It's a Byrd

The New Liturgical Movement (NLM for short) briefly noted a Portland Oregon area festival of the music of William Byrd. Hurrah!!

Byrd is a hero of mine, not only for his peaceable, heroic, artistic manner of living the Catholic Reformation, but especially for his Masses. Living in turbulent times in England, Byrd wrote stunning Masses for 3, 4, and 5 voices. The Masses are as sublime and elevating as any music you will ever hear--and yet they can be really mastered by dedicated amateurs, providing an entree for polyphony in the most modest parish.

When Byrd says "3 voices" he doesn't mean a 12- or preferably 60- voice STB choir. He means 3 voices, the number, say, that could meet secretly in a house church in England.

What I like most, though, is when the 3 voices reduce to 2, as in the second verse of the Agnus Dei. That is when the reverent beauty of Byrd's counterpoint truly shines.