Byrd at Secret Prayer

A recreation of music for a Mass as it might have been practised in the 1580s at a Catholic house in Protestant England: held in secret and performed to music by England’s leading composer, William Byrd. In this performance combining voices and viols, the sublime Mass in 5 Parts is interspersed with the Propers for Candlemas from Byrd’s Gradualia, varied versions for viol consort of the Latin plainsong ‘In nomine’, and intense motets whose texts seem to reflect the oppression suffered by the worshippers.