversive Beauty: Byrd’s Credo for Four Voices 

 Subversive Activities

 

Quick! What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase “subversive activities”? I bet composing sacred polyphony isn’t high on your list. And yet, there was a time when few things in England were more subversive.

Meet William Byrd, the composer of the “Credo” in the clip below. He was an unusually interesting character.  One of the leading Anglican composers during the early part of English Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, he converted to Catholicism in the 1570’s. At the time,  it was becoming increasingly dangerous to practice Catholicism in England. And yet, Byrd persevered in the Catholic faith in the face of some serious disincentives. He had to pay a heavy recusancy tax for failure to attend Church of England services for the last fifty years of his life. Some of his Catholic associates were put to death because of their Catholicism. He was constantly in danger of running afoul of the ruling authorities. Byrd often used Biblical texts involving themes such as the Babylonian Captivity as a musical commentary on the plight of Catholics in Elizabethan England.

 Beautiful Music 

I suppose I should mention that, in the midst of it all, he wrote some incredibly beautiful music.  The excerpt below, for instance, from his Mass for Four Voices. This is one of a large number of Catholic liturgical pieces Byrd composed in the 1590’s and 1600’s for use in illegal (and quite hazardous) Masses at the home of his patron, Sir John Petre.  Interestingly, he continued to compose music for the Anglican Church as well, some of which continued in use for a century or more after his death.

One final, intriguing note on this most intriguing of Catholic composers: he, along with fellow composers (but not fellow Catholics) John Merbecke and Thomas Tallis, claims November 21st as his feast day on the liturgical calendar of the U.S. Episcopal Church (a member church of the Anglican Communion).  

Music and Art, Body and Soul 

No, Byrd’s beautiful musical setting to the ancient Nicene expression of Christian faith hardly seems subversive . . . at least not at first.  But think about it. We live in a world obsessed with possessions, politics, and power. Our popular culture actively promotes and celebrates ugliness in music and art, body and soul (I need not provide examples).  What could be more subversive than a beautiful musical expression of transcendent eternal truth?

Featured image top of page: Villagers on Their Way to Church by Simon Bening, 1550