"For Motets, and Musicke of pietie and devotion, as well for the honour of our Nation, as the merit of the man, I prefer above all our Phoenix, M. William Byrd, whom in that kind, I know not whether any may equall. I am sure none excell, even by the judgement of France and Italy, who are very sparing in the commendation of strangers, in regard of that conceipt they hold of themselves. His Cantiones Sacrae, as also his Gradualia, are meer Angelicall and Divine; and being of himselfe naturally disposed to Gravity and Pietie, his veine is not so much for leight Madrigals or Canzonets, yet his Virginella, and some others in his first set, cannot be mended by the best Italian of them all."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman (1622), p. 100
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Byrd
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William Byrd
William Byrd (between 1534 and 1543 – 4 July 1623) was an English composer and poet.
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