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Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- United Kingdom
- Active from
- 1540
- Active to
- 1623
Discography
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 108,082
- Total plays
- 963,089
Tags
William Byrd (1540 or late 1539 –1623) was one of the most celebrated English composers in the Renaissance. He lived until well into the seventeenth century without writing music in the new Baroque fashion, but his superbly constructed keyboard works marked the beginning of the Baroque organ and harpsichord style. Byrd's life is interesting because of his Roman Catholic sympathies combined with his work in the court of the Anglican Queen Elizabeth I. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/William
Key facts
- Born
- c. 1540 , Ingatestone , Essex , England
- Died
- 4 July 1623, Stondon Massey , Essex, England
- Works
- List of compositions
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- William
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of England
- Place of birth
- London
- Place of death
- London
- Occupation
- organist
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- Catholic Church
- Genre
- classical music
- Instrument
- organ
- Image
- William Byrd.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- William Byrd (composer)
- date of death
- 1623-00-00
- date of birth
- 1538-00-00
- P12749
- Kurt Daluege
- Commons Creator page
- William Byrd
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
6 objects attributed to William Byrd, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
William Byrd (/bɜːrd/; c. 1540 – 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continent. He is often considered along with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell as one of England's most important composers of early music.
Byrd wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music. He produced sacred music for Anglican services, but during the 1570s became a Roman Catholic, and wrote Catholic sacred music later in his life.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Byrd” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.