The World of William Byrd

In The World of William Byrd John Harley builds on his previous work, William Byrd: Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (Ashgate, 1997), in order to place the composer more clearly in his social context. He provides new information about Byrd's youthful musical training, and reveals how in his adult life his music emerged from a series of overlapping family, business and social networks. These networks and Byrd's navigation within and between them are examined, as are the lives of a number of the individuals comprising them.

John Harley has published extensively on Tudor music and musicians, including four books with Ashgate: William Byrd: Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (1997), Orlando Gibbons and the Gibbons Family of Musicians (1999), William Byrd's Modal Practice (2005) and The World of William Byrd (2010).

Contents: Preface; Part 1 Musicians 1: The Byrd family and St Paul's Cathedral; St Paul's: the petitions; City churches and St Mary-at-Hill; John Heywood; Byrd the apprentice musician. Part 2 Merchants: The world of commerce; William Burd the Mercer; Thomas Smythe; Symond Byrd; John Byrd; Philip Smyth; Robert Broughe; Robert Dow the elder; Ferdinando Heybourne (alias Richardson) and Richard Candelar. Part 3 Musicians·2: William Byrd, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal; The Byrd household and recusancy; Byrd the established musician; Landowner and publisher; Byrd's later years. Part 4 Magnates: Social networks; Sir Ralph Bosville; James Good; John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley; Thomas Paget, 3rd Baron Paget; John Petre, 1st Baron Petre; William and Anthony Roper; Raphe Sheldon; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.