ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -William Byrd of Westover, also called William Byrd II, (born March 28, 1674, Virginia [U.S.]-died August 26, 1744, Westover, Virginia), Virginia planter, satirist, and diarist who portrayed colonial life on the southern British plantations. He founded the city of Richmond, Virginia.

Detailed explanation-2: -Widely thought to be Byrd’s finest liturgical music, the Great Service is a highly inventive, dramatic and colourful score for ten-part choir.

Detailed explanation-3: -“Byrd, ” writes Berland, “clearly meant to create a stimulating book for London readers, and to this end he combined a chronicle of the events of 1728 with a complex, digressive account of Virginia and North Carolina, a hybrid admixture of historical, topographic, economic, scientific, and personal presentation.”

Detailed explanation-4: -William Byrd, (born 1539/40, London, England-died July 4, 1623, Stondon Massey, Essex, England), English organist and composer of the Shakespearean age who is best known for his development of the English madrigal. He also wrote virginal and organ music that elevated the English keyboard style.