The seventeenth-century English composer William Byrd was a Catholic in a Protestant land. His Gradualia of 1605 is one of the major collections of renaissance English music written for the suffering church. It contains polyphonic mass cycles for almost all the church year. Among these cycles is, significantly, cycles for all the major festivals associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary. His five-part Nunc dimittis falls into this category as the Tract for the Mass of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which falls on 2 February.

The text for this motet is that of the canticle. As many of Byrd's Latin motets, it is in a somewhat conservative style more reminiscent of Tallis than of the modern practice of continental Europe. While being old fashioned, the writing is, however, strong and inventive. A sharply contrasting middle section adds structural interest and some excellent writing in the final section make this a most worthy piece.



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