The five-voice cantus firmus motet, Christe qui lux by the renaissance English composer William Byrd (1543-1623) is a popular and (to modern audiences) very accessible work. Numerous ensembles have recorded and performed it in recent years. Yet, it was, in its time, an odd work popular enough to be recorded only once: in Robert Dow's manuscript, Christ Church.

The text is the hymn for Compline on the first Sunday in Lent and daily until Passion Sunday in the Sarum rite. Christe qui lux is a work unique among Byrd's compositions by virtue of its note-against-note setting and black-breve notational style. It is rather obvious and insecure in its writing. In seven stanzas, Byrd fails to settle into a clear and effective writing style. His harmony is hesitant, even more so when compared to a similar setting by Robert White (noted by Dow). Christe qui lux is probably an early work when Byrd was experimenting with five-part writing.

Happily, Byrd did not give up on this hymn so easily. Two more Byrd settings of Christe qui lux exist written for instrumental consort and one other motet setting.



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