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Chapter 8
William Byrd
Sing Joyfully
Chapter at a Glance
6. Texture: Polyphony in Six Voices
8. Word-Music Relationships: The Music Paints the Words
10. Listening Guide:
12. The Composer Speaks: Eight Reasons for Learning How to Sing
14. Expand Your Playlist: Byrd
15. Expand Your Playlist: Sacred Music of the Renaissance
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter and listening to the work, students should be able to:
8.2 Define the genres of anthem and motet.
8.4 Distinguish how William Byrd composed the musical form to follow the sectional
8.6 Summarize Byrd’s reasons for learning to sing.
Key Concepts
polyphony, a cappella choral music, six-voice texture, imitative counterpoint, word
painting, elided cadence
Chapter Highlight: Sacred Polyphony
The anthem and the motet were the two most important genres of Renaissance choral
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Chapter Summary
Six-
examples of stylistic features discussed with other Renaissance works covered in Part 2
of Listen to This! Byrd was a recusant Catholic in Protestant England composing music
for the Anglican church for multi-voiced choirs. These background aspects provide a
illustrates an alternative structure to the AAB and ABA pieces examined thus far.
In addition to its vivid word painting, which is shown in the detailed Animated
Listening Guide
Students may be overwhelmed with the thought of listening to six different voice parts
at once, but the two animated examples (Animated Notation: Texture: Polyphony in Six
Voices, p. 72 of the textbook, and the Animated Graphical Score: William Byrd:
in MyMusicLab) should assist them in distinguishing parts as well as grasping
MyMusicLab Resources
Animated Notation: Texture: Polyphony in Six Voices
Animated Notation: Word-Music Relationships: The Music Paints the Words
Automated Listening Guide: William Byrd:
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Discussion Topics and Critical Thinking Questions
had a monopoly on music publishing, it was to his advantage to encourage more
people to sing. Do you think this was a good marketing strategy? What other
marketing ideas might he have developed?
Activities and Exercises
7. Ask students to research early printed books and music. Discuss how having the
printing press, a higher level of literacy, and greater circulation of books and music in
Joy
8. Ask students to search their own CDs or digital listening libraries for examples of
songs in which word comprehension is limited because of the way the song is used
Journaling Prompt
Byrd worked for a Protestant queen (Elizabeth I) at a time when it was dangerous to be a