Search - William [Composer] Byrd, Peter Phillips, The Tallis Scholars :: Byrd: 3 Masses

A voice teacher and early music fan

George Peabody | Planet Earth | 12/29/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"GLORIUS! GLORIUS! GLORIUS! That's the best way I can describe this marvelous rendition by the Tallis Scholars of Byrd's three Masses.



William Byrd(1543-1623) was a Catholic in the Protestant England of Queen Elizabeth, and had to be careful to keep his head, in every sense of the phrase. By writing for the Protestant Church a Great Service and a Short Service, and for the Papists three Masses(on this disc),besides madrigals, anthems, and hymns, he remained in the good graces of both factions.



In his position as Master of Musicke, he was called upon for music for every sort of occasion, and rose nobly to the challenge, inventing new types of composition as need arose. He composed a number of songs with string quartet accompaniments, actually the first vocal solos in which instruments played the part purely for accompaniment.



Byrd published his three Mass-settings between c.1593 and c.1595 separately, in very small books. They have an unmistakable austerity of tone, and in this lies the peculiar power of these pieces. It is like a theme, to which each movement of each of these 3 Masses is a variation; but the theme is a MOOD, not a MELODY.



During the course of these pieces Byrd clearly explored every feeling a man may have when he is fighting for something he passionately believes in with his back to the wall. His 5-part Mass is one of the most convincingly argued, as well as sonorous, achievements in all his music.



There is no doubt in my mind that this Tallis Scholars recording is the greatest of all the recordings of these Masses. Peter Phillips has assembled his most accomplished singers for this disc (made in 1985). Singers such as:Sally Dunkely & Alison Gough (sopranos)-Michael Chance & Robert Harre-Jones (countertenors)-Charles Daniels, Mark Padmore,Rufus Miller & Nicolas Robertson (tenors)-Francis Steele and Jeremy White (basses). Their sound is sonorous;their emotional investment high and correct; their balance perfection and the diction is flawless! I have 2 other recordings of these Masses, and they just don't get to this SUPERIOR level.

"