ABSTRACT
Where might William Byrd have started the large-scale task of composing and assembling the Gradualia? We can safely assume that the collection did not appear fully formed in a single burst of inspiration. Anomalies of style, scoring, arrangement, and rubrication suggest that some of the earliest layers composed were in fact printed as part of book 2 in 1607. This leads to the hypothesis that he approached the Gradualia, at least once he had begun the intensive work on it described in his prefaces, as a collection ultimately unified in purpose though split (for a number of reasons) between two separate prints. When read as a single yearlong cycle, in liturgical order rather than print order, it reveals careful organization by mode, scoring, and affect to form a sustained trajectory through what Henry Garnet called “the principall pointes of the life of our Saviour, and of his holy Mother.”1 It is not only a comprehensive resource for practical use, but also a carefully structured narrative in its own right.
