We know very little about Byrd’s early life. Most books say that he was born in 1543, but a document that was found recently makes us think he was probably born late in 1539 or in 1540. He may have come from Lincoln which is where his first job was, but he probably had some of his education in London. This is likely because we know he was a pupil of Thomas Tallis who worked in London. Tallis was in charge of the music of the Chapel Royal which was the best choir in England, and it is likely that Byrd sang in the choir when he was a boy. Queen Mary was on the throne at the time. She was Catholic and she liked church music to be quite long and complicated, with Latin words. This gave composers lots to do, and the young Byrd started composing church music at this time.
Around 1563 Byrd got the job of Organist and Choir Master of Lincoln Cathedral. This was an important job for such a young man, and he had an extra-large salary, so people must have thought he was a very good musician. By this time Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. She had different ideas from Mary. She was Protestant, and liked church music to be simpler, although she still liked the Latin service. In Lincoln Byrd was sometimes told off for playing organ music that was too long and complicated. Byrd composed a lot of music for the cathedral. He also married in 1568 and they had at least seven children.
In 1570 he got a job as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in London. He may have done both jobs for a year or two, and he certainly continued to write music for Lincoln for some years after that. He settled in London and started to make many friends. He was very careful to get to know lots of important people who would be able to help him in his career.
In 1575 Queen Elizabeth gave William Byrd and Thomas Tallis together a patent for music publishing. This meant that they earned some money for every bit of music that was published, printed or sold in England. Music publishing had only just started in England. It was still very expensive to have music printed. Byrd thanked the Queen by publishing some of his Latin motets and dedicating them to her. They were called "Cantiones Sacrae" ("Sacred Songs"). He also wrote a collection of "Psalmes, Sonets and Songs" (1588) and "Songs of Sundrie Natures" (1589). His church music includes settings of the Service and many anthems such as the popular "Sing joyfully".
In 1593 he moved with his family to Stondon Massey in Essex. He spent the rest of his life there. Most of his church music from that time on was in Latin. He wrote three settings of the Mass and two books of "Gradualia" which were large collections of music for the whole year.
Byrd also wrote a lot of keyboard music. Some of it was for a collection called "My Ladye Nevells Booke", some of it was for the "Fitzwilliam Virginal Book".
He died on July 4, 1623, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Stondon churchyard.
Byrd’s music has a lot of variety, largely because of the different ideas people had various times during the period. There were lots of political and religious arguments between groups of people. In the early 17th century people were often sent to prison for writing Catholic music. Byrd seems to have escaped such punishment, although he was involved in several lawsuits. He was lucky that he was able to continue to live as a free man and compose. Being on good terms with the Queen must have helped him.
Byrd wrote music for the Anglican church and for the Roman Catholic Church. His "Cantiones Sacrae" published in 1589 and 1591 are collections of Latin motets. These are the very best of Byrd’s works, and better than anything that was being written in Europe at that time. He probably wrote them for private (illegal) gatherings of Catholics, so this meant that he could write in whatever style he wanted. His music is very contrapuntal, representing the best of the English Renaissance style.
His Latin church music was forgotten after his death. It only became popular in the early 20th century when it was rediscovered.
Byrd also wrote very beautiful music for viols as well as a lot of keyboard music.
Cuneiform
Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known systems of writing. It used wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by a reed stylus. The name "cuneiform" itself means "wedge shaped", from the Latin "cuneus" "wedge" and "forma" "shape". It came into English usage probably from the Old French "cunéiforme."
It was first used in Sumer in the late 4th millennium BC (the 'Uruk IV' period). Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the third millennium, the signs became simplified and more abstract. Fewer characters were used, from about 1,000 in the early Bronze Age to about 400 in late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform). The system used a combination of phonetic, consonantal alphabetic (no vowels) and syllabic signs.
The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire. By the 2nd century BC, the script was extinct. All knowledge of how to read it was lost until it began to be deciphered in the 19th century.
Menes
Menes was a pharaoh of the first dynasty of ancient Egypt. He lived ca. 3100-3000 BC. He brought together Upper and Lower Egypt to make an empire. He wore the Pschent or double crown: the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt. He built the city of Memphis and made it the capital.
There is extensive archeological evidence that there was a pharaoh named Narmer, but little evidence for Menes. It is now believed that Menes was either Narmer, his predecessor, or Hor-Aha who ruled after him.
More than 2000 years later Manetho, an Egyptian historian, wrote that Menes ruled for 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.
An image of Menes holding an ankh is on the frieze on the south wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building.
Bast
Bastet was the ancient Egyptian goddess of protection and cats. She was the warrior daughter and defender of Ra, who sent her to fight his archenemy Apep. As protectress, she was seen as defender of the pharaoh, after Sekhet, the lioness, and consequently of the chief god Ra.
Bast is also known as Bastet, Ubasti, and Pasch. She was worshiped at least since the Second Dynasty in Ancient Egypt. The centre of her cult was in Per-Bast ("Bubastis" in Greek), which was named after her. Originally she was seen as the protector goddess of Lower Egypt and her image was that of a fierce lion. The name Bast means '(female) devourer'.
In later times Bast became the goddess of protection and blessing and was the protectress of women, children and domestic cats. She was the goddess of sunrise, music, dance and pleasure as well as family, fertility and birth. When Anubis became the god of embalming, Bast, as goddess of ointment, was connected to him (sometimes viewed as his wife and sometimes as his mother) until Anubis became Nephthys' son.
This gentler characteristic, of Bast as goddess of perfumes, following Lower Egypt's loss in the wars between Upper and Lower Egypt, meant that in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt she became seen as a domestic cat and not as a lioness. Owing to associations with the maternal nature of cats, Bast was also regarded as a good mother and she was commonly depicted with kittens. Sometimes Egyptian women who wanted children wore an amulet showing the goddess with kittens; the number of kittens on the amulet would correspond to how many children the woman wanted to have.