Music Notes for Sunday, February 2, 2025

Music for the Presentation of the Lord

Senex puerum portabat – William Byrd (1539/40-1623)

William Byrd (1539/40–1623) learned his art from Thomas Tallis and became one of the most successful of the Tudor composers. He worked as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral between 1563 and 1570 before moving to London to become a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal following the accidental death of Robert Parsons. At the Chapel he worked jointly with Tallis. In 1575 Tallis and Byrd secured a royal patent for the printing and distribution of part-music.

The four-part Latin motet, Senex puerum portabat, sung by the choir at communion in church this Sunday, is found in the second book of Gradualia dating from 1607. In this motet, Byrd uses a subtle early form of ‘word painting’, in which a composer depicts the text in an expressive way. For example, the word ‘portabat’ is set with a rising interval in which the melodic line is held high—just as we are told of Simeon holding up the infant Christ—before moving on towards the cadence. Further evidence of such an expressive approach is to be found at the delicate vocal lines around the word ‘adoravit’—truly a composer depicting an adoring mother enjoying her new-born child, the long-awaited Messiah.

Senex puerum portabat, puer autem senem regebat.
Quem virgo peperit, et post partum virgo permansit.
Ipsum quem genuit, adoravit.

An ancient held up an infant, yet the child ruled the ancient.
A child he was that a virgin bore and kept her as virgin evermore.
The one whom she brought forth, she did adore.

Gerald Harder