While the sound of Renaissance vocal music can be just the thing for those seeking a calming sound, life was anything but calm for one of its foremost creators, William Byrd.

Over the course of his 83 years (1540-1623) in an England that was focused on establishing Anglicanism as the national religion, he managed to remain a practicing Catholic and even dodge accusations of being involved in an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth I. And yet he kept on working, remaining throughout most of his life the country's most popular composer.

How did he survive? Well, it helped that Elizabeth evidently loved his music. And why shouldn't she have? It was bursting with beauty, a point repeatedly underlined Tuesday night at St. Paul's Landmark Center by Stile Antico, a much-decorated a cappella English ensemble of a dozen singers. Opening the Schubert Club Mix season — which is all about adventurous musical combo plates in varied settings — the performance offered ample evidence of why Stile Antico is the world's most celebrated early music ensemble.

Made up of six women and six men, the group is unusual in that, unlike such veteran English early music chamber choirs as the Tallis Scholars and the Sixteen, Stile Antico doesn't employ a conductor, developing its performances and recordings in communal fashion. Hence, its concerts are a showcase for collaborative creation, the singers choreographing cues, nods and eye contact to weave their lush sound.

And lush it is, as well as spine-tingling, meditative, festive and fascinating. In a program devoted to Byrd — in honor of the 400th anniversary of his death — the rich-voiced dozen displayed an expertise with the repertoire that would be the envy of any ensemble. Both soothing and stirring, it was a performance that made good use of the resonant acoustics within Landmark Center's four-story Musser Cortile, bearing crispness a cathedral can't offer, but feeling every bit as reverent.

From the concert's opening strains of "Emendemus in Melius" to a concluding encore by Thomas Weelkes, Stile Antico demonstrated that its cooperative method of shaping the group's sound is a tremendous success. Its vocal blend was invariably well-woven, its widely contrasting dynamics smoothly negotiated.

Although none of the Byrd works featured what could be called standout solo turns — this music is more about harmony than showmanship — there were many opportunities for those at the highest and lowest ends of the register to assert themselves amid the mix. Such as soprano Kate Ashby, who often sent her voice skyward with long-held notes while the others intertwined their lines beneath her. And bass Nathan Harrison's powerful instrument provided a solid, earthy foundation under the often ethereal vocal blend.

It was a concert full of transporting dreamscapes, among them the lovely "Nunc Dimittis" from Byrd's "Great Service," the tender center of "Vide Domine afflictionem," and a "Ne irascaris, Domine" that surged and receded like an ocean's waves. And lest listeners become too deeply hypnotized by the guided meditation in song that is "Optimam partem elegit," the ensuing "Factus est repente" burst forth with an appropriately fiery tale of Pentecost.

While the evening's most absorbing moments came when the music was at its most transcendent, some of it danced delightfully, "alleluias" tossed to and fro and a joyous spirit holding sway toward the concert's close. If Stile Antico is classical music's chief ambassador for the sound of the Renaissance, the music is clearly in good hands.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.