The Battle was one of the most popular keyboard works by the renaissance English composer William Byrd (1543-1623). Consequently, several sources contain the work.

This work forms part of the genre of renaissance descriptive music. Byrd attempts to recreate the sounds of a battle imitating the sounds of trumpet, drums, marching, and other military noises. It moves through movements entitled The Soldiers Summons, The March of the Footmen, The March of the Horsemen (or, presumably, that of their horses), The Trumpets, an Irish March (in, for some reason, triple time - perhaps Irish soldiers didn't march all that well), the Bagpipe and the Drone. It can't have been a terribly successful battle, as the work ends with The March to the Fight and The Retreat. Several spurious movements are added to the work in some later sources, such as the rather dull Burying of the Dead.

It is unlikely that Byrd was particularly serious when he wrote this work and, while most of the work is handled skillfully, it is not one of Byrd's best works.



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