Byrd: Infelix ego

Featuring

Philippe Herreweghe
Collegium Vocale Gent
William Byrd

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Composer's Artistic Vision

The booklet suggests that the intense emotional quality of the music by Byrd, Ferrabosco, and de Monte on this album stems from their shared Catholic faith and the "passion created by deprivation" under repressive regimes.

Performer Biography

Collegium Vocale Gent, founded in 1970 by Philippe Herreweghe, was one of the first ensembles to apply new insights into Baroque performing practice to vocal music, achieving worldwide fame for its transparent sound and attention to text.

Composer Biography

Despite being censured for his Catholic faith in Protestant England, William Byrd never received severe punishment, possibly because his music was not considered seditious or because his compositional excellence placed him "beyond reproach."

Composition History

The motet "Infelix ego" by William Byrd is a setting of a meditation on Psalm 50 written by Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar who led a campaign against the corrupt Medici family in Florence and was later executed for heresy.

Composition History

William Byrd's three Mass settings, including the Mass for 5 Voices on this album, used texts that were no longer part of English society after Queen Mary's death in 1558, indicating a Continental influence.

Compositional Technique

William Byrd was the first English composer to set the words of the Kyrie, which traditionally had been sung as troped plainchant in pre-Reformation times.

Historical Context

William Byrd lived during a volatile period in 16th-century England, marked by religious conflicts stemming from Henry VIII's desire for a male heir and the subsequent split between Catholic and Protestant ideas.