ABSTRACT
The problems of dating William Byrd's church music with English words are particularly acute. This is due partly to the nature of the sources. Most of them were compiled a long time after the music was written, and almost all were assembled after Byrd's death, sometimes coupling together pieces which were perhaps not originally associated. Much of Byrd's music complying with the requirements of the Anglican church is nevertheless likely to have been written for Lincoln Cathedral. Byrd's First Preces seem to result from a more leisurely criticism of his own work, but there is still no place for grand gestures in this music. There is the merest hint of extra decoration, and only an occasional harmony surprises by its boldness. The scoring of the Second Preces and psalms suggests that Byrd might have planned the pieces as a group, but the First Preces and the related psalms are scored in different ways.
