Projects: William Byrd
The English-Texted Music of William Byrd
John Irving
This is a projected completion of an intended comprehensive account of the output of England's greatest renaissance composer,
started by Faber and Faber in the late 1970s, but which lay incomplete for some time, following the death of
Philip Brett, who had been commissioned to write about the secular vocal music.
At the moment, a proposal for a two-volume study is with a publisher. The
first volume would be on The Great Service and the English Anthems (Andrew
Johnstone; Trinity College, Dublin); the second on the Consort Songs
(Jeremy Smith; University of Colorado). The General Editor is John Irving,
Professor of Music History and Performance Practice at Bristol, and a member of the CHOMBEC management committee.
The project is run by an Editorial Board that unites CHOMBEC and LUCEM
(Leeds University Centre for English Music), along with specialists from
the University of Aberdeen, University of Sheffield and Duke University,
North Carolina.