Byrd’s three Masses
are usually recorded as they were published:
the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,
Sanctus, Benedictus and
Agnus Dei, performed at every
Mass (except that the Gloria
is sometimes omitted) and known as the
Ordinary of the Mass. Several versions
are available in this format. Some continue
to cherish the King’s College/Willcocks
recordings, but my own preference would
be for the Tallis Scholars on Gimell.
This was recently reissued as a 2-CD
bargain, coupled with the Great Service
and other works (CDGIM208) and praised
by my Musicweb colleague MG – see review
– for their freshness and fluency.
Having owned the original
single Gimell CDs for a long time –
and having played them frequently –
I concur with both his praise of these
recordings and his minor reservations.
If you want the Masses in this form,
you cannot do better – and you will
be getting a good performance of The
Great Service as a bonus.
In fact, the 2-CD set
is a wonderful bargain, since a number
of extra tracks have been added to make
total playing times of 79:05 and 79:03
– Infelix ego, apparently recorded
at the same time as the Masses, together
with Vigilate, Tristitia et
anxietas, Ne irasceris, Domine
and Prevent us, O Lord, recorded
in Tewkesbury Abbey in 2006. In order
for me to work with their latest version,
rather than the two older CDs which
I have owned for some time, Gimell kindly
gave me access to download the lossless
wma version of this 2-CD album. If you
just want the three Masses, together
with The Great Service and the
other pieces, you can’t go wrong with
CDGIM208 in any form. The 2-CD reissue
also includes the texts which were absent
from my original single CD copies. The
wma sound is in every way the equal
of the CDs.
If you’re wondering
whether The Great Service is
worth having, my answer is a strong
affirmative – it’s one of the earliest
settings of Mattins and Evensong from
the Book of Common Prayer, yet it set
the pattern for other composers. The
ardent Romanist Byrd somehow contrived
to be sympathetic enough to the Elizabethan
compromise to write music clearly within
the tradition of Tudor polyphony while
respecting the reformers’ concern for
the words to be heard clearly. This
was a concern which Rome also shared,
following the Tridentine reforms.
But the Ordinary of
the Mass is never performed on its own,
except in concert performances. In Byrd’s
day these settings would have had to
be performed privately in the houses
of the recusant nobility and gentry,
such as that of his patrons the Petres
at Ingatestone. It is, therefore, surprising
that Byrd’s name appears clearly on
the front covers of these three Masses.
In theory these settings
could have been used at the Chapel Royal,
where the Queen encouraged the performance
of music with Latin texts, and at the
universities, since the Prayer Book
explicitly allows the employment of
Latin wherever it is "understanded
of the people"; St Mary’s University
Church in Oxford still employs the Latin
Eucharist authorised in Elizabethan
times at the start of each full term.
You can even find the text online.
Nowadays settings by Byrd and other
composers can be performed openly in
churches and cathedrals: the Sunday
Sung Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral,
Oxford, for example, whose choir made
these recordings, regularly features
a polyphonic setting.
These three Nimbus
recordings set each of the Masses in
the context of a particular feast day,
placing the Ordinary within the Proper
– Introit, Gradual, Offertory, Communion
– of that day. These, too, are mostly
in Byrd’s own settings from the two
books of Gradualia, which he
published in 1605 and 1607. The Three-part
Mass comes with the Propers for Christmas,
together with five other pieces from
the Breviary services for that day;
the Four-part with the Propers for Corpus
Christi, plus three hymns to the Sacrament;
the Five-part with Propers for All Saints,
plus three motets.
The normal practice
in reconstructed performances of Mass
settings is to intersperse the polyphonic
parts with the plainsong propers of
the day but, since Byrd’s Gradualia
can surely only have been composed to
have been sung at Mass, it makes sense
to employ them here. The pieces from
the Gradualia certainly benefit
from being heard in context, rather
than as isolated works; heard in isolation,
as on a Hereford Cathedral Choir recording
(Griffin Records GCCD 4048 – see review)
they tend to disappoint.
Even on such an excellent
recording as that by the William Byrd
Choir under Gavin Turner (Hyperion Helios
CDH55047) the Gradualia tend
to sound disjointed, like bleeding chunks
of Wagner. The pieces from his earlier
collection Cantiones Sacræ
tend to be more satisfying in that regard,
as on the recording by The Cardinall’s
Musick, directed by Anthony Carwood
(Hyperion CDA67568, a Recording of the
Month – see review).
If, however, you are looking for a collection
of pieces from the Gradualia,
try the Turner/Hyperion or the equally
inexpensive and attractive collection
Music for a Hidden Chapel, sung
by Chanticleer on Harmonia Mundi HCX395
5182, also available from iTunes.
