No single piece could by itself hope to exemplify the scintillating and multi-faceted musical style of William Byrd. Codifying such elements as the keyboard virtuosity of Alfonso Ferrabosco, the imitative counterpoint of Continental musica reservata, and a varied heritage of English cathedral music from Taverner to Tallis, Byrd's music in the broadest reading has been cited as a prime factor in the forging of Elizabethan culture. The Mass in Five Voices does capture the predicament of its composer's personal faith, and the facility and grace of his musical skill.

Byrd, despite serving as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in London and composing well for the Anglican service, privately maintained a devout Catholic faith; his home was often cited in the 1580s as a seat of recusancy, and his family sustained persecution and yearly fines for their faith. In 1593, he moved to the provincial estate of Stondon Massey, apparently under the protection of Catholic patrons such as the Pastons, the Petres, and the Earl of Worcester. So strong, in fact, was his protection (and his obstinacy) in a climate when mere possession of a copy of his Catholic Gradualia was once grounds for arrest, that Byrd boldly published the three Masses with his name printed on the top right corner of every printed page. Many motets of the Gradualia, as well as the three Mass settings probably first served the illegal (and thus intimate) underground Masses celebrated at Sir John Petre's Ingatestone Hall.

None of the three Masses (printed by Thomas East for four voices in 1592-1593, three voices 1593-1594, and five voices 1594-1595) uses the common Continental device of parodying a model composition; they do not rely on a preconceived unifying thematic web. Byrd does seem, however, to have revised and reworked some musical ideas from one mass to the next, and all three are unified by a conservative and beautifully sculpted tone of "classical" counterpoint. The Mass in Five Voices, published last, links several movements by means of freely composed, but repeated, themes. Though it partakes of the fuller textures and antiphonal effects made possible by the fifth voice, its tone is the most reserved and distant. Among its many aural felicities are the strong musical emphasis on the text (cherished by Byrd) "Et unam Sanctam Catholicam et Apostolicam Ecclesiam," (And [I believe in] the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church), and the assured and nearly mystical peace of the final "Dona nobis pacem" (Give us peace).

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