Beard of the Week XXVII: Tallis & His Scholars


This week's beard belong to English composer Thomas Tallis (c. 1510–1585), often hailed as the "Father of English Music". (Here's a brief biography.) However, this is only tangentially about Thomas Tallis.

I invoke Tallis' name because a couple of weeks ago — on Sunday, April first, to be precise — Isaac and my Dad and I went with some friends to Baltimore to a concert given by the Tallis Scholars, an a capella singing ensemble from England that specialize in sacred music from the Renaissance. Here is a brief biography of the group from their webpage (mentioned above):

The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serve the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which the Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.

They are a group of 10 singers (2 each voice with 4 tenors for divided parts). Indeed, their purity of sound would be hard to match, and the blending of their tones was exceptional. One big reason for this is undoubtedly the fact that they sing in tune (the "good tuning" mentioned above), with wide, perfect intervals; such attention to tuning is uncommon enough that people will remark on the sound when they hear it without realizing why. The expression and phrasing that Mr. Phillips brings to the group might be described as on the dry side, but it treats the music well — and I would generally prefer that to an over romantic approach.

Here is the program they performed:

  1. Claudio Montevrdi (1567–1643): Messa a quattro voci da capella
  2. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525–1594): Peccantem me guotidie and Dum complerentur
  3. John Browne (c. 1480–1505): Stabat iuxta Christi crucem
  4. Orlande de Lassus (?1530–1594): Media vita
  5. Nicholas Gombert (1495–1560): Media vita and Magnificat IV

Here are two selections from the program notes that I found interesting.

Nicholas Gombert, born in approximately 1495, was a major figure in the second generation of famous Flemish composers. Unfortunately, his biography will forever be mired in controversy, as there was a contemporary rumour claiming Gombert acted improperly with a boy and was sentenced to a period of exile on a ship in the Mediterranean. On this ship. the story goes, Gombert wrote eight Magnificat settings–one in each of the eight church modes — and these were of such a high quality that they secured his release. Magnificat IV, which closes tonight's concert, highlights his unique and expert use of thick, low, and constant textures. It is a marvel of early 16th Flemish counterpoint, with lengthy sections of dense polyphony, punctuated by clearly audible points of imitation. In the last verse, two new voices are introduced within the same ranges outlined earlier, further thickening the texture and contributing to its powerful conclusion. Gombert's motet Media vita is another example of his mastery of these thick, rich textures. Written for six low voices, including the rare inclusion of a baritone part, it is a relentless complex of thorough counterpoint including, in brief passages, writing which suggests the possibility of false-relation dissonances, a technique most strongly associated with English composers of the time.
[…]
John Browne lived and wrote as one of the most famous and skilled English composers of his day. Born in the third quarter of the 15th century, he never held a post in the Chapel Royal. However, the work which appears on tonight's program, Stabat juxta, contains as its cantus firmus tenor voice a secular song composed to commemorate Prince Arthur's taking-up his duties as prince of Wales. The prince died in 1502 and the union of this secular song and the text depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary at the base of the cross suggests that the work was written for Queen Elizabeth, the wife of Henry VII. The piece itself is extraordinary in its use of six men's voices and in this way is similar to the rich style used by Gombert.

I'm a big fan of Renaissance music and most of the composers were familiar to me, but I'd never heard of John Browne before and this Stabat Mater was indeed extraordinary. I'll have to listen to it more to discover exactly what made it so different sounding from the others — it may have been the dense, low texture as suggested in the program notes — but it was quite evident on first hearing, whatever it was. I'll be doing the research soon since we were prompted to buy the group's recording of music by Browne after the concert.

Posted on April 16, 2007 at 15.25 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Beard of the Week

2 Responses

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Monday, 16 April 2007 at 22.15
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    And here I was feeling overly retro because I enjoy music of 1930's to early 1950's, especially big-band swing.

  2. Written by jns
    on Monday, 16 April 2007 at 23.18
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    It's a matter of perspective, to be sure. Ask Isaac for his reaction when members of his congregation congratulate him for playing the "old hymns" — when they mean some of their sappy, Victorian favorites. His thought: "Honey, that's not old. Old hyms are 15th century."

    It is amusing to find people who share a taste for "old" music only to discover that we're still several centuries apart.

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