William Byrd, La Volta Marco Mencoboni harpsichord

William Byrd (/bɜːrd/; c. 1540 – 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and on the continent. He is often coupled with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell as England’s most important early music composers. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music. Although he produced sacred music for Anglican services, sometime during the 1570s he became a Roman Catholic and wrote Catholic sacred music later in his life.