The 'Essential' Music of William Byrd

William Byrd is a sixteenth-century musician whom the New York Times has called “an essential English composer for four centuries.” Duke Chapel marked the 400th anniversary of Byrd’s death with special services featuring Byrd’s music. In this episode of Sounds of Faith, we hear excerpts of those pieces sung by the Chapel’s Evensong Singers and learn from Dr. Philip Cave, the Chapel’s conductor-in-residence, about the musical and cultural tensions in Byrd’s life as a composer bridging the Renaissance and Baroque styles and a Catholic in a country dominated by the Church of England.

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