The 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd, the great English composer of polyphonic sacred music, fell on July 4. On that day Cardinal Nichols himself presided at the evening Mass in his own cathedral and the choir used Byrd’s settings for the whole service. The homily touched on the details of Byrd’s long life (he was born around 1540 and lived until 1623), including the remarkable fact of his having become a Catholic during the Elizabethan persecution of the Church.
There can be a strong sense of beauty and grandeur hearing a sung Mass at Westminster Cathedral. By some divine alchemy, the glorious voices of the choir blend with the rich interior decoration and the mysterious gloominess of the high dark domes to provide an intimation of heaven. I have always taken a strange sort of consolation from the fact that the ceilings will almost certainly not be decorated as originally planned until long after I am dead.
