Presented in the splendour of Bath’s Abbey church, William Byrd’s Mass for four voices is interspersed with the Propers for Corpus Christi which, alongside All Saints, was the preeminent feast for English Catholics in Byrd's time. These, contrasted with the early masterpiece Ad Dominum cum tribularer (a Corpus Christi motet with a text which rails against the persecution of English Catholics) and pair of eight-voice motets which see Byrd responding to a musical message of support from the Flemish composer Philippe de Monte, show the breadth and extraordinary beauty and skill of Byrd’s writing - from grand to miniature, both in scale and scope.

Programme

William Byrd Ad Dominum cum tribularer, Mass for Four voices, Propers for Corpus Christi (incl. Ave verum corpus), Salve regina (1605), Quomodo cantabimus

Philippe de Monte Super flumina Babylonis