Anthem
Ave verum corpus - William Byrd
William Byrd (c.1540–1623) was a pupil of Tallis and the towering figure of English Renaissance polyphony, composing for the Chapel Royal while quietly practising his Catholic faith under a Protestant establishment. His “Ave verum corpus,” published in the Gradualia of 1605, sets a medieval Eucharistic devotion with an intimacy and expressive intensity rare even among his own works - a miniature masterpiece treasured across the choral repertoire.