Public workshop

Big Byrd: Large music by a large genius, William Byrd

Saturday, 17 June 2023

12:30pm to 6:30pm

St Paul's West Street, Brighton, BN1 2RE

Please register to attend using this online form:

Online registration form for Brighton Consort's 'Big Byrd' public workshop

The cost of the workshop is £20 (£10 for full time students, people aged under 25, or those in receipt of Universal Credit or Pension Credit). Payment can be made online, by following a link that will be generated after you've submitted the registration form.

Information about the workshop

William Byrd died in 1623, 400 years ago this year. For this reason, and because he towers above most other Renaissance composers in fame and influence, both in his day and ours, it wouldn’t at all be surprising if you’ve already been to one or two concerts this year featuring his music. Brighton Consort is in fact focussing on Byrd in all of our events this year.

And our public workshop is no different! Please come join us as Greg Skidmore, our Musical Director, takes us through some of Byrd’s largest scale vocal works. Enjoy learning Byrd’s famous Quomodo cantabimus for 8 voices, his mesmerising Diliges Dominum, an eight-parts-in-four palindrome crab canon (yes, it is that weird), and his immense Ad Dominum cum tribularer. Those three pieces will likely keep us very busy for the whole day, but if we need to, we can look to length rather than breadth and tackle Deus, venerunt gentes, a piece in four monumental sections that lasts 13 minutes!

While Byrd of course didn’t write anything as large as his mentor Thomas Tallis’ 40-voice Spem in alium, and in fact his double-choir output is relatively limited in comparison with other Renaissance composers, the complexity of Byrd’s counterpoint when writing for large forces makes his music compelling and uniquely exciting at this scale.

Our Musical Director Greg Skidmore is one of the UK’s leading Renaissance music performers, regularly appearing with groups such as The Tallis Scholars and I Fagiolini on stages throughout the UK and around the world. He also has toured and recorded with Alamire, The Sixteen, Gabrieli Consort, and many other groups, as well as having been a member of the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. He is Founder and Artistic Director of The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools in his native Canada and is Director of The Lacock Scholars, one of the UK’s leading amateur consorts specialising in Renaissance music.