Thanks to the efforts of editors in the twentieth century some of Byrd’s works have become well established gems of the repertory. One such is the five-part
Miserere mei, Deus. A clear homophonic opening asking for mercy moves quickly into beautiful imitation. The text contains several words which seem to elicit particularly powerful melodies from Byrd, especially ‘iniquitatem’ (‘wrong-doing’) and ‘misericordiam’ (‘mercy’); indeed the melody of this latter word was one that he was to take forward and use in the monumental
Infelix ego.
from notes by Andrew Carwood © 2009
