Byrd, W.: The Three Masses

   in Early Music Today (Mar, 2015)
Westminster Cathedral Choir offer Byrd’s three Latin Masses for five, four and three voices respectively, plus the justifiably ubiquitous Ave verum corpus from the Gradualia, in their customary full-blooded, glorious, Italianate interpretations. Superbly written liner notes by John Milsom elucidate the dichotomy of musical language between Byrd’s ‘public’ Reformed output, rich in ceremonial splendour and extrovert pomp, and the ‘chamber’ nature of his Catholic music, covertly written to be covertly sung in intimate and fearful situations.

The performances here, of course, bridge that dichotomy: the Catholic Masses resplendent in the proud ambience of Westminster Cathedral. Milsom emphasises the fittingness of this in historical terms. It was the Catholic choral foundations of …