Prevent us, O Lord - William Byrd - Antiquum Documentum

“Prevent us, O Lord“ by Byrd performed live in a concert of ornamented choral #polyphony by Antiquum Documentum in Keble Chapel on the 13th June. A setting of a collect from the found in the 1552 and 1559 editions of the Book of Common Prayer, this, one of Byrd’s English-language opened our Summer concert: “English Sacred Music in the Vernaculars,“ which centred around music that could have been used in services according to the 1560 Liber Precum Publicarum (Book of Common Prayer in Latin). We recently did a reconstruction of such liturgy, which may be found here. Byrd died almost exactly 400 years ago (July 1623), though unlike other contemporary composers such as Weelkes, we know that Byrd was (like his teacher, Tallis) a recusant Roman Catholic. Surviving in Oxford’s Dow Partbooks of 1580, the piece was certainly written during Elizabeth’s reign. Here, we have a recusant Catholic composer who remains a prize member of the Chapel Royal, writing in English for Anglican congregations. Byrd continued to write decidedly Catholic music in Latin, such as his pieces in the 1575 Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur, his Cantiones sacrae of 1589 and 1591, and of course his Mass and Gradualia settings of the 1590s and 1600s. As an aside, this was recently sung just after the Oath during the #coronation of King Charles III in #westminsterabbey Progamme notes adapted from concert programme by Jarek Jankowski Video production: @EdGaut Antiquum Documentum: Director: Alexander Trowell Soprano: Lois Heslop, Maddy Belotti Mezzo-soprano: Veronica Tarka, Cosima Gillhammer Tenor: Joshua Clough, Jarek Jankowski, Alexander Trowell Baritone: Benjamin Giblin Bass: Daniel Greenway, Theo Cawood #royalfamily #kingcharlesiii #kingcharlesiiicoronation