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Since Chanctonbury Chorus is all about singing, I thought we’d start our new blog with William Byrd’s encouragement to all people to learn to sing. He wrote it in 1588 but much of what he says is good advice now. See what you think. Much of the spelling is as in the original and isn’t a modern mistake!
First, it is a knowledge easily taught, and quickly learned, where there is a good master, and an apt scholar.
- The exercise of singing is delightful to Nature, and good to preserve the health of Man.
- it does strengthen all parts of the breast, and does open the pipes.
- it is a singularly good remedy for stuttering and stammering in the speech.
- it is the best means to procure perfect pronunciation, and to make a good Orator.
- it is the only way to know where Nature has bestowed the benefit of a good voice: which gift is so rare, as there is not one among a thousand that has it: and, in many, that excellent gift is lost, because they want Art to express Nature.
- There is not any Music of instruments whatsoever, comparable to that which is made of the voices of Men, where the voices are good, and the same well sorted and ordered.
- The better the voice is, the meeter it is to honour and serve God therewith: and the voice of man is chiefly to be employed to that end.
Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum
since singing is so good a thing,
i wish all men would learn to sing.
Psalmes, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie (1588)
William Byrd (1542-1623)
Reasons, briefly set down by the Author, to persuade everyone to learn to sing.
Image of William Byrd © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.