Byrd Great Service - great or not so great?

[Guest]

Or is it just good?

[Triforium]

I haven't heard it many times from a distance, but it comes around on the music list at least once a year. And yes, from within the mix, I have often wondered if it isn't more fun to sing than to listen to.

[Simon]

I think Triforium's right. The Short service is the gem, for me. Never been over keen on the grandiose - I don't like Spem that much either! Probably why I like the clarity of Gibbons so much. No disrespect to Byrd or Tallis, of course, or their lovely compositions: the world would be immensely the poorer without them.

[BBMmk2]

I love The Great Service of Byrd!! How can anyone not?

[ardcarp]

Yep; I think it's great too. But how did the word 'great' get appended to it ? Weren't 'great' services so-called to distinguish them from 'short' services, i.e. ones that are less complicated, require less forces and get through the text more quickly?

[Miles Coverdale]

In the sixteenth/seventeenth centuries, the adjective 'great' referred to size or length more than any subjective measure of merit - hence Gibbons' fantasia for the 'great double-bass' viol. On the subject of Byrd, his Great Service is, for me, unquestionably the finest setting ever written - bar none.

I don't think it's necessarily more fun to sing than to listen to. I certainly enjoy singing it, but like it equally as much to listen to, as there's always something in Byrd's seemingly never-ending source of musical invention to either surprise or delight the listener. It's just a shame that the morning canticles hardly ever get sung these days - the Te Deum in particular is just fantastic.

[ardcarp]

It's just a shame that the morning canticles hardly ever get sung these days - the Te Deum in particular is just fantastic.

It is a shame that Te Deums in general are less heard...but I do like the idea of doing one as an anthem, as St Pauls are doing in this week's CE. Occasionally a CE is short enough to tack on a Te Deum right at the end. Also a good idea.

[DracoM]

Interesting Q

St T NYC sang it the other week, and frankly, I thought it a bit anonymous, and they are not a choir that does 'anonymous'!! It seems to promise much in the opening phrases and then sort of peters out. Easy on the ear, but...'great'? IMO, it's actually not all that long at all even by the standards of the time.

Ah, well, one phillistine born every minute?