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Byrd Reworked

Three contemporary composers offer new takes on the music of William Byrd to mark four hundred years since the Renaissance man’s death.

Elizabeth Alker shares original unclassifiable sonic creations made especially for the programme, as three contemporary composers offer new takes on the music of William Byrd to mark four hundred year’s since the Renaissance man’s death.

Regarded as one of the great English composers of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, William Byrd’s musical output included choral works intended for the great cathedrals and chapels of his day as well as secular instrumental music designed for the major courts and households. His approach to creating musical structures often involved the gradual addition of layers and the overlapping of melodic ideas as well as subtle repetition and variation, techniques employed by many artists working today within ambient and experimental music.

Singer-composer Kieran Brunt takes inspiration from Civitas Sancti Tui, a motet which Byrd wrote in response to the persecution of Catholics under Elizabeth I’s early rule. The Latin text speaks of desolation - β€œThe city of thy sanctuary is become a wilderness, / Sion is made a Wilderness, / Jerusalem is desolate” - and Brunt’s creation takes fragments from the original and repeats them like mantras through broken, auto-tuned layers of his own voice and distorted synths. Welsh composer-musician Georgia Ruth, meanwhile, responds to The Bells, a harpsichord piece in which Byrd evokes the peeling and clamouring sounds of a belfry in the countryside. Ruth uses harp, pedals and field recordings gathered in her rural surroundings to build up a meditative sound world. And improvising composer Laura Cannell re-imagines a melancholic song by Byrd, translating the piece into an arrangement for three bass-recorders. Phrases from the original are stretched, half-remembered, overlaid and ornamented in a piece of overdubbed contemporary consort music dedicated to her friend, the late artist Mira Calix.

Produced by Alexa Kruger
A Reduced Listening production for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

1 hour

Last on

Thu 6 Jul 2023 23:30
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Floating Points

    Requiem for CS70 and Strings

    • Crush.
    • Ninja Tune.

  • Voces 8

    Scene Suspended

    • Scene Suspended.
    • Domino.

  • Nicolas Gombert

    Tulerunt Dominum meum

    Conductor: Jeremy Summerly. Choir: Oxford Camerata.
    • Nicolas Gombert: Magnificat I, Salve Regina, Credo, Tolerunt Dominum.
    • Naxos.

  • Julia Holter

    Feel You

    • Have You In My Wilderness.
    • Domino.

  • William Byrd

    Civitas Sancti Tui

    Performer: Shards.

  • Claire M Singer

    Wrangham

    Performer: Claire M Singer.
    • Solas.
    • Touch.

  • Mary Lattimore

    Pine Trees

    • Silver Ladders.
    • Ghostly International.

  • William Byrd

    Retire My Soul

    Performer: Laura Cannell.

  • Marin Marais

    Les voix humaines

    Performer: Liam Byrne.
    • Concrete.
    • Bedroom Community.

  • Valgier Sigurossen

    Hatching

    Performer: Liam Byrne.
    • Concrete.
    • Bedroom Community.

  • Georgia Ruth

    On The Green Path

    • On The Green Path.

  • John Dowland

    Flow My Tears

    Performer: Jennifer Walshe.

  • Stick in the Wheel

    Gold So Red

    • Hold Fast.
    • From Here Records.

Broadcast

  • Thu 6 Jul 2023 23:30
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

What is unclassified music?

What is unclassified music?

Elizabeth Alker introduces five of her favourite 'unclassifiable' pieces of music.