William Byrd's Retire My Soul

Composers in England around seventeenth century show curious inclinations for mournfulness and melancholy, which is sometimes motivated by unsuccessful love affairs, but more often, motivated by religious beliefs. William Byrd (1540 - 1623), whose output was primarily in religious music, is an example of such a composer.

In the mid-sixteenth century England, King Henry VIII’s breach with the Catholic Church by annulling his marriage sparked off the European Wars of Religion (1524 - 1648). As churches in England became under the rule of the king and the parliament, new practices and doctrines, which are significantly Protestant-leaning, were put into place. The Protestant favored English congregational singing as opposed to the Catholics.
This piece uses the theme of accounting and finance with a sinful soul. Analyzing the text, the words ‘retire my soul’ and ‘sin’s accounts’ has connotations to the Catholic religion; ‘heightened consciousness of soul’s vicious passions as a consequence of original sin’. The word ‘pleasure’s’ has subtle inclination to the word ‘melancholy’ as melancholy has multiple shades – sadness, longing, uplift, excitement; both ‘displeasurable’ and ‘pleasurable’. The fourth line of the song sums up the sinfulness of human existence, where certain objects were made to show off one’s wealth and without practical purpose. According to OED, ‘follies’ are expensive buildings constructed for ornamental purposes. The words ‘dreams’ and ‘fables’ in the last line reflect melancholy arising from a narrative – ‘fables’, or an environment – ‘dreams’. These two media are both a retreat and reflection of an individual, which melancholy is associated
From another perspective, Byrd could be seen as succumbing to the issue of ‘scholarly melancholy’, where melancholy is associated with excessive intellectual capacities of an individual. Moreover, he could be seen as associating to the higher social order, where melancholy is a fashionable disease originated from the lifestyle of the rich. However, it is more probable that these musical settings were seen as a remedy to comfort the people of modern England as stated by Don Vincenzo Ostiano. Byrd’s usage of the texts, dissonances, false relations and madrigalism indeed portrayed the conflicts and tensions that were apparent in the religious and socio-economic environment of modern