Programme three in the series 'Sacred Music' has just had its first broadcast on BBC FOUR. Entitled 'Tallis, Byrd and The Tudors', we learned about these two Elizabethan Catholic composers who lived and worked in Essex.
Tallis worked for the Anglican Church following the dissolution of Waltham Abbey where he was organist between 1538 and 1540. He composed such pieces as 'If Ye Love Me', simply because as a musician this was the art professionally required of him at the time. The Church was the only place for his creativity.
Byrd, the younger of the two men, was quite a different character. He was a closet Catholic writing subversive liturgy for families such as the Petres at Ingatestone Hall. The present Lord Petre was interviewed at his home and viewers were shown paintings of William Petre, the first Baron and canny Tudor Secretary to the monarchs, then John, William's son and patron of Byrd. The Petre family were keen musicians and invited Byrd to Ingatestone Hall at Christmas 1585 for merrymaking and the odd secret Catholic mass. Byrd's settings of the Mass for Three, Four and Five Voices (part of the Mass for Four Voices sung by The Sixteen at Ingatestone Hall) are deliberately written for an intimate, domestic area. This is dangerous music.
The choice of Byrd's home at Stondon Massey, after the London Plague of 1592, seems to have been a deliberate hideaway from prying villagers and a walk across country to what was a hotbed of recusancy in the nearby village of Kelvedon Hatch.
Byrd is portrayed as a 'protest singer' in the composition of 'Why do I with paper, ink and pen' - a reaction to Edmund Campion's execution / martyrdom at Tyburn - and in the writing of 'How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land' (in Latin) to that Psalm 'By the Rivers of Babylon' (no don't mention Boney M please!).
These were indeed turbulent times! Repeated fines for recusancy and maybe anonymous burial at night fall in the churchyard at Stondon Massey.
A really great film. Will watch the repeat!
Showing posts with label Tallis Thomas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tallis Thomas. Show all posts
Friday, 4 April 2008
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Stondon Massey: Byrd on the box!
Programme three in the series ‘Sacred Music’, entitled 'Tallis, Byrd, and the Tudors', will be broadcast on BBC FOUR at 8.00pm on Friday 4 April. (and repeated at 1.30am on Saturday 5 April; 7.00pm on Sunday 6 April; and 2.05am on Monday 7 April). The programme is an hour long.
The following is taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/tv/wk14/fri.shtml
Simon Russell Beale reaches the religious turmoil of Tudor England as he continues his exploration of the history of Western church music. He tells the story of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, two Catholic composers writing for a Protestant queen, who were at the centre of England's own musical Renaissance.
Tallis's career spanned the reign of four monarchs - Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I - and his music reflects the religious upheavals and bewildering political changes that affected English church music as the nation switched between Catholicism and Protestantism. He began his career as an organist in Dover, moved to Waltham Abbey in Essex, then, after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, was appointed organist at Canterbury Cathedral. In 1543 he was made Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, a position he retained until his death in 1585.
Most likely born in Lincolnshire in 1543, William Byrd was a student of Tallis and the relationship between them was close. They jointly published 34 motets dedicated to Elizabeth I in 1575. When the older composer died, the music Byrd wrote in tribute was among the most beautiful and heartfelt of his prolific career. Appointed organist of Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, by 1572 he had joined Tallis as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, sharing organist duties.
Byrd excelled in almost every musical form cultivated in the England of his time and, perhaps more than any other, his work is a musical record of one of the most challenging times in the history of sacred music.
Music is performed mainly at Waltham Abbey by award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers, with a smaller group singing at Ingatestone Hall, Essex, (photo above) where Byrd risked his life taking part in secret worship. There is also music from the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace.
The Open University, who co-produced the series, has created a website linked to the programmes. The site features background information, programme summaries and a selection of music along with expert commentary. There is also space for viewer’s feedback. Go to:
http://open2.net/sacredmusic
The following is taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/tv/wk14/fri.shtml
Simon Russell Beale reaches the religious turmoil of Tudor England as he continues his exploration of the history of Western church music. He tells the story of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, two Catholic composers writing for a Protestant queen, who were at the centre of England's own musical Renaissance.
Tallis's career spanned the reign of four monarchs - Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I - and his music reflects the religious upheavals and bewildering political changes that affected English church music as the nation switched between Catholicism and Protestantism. He began his career as an organist in Dover, moved to Waltham Abbey in Essex, then, after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, was appointed organist at Canterbury Cathedral. In 1543 he was made Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, a position he retained until his death in 1585.
Most likely born in Lincolnshire in 1543, William Byrd was a student of Tallis and the relationship between them was close. They jointly published 34 motets dedicated to Elizabeth I in 1575. When the older composer died, the music Byrd wrote in tribute was among the most beautiful and heartfelt of his prolific career. Appointed organist of Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, by 1572 he had joined Tallis as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, sharing organist duties.
Byrd excelled in almost every musical form cultivated in the England of his time and, perhaps more than any other, his work is a musical record of one of the most challenging times in the history of sacred music.