There is no duplication
on the Chanticleer recording of the
pieces from Gradualia employed
on these three Nimbus CDS. My only complaint
about this, and other bargains in the
Harmonia Mundi Classical Express series,
such as Campion’s Lute Songs on HCX395
7023 is the garish covers. Chanticleer’s
Byrd is also available, with a more
attractive cover, in a 3-CD super-budget
compilation, with music by Orlando Gibbons
(Magdalen College) and Pelham Humfrey
(Clare College/Romanesca) on HMX290
7454. I haven’t heard the Gibbons but
can recommend the Humfrey recording.
The arrangement on
these Nimbus recordings avoids the tension
inherent in juxtaposing chant and polyphony.
In practice, such juxtapositions would
have been avoided by the intervention
of other parts of the service – the
polyphonic Gloria separated from
the chanted Gradual, for example, by
the Collect(s) and Epistle of the day.
In the Sarum and Tridentine Latin rites
only the chanted Introit and polyphonic
Kyrie would have followed each
other without intervening sections.
The three-part Mass
is a marvel of economy. Not for Byrd
the forty-part magnificence of Tallis’s
famous Spem in alium, since these
works were not intended to be sung with
the facilities of the Chapel Royal at
his disposal. Instead of settling for
mend-and-make-do with the more modest
facilities at his disposal, he turned
necessity into a virtue.
This performance of
the three-part Mass begins with the
Introit Puer natus est nobis from
the Second Book of Gradualia
(1607). I doubt whether Byrd ever heard
this better sung than it is here. He
would have envisaged smaller forces
but the Christ Church choir never swamp
or force the music. The same is true
in their singing of the first items
from the Mass itself, the very short
Kyrie and the Gloria which
follows. It is often said that Byrd’s
music for the Roman liturgy is more
intense and personal than that for Anglican
use, but the short duration of the Kyrie
of this Mass will not bear intense singing
and the Gloria is pensive rather
than overtly celebratory. The Christ
Church choir are right to offer straightforward
rather than affective singing here.
It is only to be expected that, with
a larger body of performers, their tempi
will be a little slower than those of
The Tallis Scholars, but there is not
much in it (4:49 for the Gloria
against 4:33). The upward transposition
of the music on the Nimbus recording
for treble, alto and tenor adds to the
feeling of lightness which the performance
evokes.
That the Gloria
is followed by the Gradual, Viderunt
omnes, rather than the Creed, is
very appropriate, since, again, this
is a considered rather than an exuberant
setting. Of course, in an actual celebration,
the Collect and Epistle would have intervened
– perhaps some day the likes of Paul
McCreesh will perform a reconstruction
of a complete Mass, of the kind for
which he is justly famous.
The Credo is
noticeably slower than on the Gimell
recording (7:31 against 6:39) which
allows the listener to absorb the words
of this act of faith. In reformed usage,
Lutheran and Anglican, the Creed is
rarely set; spoken or recited to a simple
chant such as that by Merbecke which
has survived 500 years of Anglican usage,
the words matter more than the music.
The Christ Church singers slow considerably
at the words et incarnatus est,
thereby marking the traditional custom
of kneeling or bowing during the recitation
of this account of the Nativity and
Passion, returning to tempo at et
resurrexit.
The Sanctus
and Benedictus take almost identical
times on the two recordings but the
Christ Church Agnus Dei is again
slower at 3:40 against 3:14. The Tallis
Scholars could hardly be accused of
being perfunctory in their rendition
of the Agnus, but the Nimbus
performers are again more mindful of
the reverent manner in which these words
are traditionally sung in an actual
celebration. They never allow the music
to drag, but their slowish tempo here
also offers an effective contrast with
the Communion verse, Viderunt omnes.
The predominant feeling
from the Christ Church performance of
the three-part Mass is of dignified
and solemn rejoicing rather than exuberance,
which is surely the right mood for the
small recusant community centred on
Ingatestone. If you want to get into
Byrd’s inmost feelings about the position
that he and his co-religonists found
themselves in, listen to the exasperated
tone of his Why do I waste my paper,
ink and pen? on the Magdalen College
CD of the Second Service, to which I
refer at the end of this review.
The Nimbus CD is rounded
off with performances of other Christmastide
pieces from the Gradualia, all
performed very satisfactorily. The inclusion
of the Vespers Antiphon Hodie
Christus natus est is particularly
welcome and the Responsory O magnum
mysterium rounds off the CD very
effectively. Even with these additions,
however, the overall playing time of
51:51 seems a little mean. None of these
Nimbus recordings approaches the value
of the two very well filled Gimell CDs.
