William Byrd - "Ye Sacred Muses" - In Memoriam, Thomas Tallis. Matthew White, countertenor.

Ye Sacred Muses (c. 1585) is Englishman William Byrd's musical elegy on the death of his colleague and sometime mentor, Thomas Tallis. It is scored for 5 vv. (usually four viols and countertenor - as here). Here, countertenor Matthew White, accompanied by the viols of Les Voix Baroques, bring us a most moving account of Byrd's In Memoriam to Tallis.

Donato Mancini, of AllMusic writes:

"When the aged Tallis died in 1585, [he was 80 years old - a prodigious age at the time] no other composer was more qualified to compose his elegy. It's most appropriate, too, that Byrd chose the consort song as the genre for the piece. A consort song is a piece for one singer (alto or countertenor) and instruments, usually viols. The instruments play a tirelessly worked-out and slow four-part counterpoint and the voice sings a simple line drawn from the contrapuntal fabric. It was a genre entirely indigenous to England; what better medium to honour the country's most eminent composer?"

Text

Ye sacred Muses, race of Jove,
whom Music's lore delighteth,
Come down from crystal heav'ns above
to earth where sorrow dwelleth,
In mourning weeds, with tears in eyes:
Tallis is dead, and Music dies.

Images

00:07 - William Byrd - C18 invented portrait engraving by Gerard Vandergucht.
00:23 - "Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters" by Hendrick Avercamp (1585 - 1634). Oil on wood panel. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
01:09 - 'Winter Scene on a Canal", by Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634). Oil on wood panel. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA.
01:55 - Thomas Tallis, depicted in stained glass window at St Alfege church, Greenwich, London.
02:21 - "The Census at Bethlehem" (also known as "The Numbering at Bethlehem") by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569). Oil on panel. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.
02:47 - Choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England.

Performance

Matthew White: countertenor
Viols: Les Voix Baroques
(c) 2003