William Byrd

Obviously, I have been totally out of blogging mode for some time.  Just.  Simply.  No.  Time.

So, what's been keeping me so busy?  Well, it may sound mundane, but mostly family, home, work, church, & school.  In other words, nothing different from anyone else.  Though, I guess putting obscure Italian motorcycles back together & organizing Gregorian chant workshops isn't on everyone's to-do list.

Here's an embellished piece of a draft of an old post...

Musically, the Knoxville Latin Mass Schola (informally known as the Blessed Hermann Contractus of Reichenau Schola) has been working very hard to learn William Byrd's Mass for Three Voices, which we will sing tomorrow for the Ascension Thursday/Sunday/Saturday Mass at my home parish of St. Thomas the Apostle, & again at Holy Ghost for the various upcoming feasts & solemnities.  I think it's beautiful, & has some very complex chordal arrangements that sound like they could have been written last week.  Such is the power of true sacred music.

[ed: we actually did learn & sing that Mass several times, both with EF Masses at Holy Ghost & also  OF Masses at St. Thomas, where - in combination with Adam Barlett's Simple English Propers - it seemed very welcome.  We sang it at the wedding of the sister of a several members of our choir - the most beautiful & enjoyable wedding I've ever had the privilege to attend.  Byrd's genius as a composer carried the day(s), even when our talent or execution wasn't perfect.]

William Byrd lived in "interesting times."  Read his bio on Wikipedia.  He was a Catholic who loved his Faith, but found it increasingly precarious to practice it during Elizabethan times.  I've often thought about his exquisite Agnus Dei arrangements, & how he must have felt penning "dona nobis pacem," even as his beloved priests & other faithful Catholics were arrested & publicly tortured & executed for refusing to burn incense to Ceasar.  Perhaps he understood the power of suffering & dying for the Faith.

It was a privilege to spend time with Byrd, learning his personality through his work.  Our choir is now learning his Ave Verum Corpus, which we are also loving.
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