Composer
Thomas Tallis
The Tudor composer who served four monarchs - and wrote a motet for forty voices.
Thomas Tallis was one of the greatest English composers of the Renaissance, and one of its great survivors. Over a career of some fifty years he served four Tudor monarchs through the violent religious upheavals of the English Reformation, writing music for each new regime - Catholic and Protestant, in Latin and in English.
Life in brief
Tallis was born around 1505. He worked as an organist at a priory in Dover and later at Waltham Abbey, one of the last monasteries to be closed when Henry VIII dissolved the religious houses in 1540. Around 1543 he joined the Chapel Royal, the monarch's own choir and musicians, and he stayed for the rest of his life.
Few jobs demanded more flexibility. Under Henry VIII the church broke with Rome; under the Protestant Edward VI, services moved into English, with simpler music; under the Catholic Mary I, the Latin rite returned; and under Elizabeth I, the Protestant church was restored. Tallis wrote superbly for all of them. In his later years he became a mentor to the young William Byrd, and in 1575 Elizabeth granted the two of them an exclusive license to print music in England. He died in 1585 at Greenwich, and Byrd wrote a moving elegy in his memory.
Music and style
Tallis could write in two very different styles. His Latin music for the Catholic rite is rich and elaborate, with long, soaring lines woven across many voices. His English music for the Protestant church is simple and direct, setting one note to each syllable so that every word can be heard - as the reformers demanded. That simplicity is part of the appeal of pieces like "If ye love me," still sung in cathedrals today.
Key works
- Spem in alium (c. 1570) - a motet for forty independent voices, arranged in eight choirs of five. Sung in the round, its waves of sound seem to move around the listener. It may have been written in response to a 40-part piece by the Italian composer Alessandro Striggio.
- "If ye love me" - a short, perfectly proportioned English anthem.
- Lamentations of Jeremiah - deeply expressive settings of the biblical laments.
- O nata lux - a brief, glowing Latin hymn.
- Tallis's Canon - a hymn tune still sung to "Glory to thee, my God, this night."
- Nine psalm tunes (1567) - one of which became the theme of Vaughan Williams's famous Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910).
Legacy
Tallis helped lay the foundations of English church music, and his music has been sung by English choirs ever since. His influence reached far into the 20th century, when Ralph Vaughan Williams built his famous Fantasia for strings on one of Tallis's psalm tunes.
Where to start listening: "If ye love me" is three minutes of perfect simplicity. Then try Spem in alium - ideally in a recording, or a live performance, where you can hear the forty voices moving around the space.