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Dining with William Byrd New York
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
11/09/2024 - & January 27, 28 (London), June 29 (Oxford), September 7 (Bristol), 8 (London), 13 (Haddington), October 13 (Brighton), November 14, 15 (Santa Fe), December 2 (York), 4 (Cambridge), 2023, July 11 (Salisbury), 12 (Guildford), September 5 (Oxford), October 21 (Liverpool), 22 (Leeds), 24 (Canterbury), 31, November 1, 2 (Boston), 2024
William Byrd: Three fantasias – Fantasy: Browning or the Leaves Be Green – Fantasy for Six voices: No. 1 & No. 2 – Ave Maria – In Nomine for Five Voices – Mass for Five Voices – Elegy on the Death of Thomas Tallis – Mass for Four Voices: “Agnus Dei”
The Gesualdo Six: Owain Park (Director and Bass), Josh Cooter, Joseph Wicks (Tenors), Michael Craddock (Baritone), Guy James, Alistair Austin (Countertenors), Bill Barclay (Creator and Director)
Abendmusik: Patricia Ann Neely, Rosamund Morley (Treble viols), Carolin Nicolas, Daniel McCarthy (Tenor viols), John Mark Rozendaal, Sarah Cunningham (Bass viols)
Gesualdo Six at Byrd Table (© Courtesy of the Artists)
“Since singing is so good a thing/I wish that all the world would sing.”
“My mind to me a kingdom is; Such perfect joy therein I find/That it excels all other bliss/That God or Nature hath assign’d"
William Byrd
“I’m sure you share my belief in universal human rights, but Byrd whispers something beyond belief.”
Bill Barclay, Creator/Director The Gesualdo Six,
How do you turn the 20-minute William Byrd masterpiece, Mass for Five Voices, into a full questionable hour? Creator Bill Barclay did it yesterday in several ways. First, the Mass was transported into a drama, with priests, genuflections, a Holy Table of vegetables vested Catholic singers, and enough tabletop candles and candle‑carriers in the congregation... er, sorry, audience, to light the whole Vatican.
Add to this a Macbeth-style pounding at the gate: obviously the Anglican Religious Police come to arrest the seditious Papists singers.
All of this smack in the middle of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine which–representing the Episcopal Diocese–was the sworn enemy of William Byrd himself.
A potted history. While Byrd, with his pal Thomas Tallis, were both Catholics, their music was so glorious that Queen Elizabeth gave them a sort of Absolution. Tallis stayed with the honors from both Anglicans and Catholics. But Byrd–for reasons still not entirely certain–gave up these honors and joined the “secret” Catholic recusants.
The spirit of these hidden believers inspired the drama “Secret Byrd,” a drama which extended the afternoon (with some added Byrd pieces) into more than an hour.
There was no doubt that the singing of the Gesualdo Six was flawless. And heavenly. They needed no further continuo or supporting voices. And when single voices could be heard through the reverberating, ever‑echoing auditorium, the results warmed the heart.
Had they used the Cathedral Crypt, with its ideal error‑free auditory space, that problem could have been solved.
The other problem was the entire theatrical presentation. And I accentuate “theatrical.”
In September, the Res Facta Vocal Ensemble presented a whole afternoon of Thomas Tallis. No holy table, no gate‑knockings or servings of bread and soup to us in the congregation. Simply that music.
Which I expected here. After all, recordings of the Gesualdo Six, with one voice to a part, are beautiful, harmonious and–dare I say it?–sacred. I forgot the “Secret” of “Secret Byrd” and looked forward to an hour or so of Byrd choices.
B. Barclay/W. Byrd (© Courtesy of the Artist)
But this, to repeat, was drama. Immersive drama too, as members of the audience were invited to sit at that Holy Table, and schmooze with the singers, while the Abendmusik consort of viols played quiet Byrd far in the dark candle‑lit background.
Thus, due to my auditory ignorance, I went through an ordeal rather than an enlightening concert. After all, Byrd, like Tallis, was a wondrous polyphonist. His range encompassed High Church anthems and later prohibited Catholic liturgical texts. And unlike composers before him, he actually used his music to illustrate his texts.
(For reasons beyond my ken, not a single program, including translations orders of song, and Mr. Barclay’s excellent personal notes, was given out until we all exited, so we couldn’t grasp the Latin beforehand.
The Gesualdo Six, with a reputation close to the Tallis Singers and Harry Christophers Sixteen, is a prize choral group for any church or concert hall. The name Gesualdo summons up music of sharp dissonances, eerie poetry and rare counterpoint.
Should this group come to sing Gesualdo or Tallis or Praetorius or Medieval Christmas tunes–or even Byrd–I would run to hear them. With such voices and such understanding, they hardly need a theatrical production to enhance their artistry.
Harry Rolnick
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