William Byrd is considered one of the greatest masters of European Renaissance music, as evidenced by his extensive output of some 470 compositions. His most impressive talent as a composer was his ability to transform numerous musical forms of his time, imprinting them with his own personal stamp. Having grown up in an era when Latin polyphony was largely confined to liturgical works, he mastered the continental motet of his day through a highly individual synthesis of English and continental models. He essentially created the Tudor consort and keyboard fantasia, working from only rudimentary precedents. He also elevated the consort song, the church hymn, and Anglican liturgical composition to new heights. Byrd enjoyed great esteem among English musicians. As early as 1575, Richard Mulcaster and Ferdinand Haybourne, along with Tallis, paid tribute to him in poems. Despite the financial failure of some publications, other collections of his sold well. Elizabethan scribes such as the Oxford academic Robert Dow, Baldwin, and a school of scribes working for the Norfolk landed gentry Sir Edward Paston, copied his music extensively. Byrd is regarded by many as the greatest composer of the English Renaissance, with an intensely personal and unmistakable style. Born around 1540 in London into a Protestant family, he died on July 4, 1623, in Stondon Massey, Essex. A composer of secular vocal music, he knew and used contemporary poetry as texts for his songs and probably knew many prominent poets personally. He is the first significant composer of English keyboard music and established the major genres followed by composers of the 17th century. His three masses are highly regarded. Contemporary accounts celebrate him as the "Father of Music" and "Parens of Brittanica Music." Nearly 600 of his pieces have survived: church music with Latin and English texts, part songs and madrigals, consort songs, instrumental ensemble music and piano music.
