William Byrd and the limits of formal music analysis
Writing in 1962, Joseph Kerman was the first to speculate about potentially subversive political meanings in the Cantiones sacrae of the English Renaissance composer William Byrd, his two collections of motets published in 1589 and 1591, “voicing prayers, exhortations, and protests on behal...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Institute of Musicology of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Muzikologija |
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| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2020/1450-98142028149C.pdf |
| Summary: | Writing in 1962, Joseph Kerman was the first to speculate about potentially
subversive political meanings in the Cantiones sacrae of the English
Renaissance composer William Byrd, his two collections of motets published
in 1589 and 1591, “voicing prayers, exhortations, and protests on behalf of
the English Catholic community”. Subsequent research has corroborated
Kerman’s speculations, showing that many of the texts Byrd set indeed
feature the same politically charged metaphors that English Jesuit
missionaries used to describe the predicament of Catholics living under the
Protestant regime of Queen Elizabeth I, as well as that Byrd maintained
close ties with many of these missionaries. In our own time, however, those
who have analysed these motets, including Kerman, have paid little attention
to this, preferring formal(ist) analytical approaches to this body of music.
Focusing on Ne irascaris Domine, one of Byrd’s most famous “political”
motets, and the only two major analytical responses to it, this article
attempts to demonstrate the limitations of formalist music analysis when
applied to Renaissance sacred music. |
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| ISSN: | 1450-9814 2406-0976 |