motet notes - Byrd

Byrd's "Emendemus" is a setting of a prayer for the first Sunday in Lent.  It is an ancient text, which was set by several of the great Flemish composers working in Italy during the Renaissance.  Byrd's setting is typical of the dense and learned style employed by that composer in his first book of Latin motets. There is a richness of the "British" harmony that is unknown in continental music of this period, but that would soon take over German composition.

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