Blackdowns Early Music Projects – A Choral Feast from 1623

Four hundred years after the death of William Byrd, we still delight in singing a huge number of his works. For him music was an entire language, telling of the religious changes through his lifetime as well as describing the lighter side of life.

1623 saw the passing of two other notable composers:

Thomas Weelkes, a prolific composer and organist at Winchester and then Chichester Cathedral, by all accounts a somewhat controversial fellow in Church circles.

Danish composer Mogens Pedersøn was the most highly regarded musician in the court of Christian IV. He studied extensively in Italy and accompanied the entourage of Anne of Denmark when she came to England to marry James I of England and VI of Scotland, possibly meeting William Byrd during his several years in London.