William Byrd - Gerre Hancock

Byrd Sacred Works

Jeremy Filsell

Label: Signum Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0635212077627

Catalog number: SIGCD 776
Releasedate: 01-12-23

- 2023 = Byrd’s quadricentenary year/Recreation of a full Mass as might have been offered c. 1580/re-issue of the 1981 recording alongside.

Marking the quadricentenary of Byrd’s death in 2023, the Men & Boys Choir of Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue, New York, recreates the Catholic Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi as Byrd might have experienced it in the late 16th century. This new recording includes various Latin motets written by Byrd for the feast, along with the remarkable Mass setting in four parts. Part of this album is a recording, originally released on LP only in 1981, of the Saint Thomas Choir under the late Gerre Hancock, singing Byrd’s complete Great Service, written in the vernacular for the reformed Anglican liturgy – the flip side of Byrd’s Latinate expression.