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The Complete Works - Volume 5
Thomas Tallis

Andrew Benson-Wilson

The Complete Works - Volume 5

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212001622
Catnr: SIGCD 016
Release date: 01 October 2002
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212001622
Catalogue number
SIGCD 016
Release date
01 October 2002
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

This disc is the fifth in a series of nine that covers Thomas Tallis’s complete surviving output from his five decades of composition. In this disc we continue to explore the choral music of the Divine Office, progressing with the choral hymns and responories not found in volume 4.

Music for the Divine Office is completed with Tallis’s liturgical organ music: five hymns and three antiphons for the Divine Office, an Alleluia for the Lady Mass and an extended setting of the offertory Felix Namque.

Tallis’s written music for the liturgy is modest in style, inventive and very appealing. His surviving output of written keyboard music is very small in light of his reputation. It is possible that much of this written music has been lost, and even more likely that the majority of his keyboard performances were improvised, and therefore not strictly notated. This CD offers reconstructions based on what is known of liturgical practice at the time when this music was most probably written (the later years of Henry VIII and those of Queen Mary I).

Recording the organ works of Tallis involves a number of difficult decisions, not least the choice of organ, as there are no surviving English organs from the sixteenth century. The organ in the late medieval private chapel of Knole, a vast country house in Kent, is arguably the oldest playable organ in England. It’s joints can sound rather rattley, and it has some trouble breathing at times (although the regular creak of the bellows being pumped by foot is a reassuring link with the pre-electric past). However, the sound of this organ in the Knole chapel acoustic might not be far off from what Tallis knew from inside the Chapel Royal.

Once again Chapelle du Roi presents an inspired and historically informed performance of the sacred renaissance repertoire for which they are celebrated.

Volume 5 uit een serie met alle werken van Tallis
Dit album is het vijfde volume in een negendelige serie die het complete overgeleverde oeuvre van Thomas Tallis omvat. Dit volume gaat verder met het verkennen van zijn koormuziek voor het Getijdengebed, met de hymnes en responsoria. Het wordt aangevuld met zijn liturgische orgelmuziek: vijf hymnes en drie antifonen voor het Getijdengebed, een Alleluia en een uitgebreide toonzetting van het offertorium Felix Namque.

De liturgische muziek van Tallis is bescheiden in stijl, maar toch inventief en zeer aantrekkelijk. In het licht van zijn reputatie is het aantal overgeleverde klavierwerken erg klein. Het is mogelijk dat veel van de geschreven muziek verloren is gegaan, en het is waarschijnlijk dat de meerderheid van zijn klavieruitvoeringen geïmproviseerd werd en überhaupt nooit is opgeschreven. Dit album biedt reconstructies gebaseerd op informatie over de liturgische praktijk uit de tijd waarin de muziek werd geschreven.

Het opnemen van de orgelwerken van Tallis brengt een aantal moeilijke beslissingen met zich mee, niet in de minste plaats de keuze van het orgel, aangezien er geen 16e-eeuwse Engelse orgels meer bestaan. Voor dit album is gekozen voor het orgel in de laatmiddeleeuwse privékapel van Knole, het orgel dat aantoonbaar het oudste speelbare orgel in Engeland is. De klank van dit orgel binnen de akoestiek van de kapel is wellicht niet ver verwijderd van de klank die Tallis in de Chapel Royal hoorde.

Chapelle du Roi presenteert opnieuw een bijzondere en authentieke uitvoering van het repertoire waar ze ze geloofd om worden.

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music, and is considered one of England's greatest composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. No contemporary portrait of Tallis survives: that painted by Gerard Vandergucht (illustration), dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a likeness. In a rare existing copy of his black letter signature, the composer spelled his last name 'Tallys.' Tallis is known for his work with William Byrd. He started to teach the much younger Byrd at the Chapel Royal in London. Later, they were both appointed as organists of the Chapel. 
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Thomas Tallis was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music, and is considered one of England's greatest composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. No contemporary portrait of Tallis survives: that painted by Gerard Vandergucht (illustration), dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a likeness. In a rare existing copy of his black letter signature, the composer spelled his last name "Tallys." Tallis is known for his work with William Byrd. He started to teach the much younger Byrd at the Chapel Royal in London. Later, they were both appointed as organists of the Chapel.


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