In the four- and five-part
Masses, too, The Tallis Scholars are
on the whole slightly faster than the
Christ Church choir; though they are
never so fast as to seem perfunctory,
this allows them to include all three
Masses on one CD and to add an excellent
performance of Ave verum corpus.
This is often said to be ‘easier’ to
perform than Mozart’s setting, though
I am not so sure – certainly, very few
choirs would be able to match the performance
on the Gimell CD, now made even better
value by the addition of Vigilate.
As with the three-part
Mass, the four-part not only employs
the propers (Introit, etc.) for the
feast of Corpus Christi, it is rounded
off with settings of three pieces associated
with that feast, Pange lingua,
Ave verum corpus and O salutaris
hostia. Similarly, the five-part
Mass disc ends with three motets for
All Saints Day, Laudibus in Sanctis,
Laudate pueri and Laudate
Dominum.
The Corpus Christi
propers which accompany the four-part
Mass receive more affirmative settings
than the Christmas propers. Perhaps
this is because Corpus Christi no longer
featured in the Anglican calendar and
the display of the Sacrament at Benediction,
associated with it, was strenuously
criticised in the 39 Articles:
The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
was not by God’s ordinance reserved,
carried about, lifted up or worshipped.
[Article XXVIII]
Am I mistaken in thinking
that Byrd sets the words et in unam
sanctam Catholicam et Apostlicam ecclesiam
– and in one holy Catholic and Apostolic
church – with special emphasis, since
they would have had a different significance
for his recusant congregation than when
the same words were chanted in English
in the Anglican Communion service? Whatever
the reason, the four-part Mass suits
those settings well: the Kyrie,
Sanctus, Benedictus and
Agnus Dei are more intense than
in the three-part setting, the Gloria
and Creed more susceptible of the celebratory
performances which they receive from
the Christ Church choir. Of the additional
settings which end the CD, Ave verum
Corpus (tr.12) receives a particularly
effective devotional performance, just
one second faster than the equally fine
version from The Tallis Scholars. Only
the Sequence, Lauda Sion, sung
rather rapidly in plainsong, slightly
outstays its welcome on this CD.
The five-part Mass,
with the All Saints’ Day texts, brings
similar rewards. I enjoyed my re-encounter
with the Christ Church choir on these
Nimbus CDs more than any of their other
recordings of English church music which
I have recently reviewed. I am glad
that all these recordings are once more
available with the resurgence of the
Nimbus label, but most glad of all for
the restoration of these Byrd recordings,
which provide an excellent alternative
to hearing the three Masses in the Tallis
Scholars’ Gimell recording. Ideally,
I’d want both.
The Nimbus recordings
are more successful than some of their
earlier Dorchester Abbey recordings,
though still a touch backward at times
in the three-part Mass. Balance does
seem to vary from moment to moment on
all three CDs; the Gimell recordings
are preferable, but this is not a serious
problem. My Arcam deck refused to play
or even recognise the four-part CD,
a disdain which it usually reserves
for some CDRs, but my other decks were
quite happy with it.
Whether heard on its
own or with the propers, this is marvellous
music and I urge you to get to know
it if you don’t already. The Gimell
versions will serve you very well if
you want the Masses alone and these
Christ Church performances will do almost
as well if you prefer the Masses with
propers. I have seen their performances
criticised on the grounds that this
is the sort of sound that the choristers
regularly produce. Agreed that they
don’t make any special effort to sound
like what Byrd would have heard at Ingatestone,
whatever that was, but if you heard
them sing one of these Masses on a Sunday
morning in Oxford, I guarantee that
the sound would contribute considerably
to whatever spiritual value you gained
from the service.
You should, however,
be aware of the versions by The Sixteen
under Harry Christophers on a super-budget-price
2-CD Virgin Veritas set for less than
the price of one Nimbus CD: the four-part
Mass with the propers for SS Peter and
Paul and the 5-part with those for All
Saints, as on the Nimbus recording,
plus six motets (5 62013 2) – excellent
value, though not unequivocally welcomed
in some quarters.
If you’re still looking
for other music by Byrd, try the Second
Service and Consort Anthems recording
made by Magdalen College Choir under
Bill Ives (Harmonia Mundi HMU90 7440).
I’m slightly less enthusiastic about
this recording than my colleague MG,
who made it his Recording of the Month
– see review:
the trebles in the opening anthem Arise,
O Lord, are just too raw for me,
but matters very soon improve and I
certainly haven’t regretted following
his advice to buy this recording, even
though it duplicates some of the English
works on the Gimell CDs.
Brian Wilson
Christ Church Cathedral Choir/Stephen
Darlington 
