īyrd was born into a musical and relatively wealthy family. The historian Kerry McCarthy has suggested that discrepancy over these dates may have been due to the will not being kept up to date over a period of several years. Byrd's will of November 1622 provides a later date for his birth, as in it Byrd states that he was then in the "80th year of mine age". No record of his birth has survived, and the year of his birth is not known for certain, but a document dated 2 October 1598, and written by William Byrd, states that he is "58 yeares or ther abouts", making the year he was born to be 1539 or 1540. William Byrd was probably born in London, the third surviving son of Thomas Byrd and his wife, Margery. Thereafter succeeding generations of the Byrd family are described as gentlemen. Richard Byrd of Ingatestone, Essex, the paternal grandfather of Thomas Byrd, probably moved to London in the 15th century. He produced sacred music for Anglican services, but during the 1570s became a Roman Catholic, and wrote Catholic sacred music later in his life. He is often considered along with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell as one of England's most important composers of early music.īyrd wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continent. 1540 – 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer.
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