‘A knowledge easely taught, and quickly learned’: learning to sing in Byrd’s England

Abstract

Abstract William Byrd published his famous eight ‘Reasons briefely set down by th’auctor, to perswade every one to learne to sing’ in his 1588 Psalmes, sonets and songs. The most important reason to learn to sing, according to Byrd, is that ‘it is a knowledge easely taught, and quickly learned, wher there is a good Master, and an apt Scoler’. The ‘knowledge’ of which Byrd speaks is not only the mechanics of singing but also, or perhaps chiefly, the musical knowledge necessary to sing: the rudiments of musical literacy. This article unpacks Byrd’s claims about music education in Tudor England, placing them in the context of print culture and educational practices. It first considers the options for music education available to different social classes and genders, then turns to close study of music theory treatises and other music educational texts printed in 16th-century England. I examine how these printed materials discussed their own role in the process of educating readers, and interrogate their prevailing claims that gaining musical literacy is ‘plain’ and ‘easie’, and possible ‘without any other help saving this booke’.