Reasons to Sing: How Stile Antico uses Byrd’s own ethos to engage new audiences

In March and April, we will be bringing our Golden Renaissance programme to Newcastle and Leeds, featuring some of our favourite a capella vocal music of Byrd and his European contemporaries. Inspired by the composer’s 400^th anniversary last year, Dr Katie Bank (University of Birmingham) and Dr Katherine Butler (Northumbria University) developed a hybrid education-wellbeing project Reasons to Sing with Horizon Voices and Stile Antico, which we are thrilled to be reviving again ahead of our next concerts. By the end of the project, we will have had 360 teenagers engaging in Reasons to Sing in three cities.

The starting point for Reasons to Sing was Byrd’s 1588 Psalms and Sonnets where he advocated singing as a benefit to body and mind, elocution and spiritual enlightenment – citing:

‘Since singing is so good a thing, I wish all men would learn to sing

‘The exercise of singing is delightful to Nature and good to preserve the health of Man

‘It strengthens all parts of the breast, and opens the pipes

‘It is a singular good remedy for stammering in the speech

‘It is the best means to procure a perfect pronunciation, and to make a good Orator

‘It is the only way to know where Nature has bestowed the benefit of a good voice; which gift is so rare as there is not one among a thousand that has it; and in many that excellent gift is lost because they want Art to express Nature.

‘There is not any Music of Instruments whatsoever comparable to that which is made of the voices of men, where the voices are good and the same well sorted and ordered.’

Last autumn, Reasons to Sing was launched in two schools in Birmingham, resulting in a new Byrd-inspired commission from Kerry Andrew, Oh Sing, which 120 teenagers in Year 8 had a great time getting to grips with. The world premiere was included in a family concert at the University of Birmingham's Elgar Concert Hall – with full audience participation

Reasons to Sing gave these teenagers the chance to learn about Byrd’s music and choral music of the 16^th century. In each session, pupils were asked to consider big questions about Byrd’s manifesto: ‘Why do we choose to listen to and make music?’, ‘How can music be used to express emotions?’ and ‘How can music be accessed and shared?’, all of which were explored through a contemporary lens in Byrd’s context, whilst also linking to the students’ current interests, thoughts and opinions.

Aimed at students in both music and history classes, the workshops contextualise Byrd’s music and religious beliefs in the socio-political atmosphere of 16^th century England, under the reign of Elizabeth I. As a Protestant monarch, the Queen imposed strict religious laws and banned Catholicism as a whole, but the Catholic Byrd was made an exception and allowed to keep working at court and teaching his students. Through a variety of performing, listening, composing and analysis activities, our students learnt about the compositional tools Byrd used to write his music and what he taught to his students.

It was great to see young people in the 21^st century discovering similarities and making connections with early music and composers from 400 years ago. One student commented: ‘I grew confident in singing… I learned how to multitask.’ Another said: ‘I learned and enjoyed the harmonies…I really enjoyed this workshop and hope to see them again.’

Feedback from participating students is testament to the impact of Stile Antico's Reasons to Sing project

We are all conscious of how lucky we were as children that music was a central part of our lives, and without our musical education in cathedral choirs, church choirs, school music departments and local council funded music lessons, we would not be doing what we now do. The place of music in schools and elsewhere seems to be devalued every year and this project was one way of filling the gap. Our work in schools has often focussed on the 15-18 age group, so it is wonderful that this project focused on 12 to 13-year-old students.

Zoom sessions and in-person workshops are now in progress in Newcastle and Leeds. We are thrilled that so many students have experienced and continue to participate with enthusiasm in our education programme, and are grateful to the Arts Council for supporting our project delivery which has increased the appreciation, accessibility of and engagement with choral music for students in a wide range of locations across the UK. Through the continued provision to schools of our digital resources even after the completion of the education project, we hope to have a long-lasting impact on bringing the musical world of William Byrd to students for years to come.

It’s also wonderful to know that our audiences will have been ‘warmed up’ in advance of our arrival in Newcastle and Leeds for our Golden Renaissance concerts. In the words of Julie Andrews, these are ‘a few of our favourite things’. We’ve included a piece from each of our discs, recorded over the last 19years on the Harmonia Mundi and Decca labels. It is an enjoyable trip down memory lane exploring pieces such as Byrd’s Exsurge Domine, a brilliantly energetic piece that feels like a call to arms for the Elizabethan Catholics. There are some familiar pieces in the programme, including Allegri’s Miserere (as close as the renaissance gets to a smash hit!) as well as pieces by lesser-known composers such as Giaches de Wert and Michael Praetorius. We have a mini tour of European courts, with music from Spain, Italy, the Low Countries and England, finishing up with a fabulous piece written for us in 2014 by Huw Watkins based on a rather obscure and intriguing text by Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle.

We hope this mixed programme will have something for everyone and, for anyone unfamiliar with this type of repertoire, can act as a gateway into this wonderful music! Although we adore performing and taking our music to audiences all over the world, it is the contact with amateur singers who derive such pleasure from singing the music we also love and young singers-in-the-wings, which is the most rewarding thing. 400 years after the death of William Byrd, it is wonderful to see this Jacobean spirit in young voices.

All of Stile Antico's upcoming tour events are listed here.