Page 54 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

52

THAT IS THE NATURE

OF HYMNS—THEY

MAKE US WANT TO

REPEAT THEM

GREAT SERVICE (c. 1580/1590), WILLIAM BYRD

lthough William Byrd is Mary died in 1558, Elizabeth I
IN CONTEXT believed to have been a returned England to Protestantism.
A Catholic for most, if not all, However, Elizabeth was tolerant of
FOCUS of his life, he composed music for Catholicism among the country’s
English Protestant the Anglican Church in addition to gentry if they were loyal and
church music
motets and Masses in Latin for the practiced it discreetly. She
BEFORE Catholic rite. He lived through three sanctioned the use of Latin for
1558 John Sheppard eras of religious revisionism in services at the Chapel Royal, and
composes his Second Service, England. Under Henry VIII and then
a setting for five voices of the Edward VI, the country had been The seeds of Protestantism in
“full” service (rather than Protestant since 1534, but in 1553 England were sown by Martin Luther,
the customary short service Mary Tudor acceded to the throne the architect of the Reformation in
comprising only settings of the with her husband Philip II of Spain Germany, shown here playing music
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis) and reinstated Catholicism. When with his children.
and precursor to Byrd’s
10-voice Great Service.

c.1570 William Mundy
composes his Evening Service
In medio chori for a choir in
nine parts, expanding to 11
parts at times.
AFTER
c.1620 Thomas Weelkes
publishes Evensong for Seven
Voices, a Great Service in up
to 10 parts.
c.1630 Thomas Tomkins’s
Third or Great Service for 10
voices is the grandest work
in the genre.

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