Ave verum corpus (Hail, true body) is based on a 14th century poem. This musical setting by William Byrd (1543 – 1623) is considered one of his finest works. A student of Thomas Tallis, William Byrd was the leading English composer of his time, a great master of the Renaissance along with Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando de Lassus, and left a huge legacy of printed music.

The false relation, the E natural in the trumpet and the E flat in the tuba in measure 2 was Byrd's way of emphasizing the word verum.

Excerpt graciously provided by members of the Tower Brass Quintet.

Composer: Anne McGinty
Instrumentation: Trumpet, Horn, Trombone & Tuba
Duration/# of Pages: ca. 3:30 / 7 pages, 8.5″ x 11″
Key: N/A