The Nunc dimittis—a tract for the Feast of the Purification—is not a setting intended for Evensong or Compline, but is taken from the Gradualia, a great cycle of liturgical settings for the Catholic calendar from Advent to Trinity, published in two volumes in 1605 and 1607. In the passage beginning Quia viderunt Byrd employs some false relations, and the bell-like descending scales at Lumen, immediately inverted in the other parts, reflect earlier figures at saltare tuum and quod parasti.

from notes by Phillip Borg-Wheeler © 2016