Quomodo cantabimus is an eight-part Latin motet by the renaissance English composer William Byrd. It is a reply to a motet Super flumina, which Philippe de Monte, composer at the German imperial court, sent Byrd as a challenge. This type of compositional competition was quite common in the renaissance composing fraternity. De Monte set Ps. 136 : 1-3 for eight voices, and Byrd responded with an eight-part setting of verses four to seven of the same psalm.

Byrd's setting is a technically brilliant example of contrapuntal writing. In two parts, the first contains a canon between a bass and an alto, with the second alto in a mirror canon. The second part is as intricate an example of contrapuntal writing as Byrd ever wrote. It is almost as if Byrd, writing to a continental fellow-Catholic is saying that despite his living in England, his Catholic faith is still strong (and his compositional ability still sharp).



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