Editing William Byrd (section)

===''Cantiones sacrae'' (1589 and 1591)===
Byrd's commitment to the Catholic cause found expression in his motets, of which he composed about 50 between 1575 and 1591. While the texts of the motets included by Byrd and Tallis in the 1575 ''Cantiones'' have a [[High Anglican]] doctrinal tone, scholars such as Joseph Kerman have detected a profound change of direction in the texts which Byrd set in the motets of the 1580s.{{sfn|Kerman|1980|pp=37{{ndash}}46}} In particular there is a persistent emphasis on themes such as the persecution of the chosen people (''Domine praestolamur'' a5) the [[Babylonian captivity|Babylonian]] or [[Egypt]]ian captivity (''Domine tu iurasti'') and the long-awaited coming of deliverance (''Laetentur caeli'', ''Circumspice Jerusalem''). This has led scholars from Kerman onwards to believe that Byrd was reinterpreting biblical and liturgical texts in a contemporary context and writing laments and petitions on behalf of the persecuted Catholic community, which seems to have adopted Byrd as a kind of 'house' composer. Some texts should probably be interpreted as warnings against spies (''Vigilate, nescitis enim'') or lying tongues (''Quis est homo'') or celebration of the memory of martyred priests (''O quam gloriosum''). Byrd's setting of the first four verses of Psalm 78 (''Deus venerunt gentes'') is widely believed to refer to the brutal execution of Fr [[Edmund Campion]] in 1581 an event that caused widespread revulsion on the Continent as well as in England. Finally, and perhaps most remarkably, Byrd's ''Quomodo cantabimus'' is the result of a motet exchange between Byrd and [[Philippe de Monte]], who was director of music to [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor]], in [[Prague]]. In 1583 De Monte sent Byrd his setting of verses 1–4 of [[Vulgate]] Psalm 136 (''[[Psalm 137|Super flumina Babylonis]]''), including the pointed question "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" Byrd replied the following year with a setting of the defiant continuation, set, like de Monte's piece, in eight parts and incorporating a three-part canon by inversion.

Thirty-seven of Byrd's motets were published in two sets of ''Cantiones sacrae'', which appeared in 1589 and 1591. Together with two sets of English songs, discussed below, these collections, dedicated to powerful Elizabethan lords ([[Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester]] and [[John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley]]), probably formed part of Byrd's campaign to re-establish himself in Court circles after the reverses of the 1580s. They may also reflect the fact that Byrd's fellow monopolist Tallis and his printer Thomas Vautrollier had died, thus creating a more propitious climate for publishing ventures. Since many of the motet texts of the 1589 and 1591 sets are pathetic in tone, it is not surprising that many of them continue and develop the 'affective-imitative' vein found in some motets from the 1570s, though in a more concise and concentrated form. ''Domine praestolamur'' (1589) is a good example of this style, laid out in imitative paragraphs based on subjects which characteristically emphasise the expressive minor second and minor sixth, with continuations which subsequently break off and are heard separately (another technique which Byrd had learnt from his study of Ferrabosco). Byrd evolved a special "cell" technique for setting the petitionary clauses such as ''miserere mei'' or ''libera nos Domine'' which form the focal point for a number of the texts. Particularly striking examples of these are the final section of ''Tribulatio proxima est'' (1589) and the multi-sectional ''Infelix ego'' (1591), a large-scale motet which takes its point of departure from ''Tribue Domine'' of 1575.

There are also a number of compositions which do not conform to this stylistic pattern. They include three motets which employ the old-fashioned cantus firmus technique as well as the most famous item in the 1589 collection, ''Ne irascaris Domine''. the second part of which is closely modelled on [[Philip van Wilder]]'s popular ''Aspice Domine''. A few motets, especially in the 1591 set, abandon traditional motet style and resort to vivid [[word painting]] which reflects the growing popularity of the [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]] (''Haec dies'', ''Laudibus in sanctis'', 1591). A famous passage from [[Thomas Morley]]'s ''A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke'' (1597) supports the view that the madrigal had superseded the motet in the favour of Catholic patrons, a fact which may explain why Byrd composed few non-liturgical motets after 1591.