Thomas Tallis

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Fictional portrait of Thomas Tallis (18th century)

Thomas Tallis (* around 1505 probably in Kent , other sources indicate Leicestershire ; † November 23, 1585 in Greenwich ) was an English composer of sacred, predominantly vocal music at the time of the English Reformation .

life and work

Almost nothing is known about his early life. In any case, his work as organist at the Augustinian Abbey of Waltham north of London is documented for the years 1532 to 1540, the year the monastery was dissolved by Henry VIII . After a short time at Canterbury Cathedral , he was named "Gentleman of the Chapel Royal " - that is, the "gentleman" of the Royal Chapel; an office (or rather an honor) that he continued for the next forty years.

The orientation of his spiritual compositions during and especially after the Reformation is remarkable. While he had previously created Latin masses and motets, i.e. works for the Catholic liturgy , he now composed for Protestant worship. Nevertheless, he continued to write Latin motets , as did Christopher Tye (* around 1500; † 1572/73). The reason for this was the changed form of worship associated with the religious reorganization by Elizabeth I , which gave music a permanent place, but little artistic development. In order to be able to continue working on the technical demands and artistic appeal of his music, he stayed true to the Catholic motet. (A Protestant counterpart to the motet is the anthem .) An example of a Latin composition after the religious reorganization of England is the Lamentations of Jeremiah , which is probably a late work by Tallis. For new Latin masses, however, there was no longer any use. Under this pressure, Tallis' composer colleague John Taverner (* around 1495, † 1545) had given up composing entirely.

The most important student of Tallis' was William Byrd , who was also appointed "Gentleman of the Chapel" in 1570 and held the position of organist together with Tallis. The monopoly on printing music and writing about music was given to both of them in 1575. Together they published the motet collection Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur , dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I , to which both contributed 17 works each. Tallis and Byrd remained on friendly terms until Tallis' death. As a tribute to his late teacher, Byrd composed the song Ye sacred muses shortly after his death .

The imitation is one of those counterpoint techniques in Tallis - as well as his contemporaries - is paramount. Examples of this are his early mass, based on his own motet Salve intemerata , the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the fasting motet In iejunio .

Two works for keyboard instruments - certainly intended primarily for interpretation on the organ - have been included in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book under the name Felix namque . These are extensive series of variations, disrespectfully described by the older music critics ( Willi Apel ) as "monster works", which interpret the elongated note values ​​of the cantus firmus in ever new contrapuntal, imitative and experimental rhythmic figures .

The spirit of Thomas Tallis remains alive in the music of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), which is based on Tallis' setting of Psalm 2 from Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter .

Spem in alium

The work, which is directly connected to the name of Thomas Tallis, is one of the few large-scale vocal monumental works in music history: Spem in alium , a motet based on the text of the deutero-canonical or apocryphal book Judith . No fewer than 40 independent, notated vocal parts form a complex work that is unique in this form. Five different voices each sound in a total of eight choirs , which, according to contemporary practice, can be imagined placed in special positions in the church. Musicology relates the origin of the motet to the 40th birthday of Elizabeth I in 1573. The forty-part motet Ecce beatam lucem by Alessandro Striggio the Elder may have served as a model .

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Commons : Thomas Tallis  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Tallis, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English composer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1505
PLACE OF BIRTH Kent , other sources give Leicestershire on
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1585
Place of death Greenwich , England