Search - William Byrd :: Sacred Choral Music

2008 release. Born in London circa 1540, William Byrd was the foremost composer of the Elizabethan age. A master of keyboard music and the madrigal as well as Latin and English church music, he was an organist and member of the sovereign's private religious establishment, the Chapel Royal. For many, Byrd's Masses represent the pinnacle of his work. Inspired in part by the archaic compositions of John Taverner, yet also admitting the influence of European composers such as Palestrina, they are dark, mystical and intimate works that often reach an intensity unusual for Renaissance times, with the Agnus Dei of the Mass for Five Voices in particular culminating in some of the most poignantly beautiful music ever composed. El Records.