Music is performed mainly at Waltham Abbey by award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers, with a smaller group singing at Ingatestone Hall, Essex, (photo above) where Byrd risked his life taking part in secret worship. There is also music from the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace.
The Open University, who co-produced the series, has created a website linked to the programmes. The site features background information, programme summaries and a selection of music along with expert commentary. There is also space for viewer’s feedback. Go to:
http://open2.net/sacredmusic
The following is taken from:
http://open2.net/sacredmusic/tudors.html
“Through a succession of period documents and manuscripts Simon Beale tells the story of Thomas Tallis and his younger colleague William Byrd, the composers at the centre of England’s own musical Renaissance in the Tudor Age. He discovers the uncertainties of the life of a church musician in the sixteenth century, subject to numerous shifts of religious doctrine and worship from one monarch to the next.
“His journey takes him to some of England’s great cathedrals – Canterbury where Tallis was a singer, to Winchester where Mary Tudor was married and to Lincoln where Byrd started his career as the organist. In the account book of Lincoln Cathedral library he discovers one of William Byrd’s elaborate signatures and reflects on the composer’s powerful personality and sense of faith. He also visits many of the places in London and the Home Counties associated with Tallis and Byrd - attempting to find the houses they lived in, the churches where they worshipped (see note) and, ultimately, their graves.”
Note.
Records suggest that William Byrd and his family did not worship at his local church at Stondon Massey.
For example:
In 1615 Byrd “was summoned with his children to appear, to give account concerning their profession” [ERO D/AZ/1/4 f202].
In 1616 at the Ecclesiastical Court at Romford, “William Birde, gent, for a Recusant Papist and for absenting himself from church a long tyme and for standing excommunicate seaven yeares”. His daughter-in-law, Catherine, was reported as “similar” and a neighbour Charles Clark also recorded as “a Recusant” [ERO D/AZ/1/6 f81].
http://open2.net/sacredmusic/tudors.html
“Through a succession of period documents and manuscripts Simon Beale tells the story of Thomas Tallis and his younger colleague William Byrd, the composers at the centre of England’s own musical Renaissance in the Tudor Age. He discovers the uncertainties of the life of a church musician in the sixteenth century, subject to numerous shifts of religious doctrine and worship from one monarch to the next.
“His journey takes him to some of England’s great cathedrals – Canterbury where Tallis was a singer, to Winchester where Mary Tudor was married and to Lincoln where Byrd started his career as the organist. In the account book of Lincoln Cathedral library he discovers one of William Byrd’s elaborate signatures and reflects on the composer’s powerful personality and sense of faith. He also visits many of the places in London and the Home Counties associated with Tallis and Byrd - attempting to find the houses they lived in, the churches where they worshipped (see note) and, ultimately, their graves.”
Note.
Records suggest that William Byrd and his family did not worship at his local church at Stondon Massey.
For example:
In 1615 Byrd “was summoned with his children to appear, to give account concerning their profession” [ERO D/AZ/1/4 f202].
In 1616 at the Ecclesiastical Court at Romford, “William Birde, gent, for a Recusant Papist and for absenting himself from church a long tyme and for standing excommunicate seaven yeares”. His daughter-in-law, Catherine, was reported as “similar” and a neighbour Charles Clark also recorded as “a Recusant” [ERO D/AZ/1/6 f81].
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Stondon Massey: BBC TV / Open University series to feature St Peter & St Paul Church
Details have been released of a TV series, ‘Sacred Music’, which comes to our screens (if you ‘do digital’ that is) over the Easter period. The programmes will be broadcast on BBC FOUR.
And Stondon Massey, Essex, will appear in the third programme on 4 April 2008.
Programme Three, featuring Stondon, will be broadcast on Friday 4 April. This edition centres on London, where two great Catholic musicians of the 16th century composed for a very Protestant monarch, Elizabeth I. Against a background of religious upheaval and political change, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd served as gentleman of the Chapel Royal, the musical powerhouse of the monarchy, and their music was fundamental to the development of the English choral tradition, regarded today as the finest in the world. Despite their own deeply held Catholic beliefs, they composed some of their finest music for the Anglican church. The singers of “The Sixteen” illuminate through rehearsal and conversation not only the music itself but the sheer clarity of sound with which the tradition is associated.
Locally, of course, more about William Byrd can be heard at the ‘Through Changing Scenes’ event, to be held at the church on Saturday 19 April. Tickets are available now.
And Stondon Massey, Essex, will appear in the third programme on 4 April 2008.
Stondon’s claim to fame is that William Byrd, a catholic and gentleman of the Chapel Royal, lived at Stondon Manor, from 1593 until his death on 4 July 1623.
Last October, Stondon’s Churchwardens were present at St Peter & St Paul Church during filming, which lasted for over five hours. One of them was interviewed and participated in a re-enactment of Byrd’s burial at night in the churchyard. Byrd is thought to have been laid to rest there - according to his Will - but without a surviving burial register for the period this cannot be proved. No memorial was erected at the time to the Elizabethan composer, no doubt because his Catholic conviction which brought him into conflict with the protestant locals.
