William Byrd Impact On Society

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If you were asked to name an influential person in history, who would you immediately think of? Most likely, the person is or was a politician, businessman, writer, etc. You most likely did not think of a musician. We, as a society, under appreciate the work of great musicians of our time as well as past times. For example, William Byrd was an extremely influential musician who lived from 1538-1623. William Byrd made a big impact on his society in terms of music.
In order to understands someone’s accomplishments and later life, you must first examine they’re childhood and years growing up. This is because a person can be strongly affected by their life as a child, as this is when we are most impressionable. William was from London(Britannica), and it is suspected that William was involved in the Catholic church growing up. This is important to note especially in this time period; the Catholic church was a big deal. Sources say that though he lived in Protestant England and wrote music for Anglican services, Byrd was probably a dedicated Roman Catholic throughout his entire lifetime (William). Byrd easily could have been influenced by people he worked with or was taught …show more content…

William was a student of Thomas Tallis, who was an organist and composer himself (Britannica). Together, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd created and published a collection titled Cantiones Sacrae (Sacred Songs) (William). From what we can tell, the two worked very well as a team. William Byrd and Thomas Tallis eventually received a