THE FATHER OF ENGLISH MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 114, 10 November 1934, Page 25

THE FATHER OF ENGLISH MUSIC

William Byrd would have been pleased if he could have revisited his old haunts at Stondon Massey in Essex on the day of the L.C.C. Society's pilgrimage to the tiny church where he played the organ 300 years ago (says the "Children's Newspaper").

This giant of English composers would.have heard a concert of hisown inspired music, some of the finest ever written, much of which was probably composed in the church. The simple little building, with its wooden turret and pointed cap of red tiles supported from within by curved oak beams, can have changed little since his time. Byrd would .have recognised the fourteenth century; window traceries and the picture on brass bfe!a' knight and his lady.

It is almostifcertain that this great Elizabethan, who for more ,than'; half a century was a Gentleman of :the Chapel Boyal, lies at Stondon with Phis wife.: It is known that she was buried in the little churchyard, which is surrounded by oaks and sycamores. In his will Byrd directed that he. should be "buried heere unto the place where my wife lyest buryed or eles where as God and the? time shall pymtt and suffer." Although, he lived part of the year in Lord' Worcester's London house in the

Strand, where ho was household musician, he was eighty when he died, "and it is unlikely that when he grew old he would have been much away from his Essex home.

One side of Byrd's* genius was shown when the Madrigal Society sang many of his gayest madrigals. The choir stood near tho Tudor barn, the only other building left that he must have known. A big modern house stands on the site of his old home, Stondon Place, to which the barn was attached.

Here he lived for nearly thirty years, not always in peace, for an indignant lady tried many times to turn him out. She was Mrs. Shelley, widow'of the owner, who, for taking part in a Popish plot, had been imprisoned and'deprived of his property. But we like to forget the disputes and think -of the happy days Byrd must have spent henyespecialiy.Rwh.en., his friends came to spend Jong hOurk listening to his playing and themselves taking part in the musicmaking. "He "was'called the Father of English Music; and the title is written on the memorial in the church.

Yet Byrd was forgotten for,nearly 300 years, and it is only by a fortunate chance that 500 of his compositions have survived to our. own day.