The life and activities of Elizabethan composer William Byrd exhibit many connections with the literary world of his time. As a composer of secular vocal music, Byrd knew and used contemporary poetry as texts for his songs, and he likely knew many prominent poets personally. For many years he held the patent for music printing, in effect controlling broad dissemination of poetry in the medium of song (in both his own songbooks and those of other composers of the day) and affording a rare view into the complex world of publishing and patronage. The prefaces to his many printed volumes of vocal music show him to have been a thoughtful and articulate author, seriously concerned with the nature of the musico-poetic relationship: Byrd originated the expression "framed to the life of the words," often used to characterize the special association of music and poetry in the English Renaissance...