Show me deare Christ, a reflection on Byrds 5-part Credo by Alexander LEstrange. Arranged for SATB divisi voices. COMPOSERS NOTE: What fascinated me most about this commission was the question of what Credo would have meant for William Byrd, a well-known recusant (a Catholic who refused to go to church). This was, after all, an age when being caught with Latin popish books, celebrating Catholic Mass or, even worse, harbouring a priest in your house, could mean jail, or, for Jesuit martyrs like Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell and many others, much worse - hanging, drawing and quartering and then your body parts being boiled in salt water and cumin seed before being displayed on pikes around the city. Lovely. In the light of this, it is all the more amazing that William Byrd was able to write and furthermore publish his three Latin masses in the 1590s - this was effectively illegal music (no church choir could or would sing it) that only someone willing to risk accusations of treason would buy or sing. I have chosen to set John Donnes Holy Sonnet XVIII, which expresses his lifelong distress about the fragmentation of the church (the bride of Christ). Donne himself was a Catholic - his brother died in prison, guilty of harbouring a seminary priest - who eventually converted to Anglicanism in 1615 and later became Dean of St Pauls. Interpolated are words from Campion and Southwell, William Byrds will and other contemporary sources, as well as both Latin and English intonations from the Credo (plainchant) and Creed (Marbeckes English setting). Alexander LEstrange, Feb 2016 Read more from Alexander about this piece here. Show me deare Christ is recorded on ORAs disc Upheld by Stillness: Renaissance Gems and their Reflections, Vol. 1 - Byrd (HMW906102) 30-Licence Download This is a choral download sold with a licence to make up to 30 copies.