In fact, it was not until the 1920s that Byrd received official local recognition, thanks to the efforts of the Rector and local historian, Canon Edward Reeve. On the south wall is a tablet commemorating the tercentenary of Byrd’s death, describing him as ‘A Father of Musick’ (see picture). The proceeds for the Tablet were paid for from the surplus received from Tercentenary Celebrations in London in 1923. The unveiling of the memorial, during a special Service on 12 March 1924, was attended by choristers from the Chapel Royal.
'Sacred Music', the TV series, (described as a history of 600 years of European Sacred Music from its roots in 12th Century Paris to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach), is an Open University documentary series which includes performances by conductor Harry Christophers and his world-famous choir, The Sixteen.
The series begins at St Paul’s Cathedral in London and journeys to Paris, Rome and Leipzig charting the political, social and musical developments of the time.
There is also a one-off 90-minute concert of music from the series which will broadcast on BBC FOUR on Easter Sunday.
Simon Russell Beale, the presenter, said in the press release: “I had a wonderful time making this series, travelling to extraordinary places, meeting fascinating people and above all listening to some of the most beautiful music ever written.
“The history of Sacred Music is an intriguing story and I hope the programmes will be a feast for both ear and eye.”
As well as London, the series also visits Dover, Waltham Abbey, the Cathedrals of Winchester, Lincoln and Canterbury, Stondon Massey in Essex where Simon visits the parish church of St Peter & St Paul, Ingatestone Hall and Harlington in Middlesex which features the parish church of St Peter.
The series will be broadcast on Friday evenings from Friday March 21 for four weeks on BBC FOUR. The accompanying concert will broadcast on BBC FOUR on Easter Day, Sunday March 23.
Last October, Stondon’s Churchwardens were present at St Peter & St Paul Church during filming, which lasted for over five hours. One of them was interviewed and participated in a re-enactment of Byrd’s burial at night in the churchyard. Byrd is thought to have been laid to rest there - according to his Will - but without a surviving burial register for the period this cannot be proved. No memorial was erected at the time to the Elizabethan composer, no doubt because his Catholic conviction which brought him into conflict with the protestant locals.
In fact, it was not until the 1920s that Byrd received official local recognition, thanks to the efforts of the Rector and local historian, Canon Edward Reeve. On the south wall is a tablet commemorating the tercentenary of Byrd’s death, describing him as ‘A Father of Musick’ (see picture). The proceeds for the Tablet were paid for from the surplus received from Tercentenary Celebrations in London in 1923. The unveiling of the memorial, during a special Service on 12 March 1924, was attended by choristers from the Chapel Royal.
'Sacred Music', the TV series, (described as a history of 600 years of European Sacred Music from its roots in 12th Century Paris to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach), is an Open University documentary series which includes performances by conductor Harry Christophers and his world-famous choir, The Sixteen.
The series begins at St Paul’s Cathedral in London and journeys to Paris, Rome and Leipzig charting the political, social and musical developments of the time.
There is also a one-off 90-minute concert of music from the series which will broadcast on BBC FOUR on Easter Sunday.
Simon Russell Beale, the presenter, said in the press release: “I had a wonderful time making this series, travelling to extraordinary places, meeting fascinating people and above all listening to some of the most beautiful music ever written.
“The history of Sacred Music is an intriguing story and I hope the programmes will be a feast for both ear and eye.”
As well as London, the series also visits Dover, Waltham Abbey, the Cathedrals of Winchester, Lincoln and Canterbury, Stondon Massey in Essex where Simon visits the parish church of St Peter & St Paul, Ingatestone Hall and Harlington in Middlesex which features the parish church of St Peter.
The series will be broadcast on Friday evenings from Friday March 21 for four weeks on BBC FOUR. The accompanying concert will broadcast on BBC FOUR on Easter Day, Sunday March 23.
Programme Three, featuring Stondon, will be broadcast on Friday 4 April. This edition centres on London, where two great Catholic musicians of the 16th century composed for a very Protestant monarch, Elizabeth I. Against a background of religious upheaval and political change, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd served as gentleman of the Chapel Royal, the musical powerhouse of the monarchy, and their music was fundamental to the development of the English choral tradition, regarded today as the finest in the world. Despite their own deeply held Catholic beliefs, they composed some of their finest music for the Anglican church. The singers of “The Sixteen” illuminate through rehearsal and conversation not only the music itself but the sheer clarity of sound with which the tradition is associated.
Locally, of course, more about William Byrd can be heard at the ‘Through Changing Scenes’ event, to be held at the church on Saturday 19 April. Tickets are available now.
A booklet will also go on sale in aid of Church Funds, entitled 'William Byrd: Some Notes".
Meanwhile, across the Internet and in magazines, the name 'Stondon Massey' is appearing in connection with the TV Series.
Meanwhile, across the Internet and in magazines, the name 'Stondon Massey' is appearing in connection with the TV Series.
For enquiries about the church, its events etc, click on 'Aask Andrew' under 'Labels' (left hand sie) and add a comment or use the Comments field below. Both will reach my E mail box.
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