Editing William Byrd (section)

===Youth and early career===
Details of Byrd's childhood are speculative.{{sfn|McCarthy|2013|p=3}} There is no documentary evidence concerning Byrd's education or early musical training. His two brothers were choristers at [[Old St Paul's Cathedral|St. Paul's Cathedral]],{{sfn|Kerman|2001|p=714}} and Byrd may have been a chorister there as well, although it is possible that he was a chorister with the [[Chapel Royal]]. According to Anthony Wood, Byrd was "bred up to musick under Tho. Tallis",{{sfn|Harley|2016a|p=52}} and a reference in the ''Cantiones sacrae'', published by Byrd and [[Thomas Tallis]] in 1575, tends to confirm that Byrd was a pupil of Tallis in the Chapel Royal.{{sfn|Harley|2016a|pp=46{{ndash}}47}} If he was—and conclusive evidence has not emerged to verify it{{sfn|Monson|2008}}—it seems likely that once Byrd's voice broke, the boy stayed on at the Chapel Royal as Tallis's assistant.{{sfn|Kerman|2001|p=714}}

Byrd produced student compositions, including ''Sermone Blando'' for consort, and a "Miserere". Church music for the Catholic rite reintroduced by Mary would have been composed before her death in 1558, which occurred when Byrd was eighteen.{{sfn|Kerman|2001|p=714}} His early compositions suggest he was taught [[polyphony]] when a student.{{sfn|McCarthy|2013|p=10}}