William Byrd at Duke

Abstract

After waiting almost four centuries for his own conference, England's premier Renaissance composer has been treated to two in as many years. Following the meeting at Leeds University in September 2004 on Byrd's English-texted output (see EM, xxxii (2004), pp.640–41), the International William Byrd Conference at Duke University, 17–19 November 2005, marked the first full-scale academic event devoted to exploring the composer and his music. The plaudits for this achievement go to Kerry McCarthy at Duke University's music department, not merely for hosting a successful conference, but for the impressive feat of assembling the majority of scholars responsible for five decades of Byrd research together in one place. The three days comprised 23 papers arranged into six loosely themed sessions, the surface of which will be skimmed here. Byrd's contrapuntal practice was confirmed as a hot topic in a session featuring papers by James McKay, John Milsom, Julian Grimshaw and Davitt Moroney. Although all four speakers had different methodological concerns, a recurring emphasis on pre-compositional planning in the Latin sacred music helped to reveal how these fascinating polyphonic textures were constructed from raw musical material. Consensus was evident regarding the inadequacy of the term ‘imitation’ in this context, and John Milsom furthered his support for the adoption of fuga as a more suitable label for the processes at work. (See his encounter with Lassus in EM, xxxiii (2005), pp.305–20.). As this speaker also pointed out, investigating Byrd's craft in this way may promote its relevance to the wider history of musical composition, and enable us to link the composer's art to that of other figures in the canon.