The Marian Consort explores powerful, heartfelt music from Renaissance England alongside songs of plea and protest from the folk tradition.
William Byrd was a devout Catholic who, like his friend and mentor Thomas Tallis, made his religious convictions clear in his use of texts, a potentially dangerous strategy in Protestant Elizabethan England. Even more incendiary is Byrd’s setting of Henry Walpole’s Why do I use my paper, ink and pen, a poem commemorating the martyrdom of Edmund Campion which speaks truth to power in a manner similar to these early English ballads, many of which have their origins in far more ancient folk songs, stories and uprisings.
Photo: Nick Rutter
