"If we consider Byrd's versatility alone, and the fact that he produced work of the highest class in every field that he explored, it becomes abundantly clear that he did stand above all his contemporaries. Like Palestrina, he wrote magnificently for the Latin rites of the Church. Nor was he behind any of his contemporaries in his capacity for handling ingenious and complex contrapuntal devices such as were in vogue among the Church musicians of the sixteenth century. His contrapuntal skill was astonishing. Like Tallis, Tye, and Robert Whyte, he excelled in music for the English Church whether for the Latin or English rites. Like Marenzio, Wilbye, and Weelkes, he could write finely in the madrigalian style, not only when treating the severer subjects, where again he stands alone, but also in the lighter vein, as we shall see presently when dealing more closely with this branch of the subject. Like Bull, Gibbons, and Giles Farnaby, he wrote with exceptional fertility of invention for the keyed instruments of his day, yet here again he excelled the others; while for the viols he produced chamber-music which to-day amazes students of musical form when its date is borne in mind."