chapter 7 Prayer and Musical Performance The Verse Anthem Simon Jackson Writing in the preface to Gradualia (London, 1605), the composer William Byrd (1539/40–1623) described his approach to word-setting: In the words themselves (as I have learned from experience) there is such hidden and mysterious power that to a person thinking over divine things, diligently and earnestly turning them over in his mind, the most appropriate measures come, I do not know how, and offer themselves freely to the mind that is neither idle nor inert. 1 In Byrd’s formulation, the act of musical composition is a form of Word- centred devotion and invention. This is musical composition as prayerful meditation: reading ‘the words themselves’ attentively, and ‘turning them over in his mind’ brings – by a mysterious process of inspiration –‘the most appropriate measures’. What Byrd’s description leaves tantalisingly unspo- ken is the material realisation of the musical work: it seems to exist only in the composer’s mind, sounded in his inner ear and imagination rather than in practical performance. This chapter is concerned with the counterpart to Byrd’s receptive, meditative conception of musical composition as prayer: what happens when these inspired notes are lifted off the silent page and into the realm of performance? How did Byrd and his contemporaries think about the relationship between this musical performance and prayer? Such questions are far from simple in the climate of religious reform and the rigorous debates that took place during the early modern period about the role of music in worship. Reformers could disagree radically about the place of music in worship: Luther, for instance, considered music to be a gift from God; he had few concerns in adapting music from the Catholic liturgy for his own services, and expressed the opinion that music was ‘next to the Word of God ... the greatest treasure in the world’. 2 By contrast, Zwingli – despite being an accomplished musician – attempted to ban music from the church completely. 3 For some, music could be a delightful 110 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108555135.008 Published online by Cambridge University Press