What is William Byrd?
[[File:William Byrd.jpg|thumb]] '''William Byrd''' (born probably 1539 or 1540; died Stondon Massey, 4 July 1623) was an [[England|English]] [[composer]]. He wrote [[music]] of all types that were popular then: [[Keyboard instrument|keyboard]] music for [[virginals]] and for the [[pipe organ|organ]], [[vocal]] music, especially [[choral]] music, both for the church (“sacred”) as well as non-sacred (“secular”). Byrd lived in a time of great changes. [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] had broken away from the [[Roman Catholic]] church and had founded the [[Anglican Church]]. The monarch (king or queen) was the Head of the Church of England. During Byrd’s lifetime the monarchs who reigned had different ideas about what church music should be like. Byrd was always a Catholic. This sometimes made life difficult for him, but he was always faithful to the monarchy, and he had a lot of [[wikt:tact|tact]] in dealing with people. Byrd grew up in the [[Renaissance]] period. He lived into the 17th century which is the period known in music as the [[Baroque music|Baroque period]]. ==His Story== ===Youth=== We know very little about Byrd’s early life. Most books say that he was born in 1543, but a [[wikt:document|document]] that was found recently makes us think he was probably born late in 1539 or in 1540. He may have come from [[Lincoln, Lincolnshire|Lincoln]] which is where his first job was, but he probably had some of his [[education]] in [[London]]. This is likely because we know he was a pupil of [[Thomas Tallis]] who worked in London. Tallis was in charge of the music of the [[Chapel Royal]] which was the best choir in England, and it is likely that Byrd sang in the choir when he was a boy. [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]] was on the throne at the time. She was Catholic and she liked church music to be quite long and complicated, with Latin words. This gave composers lots to do, and the young Byrd started composing church music at this time. ===Lincoln period=== Around 1563 Byrd got the job of Orga