Byrd Studies

This symposium celebrates the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Byrd, one of the greatest English composers. Twelve scholars contribute essays which together cover all the genres of Byrd’s prolific output. Topics discussed in this collection include authentication of the canon, applications of new technology to Byrd research, Byrd’s relationship to earlier English traditions and his influence on his successors. There are studies concerned with manuscript sources and aspects of performance, and the final contribution is a comprehensive listing of Byrd recordings made between 1923 and 1988. The essays in this volume show a variety of approaches to musical analysis and some of the conclusions are controversial, or offer revisions of earlier opinions. As a body of work, they consolidate Byrd research to date and indicate its future direction.