William Byrd’s _Lamentations of Jeremiah_ Perhaps?

William Byrd’s _Lamentations of Jeremiah_ Perhaps?

[ Image: Chapter House, Lincoln Cathedral, copyright, J.Hannan-Briggs ]

              On Saturday, 16 March 2024, at 3 p.m., the Lay Vicars & Choral Scholars of Lincoln Cathedral performed an anonymous late-Elizabethan setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, found in the library of Sir John Lumley, that might have been composed by William Byrd.  ( A short video extract from the anonymous work performed at the concert. ) Senior Lay Vicar Thomas Wilson organized the performance, which was in the cathedral’s chapter house.  Peter Evans, one of the bass Choral Scholars at Lincoln Cathedral, posted the following on the _Choral Evensong Appreciation Society_ on Facebook.

“There are no attributions or identifying marks or characteristics in either the music or the five partbooks in which it is contained that allow us conclusively to identify its composer. There are, however, certain circumstantial clues that point to William Byrd as a possible contender, most notably the text’s curious departures from liturgical convention which are extant in only one other known setting: the Lamentations composed by William Byrd during his time as Organist of Lincoln Cathedral.

“Byrd and Lumley were close friends, and Byrd dedicated the 1591 volume of ‘Cantiones Sacrae’ to Lumley, writing in the preface to the publication that he had brought him “no small help in the pursuit of music.” Like Byrd, Lumley was secretly a Catholic, and is known to have harboured recusant Catholics and held clandestine services at his home in Nonsuch Palace. These ‘Anonymous Lamentations’ may have been written for such an occasion.

“As well as the Lamentations, the programme [included] an anonymous 8-part Requiem Mass from the Palatine Library in Naples, and an anonymous 12-part Magnificat from the Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna.”