princeton university chamber choir: byrdsong
Saturday March 25th, 2023 @ 7:30pm
Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall
The Princeton University Chamber Choir presented a concert of musical works by William Byrd in celebration of his 400th anniversary. The concert came as the musical world marks the 400th anniversary of Byrd’s death— an opportunity to hear some of Byrd’s greatest and most virtuosic choral music alongside some important works inspired by it.
Byrd’s music was revered across Europe during his lifetime: but as a devout Catholic in the service of a Protestant Queen, in an era when religious persecution was rampant, his life was never simple. He was forced to maintain a public persona which revealed little of his true self; and his wife and friends were frequently harassed, and sometimes arrested, for their religious practice. The public and private divergence is also reflected in Byrd’s musical output, which includes vast amounts of music suitable for an Anglican audience, but an even greater body of work which either serves the Catholic liturgy, or which references Byrd’s spiritual loneliness. Included on the program is the great 8-voice motet Quomodo Cantabimus, which formed part of a covert exchange of musical gifts with Catholic sympathizers in Spain and uses the famous ‘Psalm of the Exiled’ – By the waters of Babylon - as its text. The program also included celebrated anthems and motets which demand extreme agility and virtuosity of their singers – Sing Joyfully, Laudibus in Sanctis, Vigilate, and the madrigal Though Amaryllis Dance in Green.
Special guest appearances were made by the Byrd Keyboard specialist Dr Joyce Chen, and the countertenor Tim Keeler, who returns to Princeton more than a decade after graduating as the current Musical Director of the famed American vocal group Chanticleer. Keeler’s visit included leading a ‘partbook singing’ workshop for the choir, which allowed students of the Chamber Choir to experience this music as it would have been sung by Byrd’s contemporaries.
This concert was presented in partnership with “02.24.2022”, the Princeton student group which aims to support the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
