Renaissance

For the 400th anniversary of the death of both Byrd and Weelkes, The King's Singers and Fretwork join forces to reflect the contrasts, and parallels, ...

And there are further connections: ‘We thought there was a real kind of poetry to Byrd being a central figure in England’s cultural life but being a Catholic, which was on the outside of the state religion, and today, James being one of the country’s greatest choral writers, and also a Catholic … So the idea was to make a chain, with Byrd’s lament on the death of Tallis and then the next link in the chain, James’s piece. In her 2013 biography of Byrd, Kerry McCarthy explores how Byrd’s lament on the death of Tallis is a translation and adaptation of a lament on the death of another great Renaissance composer, Josquin. And for people of that time to hear a madrigal like that and to hear the things it was describing would have been actually breathtaking, the equivalent of the BBC news alert flash! The thought that this was written by the same guy who wrote Ave verum corpus and was right at the centre of court life is bonkers to me, but it shows the sense of humour.’ And the reverse is true: Harke all ye lovely saints above is an example of Weelkes following closely the mould of Byrd’s madrigals in that it displays an assured technique clearly indicating an intention to offer the performers a lovely ride right from the start of the music. ‘A further example of the character, humour, excitement and reality – for want of a better word – of Weelkes is Thule, the period of cosmography. Weelkes seeks lighter and airier textures.’ Dunachie goes further in perceiving Weelkes as a slight outsider, not in the quality of the music, he tells me, but rather in the risks it takes; whereas in the case of Byrd, ‘Even in this repertoire, you feel more of the grand master who is at the centre of national life in Elizabeth’s court, which Weelkes wasn’t, even though he was a prestigious musician.’ Interestingly, for Dunachie, both have flashes of the other side too, and Byrd in particular can be Weelkesian: ‘There is a sensationally funny track by Byrd, Who made thee, Hob?, which is two farmers in dialogue, and we decided to add West Country accents to bring it to life a bit because it’s so funny. ‘There’s a lot of music that ties into our heritage both as a group that originates in King’s College, Cambridge, and individually: lots of us grew up in the chorister tradition and this stuff runs in our veins. In the end, they settled on a different treatment for each of the three verses: for the first, both countertenors sing the solo line, doubling as a single soloist with Fretwork playing pizzicato underneath; for the middle verse, there’s a baritone solo, still with pizzicato accompaniment; and then all voices and viols come together for the final verse. If that’s what brought the two composers together in one programme, then I have to ask Dunachie what brought The King’s Singers together with Fretwork. The British music scene is something I love, and I’m convinced it’s one of our great exports, from Sumer is icumen in to Britpop and beyond. When I speak with Patrick Dunachie, first countertenor in The King’s Singers, I put it to him that although I love the idea of ‘Tom and Will’, it initially made me think of Tallis and Byrd and expect a collection of motets.