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Throughout his service to successive monarchs as organist and composer, Tallis avoided the religious controversies that raged around him, though, like
William Byrd, he stayed an "unreformed Roman Catholic." Tallis was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit the different monarchs' vastly different demands. Among other important composers of the time, including
Christopher Tye and
Robert White, Tallis stood out. Walker observes, "He had more versatility of style than either, and his general handling of his material was more consistently easy and certain."
"People were naturally wary of their [Byrd and Tallis] new publications, and it certainly did not help their case that they were both avowed
Roman Catholics. Not only that, they were strictly forbidden to sell any imported music. "We straightly by the same forbid...to be brought out of any forren Realmes...any songe or songes made and printed in any foreen countrie." Also, Byrd and Tallis were not given "the rights to music type fonts, printing patents were not under their command, and they didn't actually own a printing press."
Wikipedia.
9 comments:
I woke up this morning with "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk stuck in my head (Damn basement workouts!) so listening to this Tallis piece is most welcome.
Thank you.
Listening to that was nice, but then I went to YouTube and now I'm listening to Kraftwerk do "Europe Endless" so I've got nobody to blame for my earworm but my sad self.
GIGO, baby!
I also went to the CrossFit website and looked at the group photos of the people who just got their various certifications.
The guys who are wearing tank tops looked like homos to me.
And I'm all, like, wait a minute. I can remember when guys wore tank tops at the gym all the time and nobody thought anything of it, except maybe it was showing off too much.
So what changed?
Well, the CrossFit girls in the photos seem prone to wear those spaghetti strap tops (Lotsa skin, baby!) and the guys, just about all, are wearing T-shirts.
So I'm guessing the tank top guys look like homos to me, now, because they're more like girls than guys, by comparison, things being relative and all.
There's an evolutionary explanation, probably.
(1) "Europe Endless" just ended.
What the hell did I ever see in that crap?!
Well, the good news is that the itch has now been scratched.
(2) I'm reminded of this great scene in "Cheers" where 3 guys from a barbershop quartet come into the bar and they're brokenhearted because they just lost their bass. And Norm says, "You know. I've always wanted to sing in a barbershop quartet."
So all four do a quick song and it's fantastic and the 3 guys are elated that they've found a new bass but Norm declines to join up.
They're stunned. One of the singers says, "But Norm, didn't you just say you always wanted to sing in a barbershop quartet?"
Norm shrugs.
"Yeah, I always wanted to . . . and now I have."
Third mode melody is the original.
My introduction to Tallis was a Thurston Dart performance of Ex more docti mistico, which featured cadences with f against f# and c against c#.
So I learned to play it as a kid.
The performance on youtube "fixed" these, to my disappointment.
I see there's another performance here by Gustav Leonhardt which maybe is the original.
I can't check it because the computer is busy recording Imus.
That second one resolves nicely enough, but the instrument it was played on seems to have COPD.
I wonder if there was a C. O. P. D. Bach. Hmm...
Thank you for that, Lem.
Tallis, much to my surprise, played a significant role in Showtime's The Tudors. Even more to my surprise, so did the poet Thomas Wyatt.
It is unclear why the Protestant Queen Elizabeth was so indulgent to the recusants Byrd & Tallis.
Maybe because she had had a belly full of religiously inspired murder after living through the reigns of Henry & Mary, and was ready to let discreet recusants live their lives if it brought peace to the kingdom. Then again, maybe she just really liked their music.....
Of course, no discussion of Tallis would be complete without a link to the 40 part motet Spem in Alium ("I have hoped in none but Thee, oh God of Israel" from the book of Judith), so here ya go.
So who's the worst religious founder,
the Mo or Octo Hank ?
Mo had 15 wives to Hank's six but he never had any of them whacked.
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