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Views from the Choir Loft

The “Cantiones Sacrae” of William Byrd & Thomas Tallis

Fr. David Friel · October 30, 2016

HIS MONTH I attended a wonderful lecture by the eminent church historian, Eamon Duffy. Dr. Duffy is undoubtedly most famous for his 1992 book, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580, which revolutionized his field’s understanding of Tudor English piety.

The lecture was hosted at The Catholic University of America, which presented Duffy with the Johannes Quasten Medal, an annual academic award presented by the university’s School of Theology and Religious Studies. The title of the lecture was “Praying the Counter-Reformation in Elizabethan England,” and its focus was the tradition of vernacular prayer manuals in Britain before and after Trent.

What interested me most, however, was a brief aside mentioned in the lecture. Duffy brought up the joint project published by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis in 1575. This collaborative work is commonly known as the Cantiones sacrae (although the formal title is actually Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur). Written in honor of the seventeenth year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the collection features 17 motets from each of the two composers.

Historically, the Cantiones sacrae were a financial failure. In his lecture, Duffy suggested a theory for why they were not a successful publication. He began by noting the titles of some of the motets:

Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna

Miserere mihi Domine

Tribune Domine

Te deprecor

Da mihi auxilium

Domine secundum actum meum

Memento homo

O lux beata Trinitas

If one examines the texts of these and the other motets in the collection, Duffy argued, it becomes apparent that they reflect some very Catholic themes. In particular, the theme of prayer for the dead recurs in several of the pieces; another clear theme is God’s mercy as it applies to the works of man. Duffy made the point that these rather Catholic texts may serve as an explanation for why the Cantiones sacrae were not well received in the post-Reformation period during which they were published.

This theory is especially believable in light of the scholarly research showing that Byrd grew increasingly active with Catholicism beginning in the early 1570’s. Queen Elizabeth is said to have mostly overlooked Byrd’s Catholicism. The failure of his 1575 collection, however, shows that it was perhaps not overlooked by the contemporary music market.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

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    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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It is unworthy that the stone holds Him, Who encloses everything in His hand, Locked in by the forbidding rock. (“Indígnum est cujus claudúntur cuncta pugíllo | Ut tegat inclúsum rupe vetánte lapis.”)

— SALVE FESTA DIES (Eastertide)

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