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The Complete Works - Volume 8
Thomas Tallis

Chapelle du Roi

The Complete Works - Volume 8

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212003626
Catnr: SIGCD 036
Release date: 01 September 2004
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212003626
Catalogue number
SIGCD 036
Release date
01 September 2004
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

This volume brings together Tallis’s two masterly settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and English adaptations of several of his best-known Latin motets.

Thomas Tallis was one of many continental and English composers who composed settings of texts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the opening five verses of which formed part of the office of Matins (or Tenebrae) during Holy Week. Tallis’s two settings could have been performed ritually but in all likelihood they are Elizabethan works intended for use at the private devotions of staunch Catholic sympathisers.

The statutory introduction of the First Book of Common Prayer on Whitsunday, 9th June 1549 precipitated an urgent need for a repertory of service music in the vernacular. One straightforward solution to the predicament was to adapt existing Latin motets to English texts, a genre of composition that has come to be known as a contrafactum. Contrafacta survive of liturgical music by pre-Reformation English composers as well as by several composers whose working life spanned the period of Reformation.

During the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods contrafacta and their models assumed several forms of dual existence, and were performed not only within a liturgical setting but also in a domestic context for recreation or private devotion. Usually there is no textual relationship between the model and the contrafactum. Indeed the finale of this disc, Sing & Glorify heaven’s high majesty, an adaptation of Tallis’s celebrated eight-choir (40-part) motet Spem in alium was adapted to celebrate Prince Henry’s investiture as Prince of Wales in 1610.

Volume 8 uit een serie met alle werken van Tallis
Het achtste en voorlaatste volume bevat Tallis’ meesterlijke toonzettingen van de Klaagliederen van Jeremia en aangepaste versies van zijn bekendste Latijnse motetten, met een Engelse tekst.

Thomas Tallis was een van de vele componisten die de teksten van de Klaagliederen van Jeremia van muziek voorzag. Zijn twee toonzettingen hadden tijdens een dienst uitgevoerd kunnen worden, maar het zijn in alle waarschijnlijkheid Elizabethaanse werken bedoeld voor privé godsdienstbeoefeningen van trouwe Katholieke sympathisanten.

De wettelijke introductie van het First Book of Common Prayer (het handboek voor de liturgie van de Anglicaanse Kerk) voor Eerste Pinksterdag, 9 juni 1549 zorgde voor een dringende noodzaak voor een repertoire van liturgische muziek in de volkstaal. Een voor de hand liggende oplossing voor dit probleem was om bestaande Latijnse motetten van Engelse teksten te voorzien, een compositiegenre dat bekend is geworden onder de naam contrafactum. De Engelse teksten waren echter geen vertalingen van het Latijn, maar geheel nieuwe teksten. Tijdens de Elizabethaanse en Jakobijnse periodes leidden contrafacta en hun modellen een dubbel bestaan, en werden niet alleen binnen een liturgische, maar ook in huiselijke kring uitgevoerd.

Het afsluitende werk op dit album, Sing and Glorify heaven’s high majesty, een bewerking van Tallis’ bejubelde 40-stemmige motet Spem in alium, is in feite een modern contrafact, geschreven ter gelegenheid van Prins Henry’s inhuldiging als Prins van Wales in 1610.

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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