Alan Taylor, Eleison

William Byrd's Mass in Five Voices was written in 1594, late in the reign of Elizabeth the First, and during a period when Catholics such as Byrd were regarded with suspicion and sometimes persecuted. The Mass was probably only performed in secret during Byrd's lifetime, but has since become established as one of the masterpieces of late Renaissance polyphony.

The three sections of my piece each open with the motifs from the three parts in the first section of the Mass - the three calls to have mercy on us - Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison. In each case these motifs are developed as a non-religious reflection on the times we now live in.

The piece was written for Consortium 5, while they were resident as Junior Fellows at Trinity College of Music.

The piece was written for a consort of renaissance-style recorders, using the lowest five in the set, from tenor down to the contrabass. The score is written at sounding pitch, except that the Basset in F part will sound an octave higher than written. The musical lines have been transposed up a second from the original in order to fit the ranges of the Consort recorders.