The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys: Byrd: Sacred Works
Signum Records

What better way to mark the quadricentenary of William Byrd's 1623 death than by coupling a recreation of the Catholic Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi (Dies Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Domini Iesu Christi) with a recording originally issued on LP in 1981 of his complete The Great Service. While both are performed by the Fifth Avenue, New York-based Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys (different personnel, naturally), the mass was recorded with current Director of Music Jeremy Filsell at the helm, The Great Service under Gerre Hancock's direction.

The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, which pairs boy choristers who attend the Saint Thomas Choir School with professional men singers, is renowned for its performances, from the annual ones it gives of Handel's Messiah to presentations of Bach, Fauré, Duruflé, and Mozart. While the company excels at early material, it's as comfortable delivering pieces of recent vintage, including James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross and stateside premieres of works by John Tavener and Nico Muhly.

The date of Byrd's death is known, but other details are less clear, including the London-born composer's precise birthdate. Filsell's liner notes clarify that his first known professional appointment was as Organist and Master of Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, a position that eventually brought with it some turbulence when his salary was suspended six years later, caused perhaps by his appetite for elaborate organ playing and choral polyphony. In 1572, he became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and shortly thereafter Byrd and his mentor Thomas Tallis, having been granted exclusive licence by Queen Elizabeth I to publish music, created Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur (1575), featuring thirty-four Latin motets (seventeen apiece by Tallis and Byrd) and dedicated to the queen. Filsell's in-depth historical account, which describes Byrd's connection to Catholicism and its associated themes (persecution, martyrdom, et al.), culminates in a discussion of the recording's two works.

The twenty-seven tracks of the Catholic Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi carry over from the first disc to the second. Variety is very much the spice of life here, with dramatic shifts in character and arrangement emerging throughout. Following a tone-setting introduction by associate organist Nicolas Haigh, the choir's glorious voices elevate “Cibavit Eos” with riveting polyphony. At times, the voices collect into a magnificent mass; at others, the men's and boy's voices alternate with “Alleluias” rising skyward. The counterpoint at which the choir excels is captured beautifully in “Kyrie eleison,” “Gloria in excelsis,” and the exultant “Credo” and lamenting “Agnus velum corpus.” Such parts are distinguished by the to-and-fro between the groups and at times include parts for individual soloists. Naturally the difference between the maturity of the adult voices and the youthful innocence of the boy singers is a key part of the choir's appeal. Interspersed spoken passages led by a single, reverb-drenched voice (and sometimes, as in “Sursum Corda & Proper Preface” and “Pater Noster & Pax vobiscum,” engaged in call-and-response with a group) contrast starkly with those sung by the choir, as evidenced by the juxtaposition of “Epistle” and “Occuli Omnium”; the intermittent appearance of solo organ for “Clarifica me Pater II,” two-part “Salvator Mundi,” and “Fantasia in D minor,” in these instances played by Filsell, proves enhancing too.

Some degree of listening exhaustion would be understandable by the time the approximately 100-minute Latin mass ends, and in truth had it alone been issued the recording would still have earned its recommendation. But augmenting it with Byrd's The Great Service makes it an all the more attractive proposition, not simply for the bonus in content but for its marked change in presentation. Whereas the mass ranges between solo organ, spoken chants, and full-choir arrangements, the seven canticles in The Great Service (none, in fact, published during his lifetime) present Byrd's music in all its contrapuntal complexity, and with the twenty-eight voices of the choir singing in English and directed by Hancock, the music rises to full-throated heights of ecstasy and supplication from one multi-layered episode to the next. At nearly two-and-a-half hours, there's a lot to absorb, but the double-disc Byrd: Sacred Works has to be regarded as a must-have for Byrd aficionados.

January 2024