Eastern Early Music Forum: Choral Workshop on William Byrd

Sat 4 February 2023

Storey’s Field Centre

William Byrd’s astonishing musical legacy will be widely celebrated during 2023, as we mark 400 years since his death. In this workshop day for EEMF, David Allinson will focus on liturgical music Byrd published towards the end of his life, for use in private worship by communities of recusant Catholics.

The Feast of Candlemas, also known as Purification, falls in early February, and so EEMF will sing settings of the texts which are proper at the celebration of Mass for that feast, which commemorates the presentation of Jesus in the temple. The music of Byrd’s Gradualia is mercurial – expressive, challenging and immensely rewarding – so it is needed for experienced singers, and especially tenors and basses, to sign up in good time.

Those liturgical motets will be interleaved with selected movements from Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, a sublime setting familiar to many yet still capable of yielding up rich rewards when given renewed attention.

Cost: £22.00 per person