Thomas Tallis | |
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| Born | c. 1505 ProbablyKent, England |
| Died | 23 November 1585 (aged 79–80) Greenwich, England |
| Works | List of compositions |
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Thomas Tallis (/ˈtælɪs/;[2] alsoTallys orTalles;c. 1505 – 23 November 1585[n 1]) was an English composer of HighRenaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of Englishchoral music. Tallis is considered one of England's greatest composers, and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.[3]
As no records about the birth, family or childhood of Thomas Tallis exist, almost nothing is known about his early life or origins. Historians have calculated that he was born in the early part of the 16th century, towards the end of the reign ofHenry VII of England, and estimates for the year of his birth range from 1500 to 1520.[4] His only known relative was a cousin called John Sayer. As thesurnamesSayer andTallis both have strong connections withKent, Thomas Tallis is usually thought to have been born somewhere in the county.[5]
There are some suggestions that Tallis sang as achild of the chapel in theChapel Royal, the same singing establishment which he joined as an adult.[6][7] He was probably achorister at theBenedictinePriory of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Martin of the New Work, in Dover, where he was later employed, but it is impossible to know whether he was educated there. He may have sung atCanterbury Cathedral.[8]
Tallis served at court as a composer, teacher and performer forHenry VIII,[9]Edward VI,Mary I, andElizabeth I.[10] He was first designated as an organist at the chapel after 1570, although he would have been employed as an organist throughout his career.[11]
He avoided the religious controversies that raged around him throughout his service to successive monarchs, though he remained, in the words of the historianPeter Ackroyd, an "unreformed Roman Catholic".[12] Tallis was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit each monarch's different demands.[13] Tallis taught the composers:William Byrd, as later associated withLincoln Cathedral;Elway Bevin, an organist ofBristol Cathedral and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal;[14] andSir Ferdinando Heybourne (aka Richardson), a favourite ofQueen Elizabeth.[15]
No record of Tallis related to his career exists before 1531, when he is named in the accounts of the Kent Benedictine houseDover Priory.[8] He was employed there as theorganist,[16] responsible for directingchants from the organ.[17] A "Thomas Tales" is named as the "joculator organorum" at the priory and received an annual payment of £2.[11] The account notes that he was also responsible for the direction of sixsinging-boys.[18] The priory wasdissolved in 1535, but there is no surviving record of Tallis's departure.[19][11]
Tallis's whereabouts are not known for the several months after this until mention is made of his being employed atSt Mary-at-Hill in London'sBillingsgate ward.[19] Records show he was paid four half-yearly payments from 1536 to 1538, with the last payment being specified for services—as either a singer or an organist—for the year up to 25 March 1538.[11][20]
Towards the end of 1538 Tallis moved to a largeAugustinian monastery,Waltham Abbey inEssex,[21] after he had come into contact with the abbot, whose London home was near to St Mary-at-Hill.[22] At Waltham, Tallis became a senior member.[21] When the abbey, too, wasdissolved in March 1540, Tallis left without receiving a pension (since he had only recently been employed there), and was instead given a one-off payment of 40shillings. He took away a volume of musical treatises copied byJohn Wylde, once apreceptor at Waltham. Among its contents was atreatise byLeonel Power that prohibited consecutiveunisons,fifths, andoctaves; the last page is inscribed with his name.[11][6]
By the summer of 1540 Tallis had moved to the formerly monastic but recentlysecularisedCanterbury Cathedral, where his name heads the list of singers in the newly expanded choir of 10 boys and 12 men. Tallis brought with him several manuscripts of his early votive works for frequentSarum use.[23] He remained there for two years.[21][11]
Tallis's employment in the Chapel Royal probably began in 1543. His name appears on a 1544lay subsidy roll and is listed in a later document. It is possible that he was connected with the court when at St Mary-at-Hill, since in 1577 Tallis claimed to have "served yo[u]r Ma[jes]tie and yo[u]r Royall ancestors these fortie yeres". He may have been responsible for teaching the boys of the choir keyboard and composition.[11] Tallis oversaw the will ofRichard Bower, who wasMaster of the Children of the Chapel Royal.[24]
Around 1552, Tallis married, probably for the first time, to Joan, the widow of a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. Like many other members of the royal household choir, Tallis and his wife lived inGreenwich,[22] although it is not known if he ever owned his house there. He probably rented a house, by tradition in Stockwell Street.[11] According to Tallis' epitaph and Joan Tallis' will, there were no children of the marriage.[11][25] In the 1550s, and 1560s, it is likely thatWilliam Byrd was taught the organ and some composition by Tallis ("bred up to Musick under Tho. Tallys").[26] Byrd kept a close relationship to Tallis, as Tallis went on to become the godfather of Byrd's second son, Thomas Byrd.[27]
Queen Mary I, who commissioned a mass and several settings forDivine Office from Tallis,[28] granted him a lease on a manor in Kent which provided a comfortable annual income.[29] He was present at her funeral on 13 December 1558 and at the coronation of Elizabeth I the following month.[22] A setting of theRequiem composed by Tallis for the funeral of Mary has been lost.[30][31][32]
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Tallis was an eminent figure in Elizabeth's household chapel, but as he aged he became gradually less prominent.[22] In 1575, Elizabeth granted Tallis and Byrd a 21-yearmonopoly forpolyphonic music[33] and apatent to print and publish "set songe or songes in parts", one of the first arrangements of its kind in England.[34] Tallis and Byrd were given exclusive rights to print any music in any language, includingEnglish,Latin,French, andItalian,[33] and they had sole use of the paper used in printing music. The only publication made under the monopoly while Tallis was still alive was the 1575Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur, which was prefaced by Sir Ferdinando Heybourne, who wrote that Tallis and Byrd intended to take their place among the great composers of Europe: "Lassus,Gombert, andFerrabosco".[15] It did not sell well, and they were forced to appeal to Elizabeth for support.[33] People were wary of the new publications, the sale of which was not helped by both men beingRoman Catholics.[34] As Catholics, Byrd and Tallis were forbidden to sell imported music, and were refused any rights to musicfonts, or printing patents not under their command. They lacked their own printing press.[35] A second petition in 1577 resulted in the grant of a joint lease ofcrown lands to the two composers.[11]
After the 1575 publication, Tallis is thought to have ceased active composition, as no works from these final years survive.[4] The sombre,Post-Exilic texts for Tallis' final surviving works of 1575,In Jejunio andDerelinquat Impius, indicate that Tallis was becoming increasingly involved with therecusant communities facing persecution,[36] as was Byrd; thePaget Household, known for its devout Catholicism untilThomas Paget's attainting in 1587, was a musical centre where "songes of Mr Byrdes and Mr Tallys’ were sung."[25] Thomas Tallis was closely associated with the wealthy recusant Anthony Roper,[37] who was the grandson ofSir Thomas More[38] and the owner of the TheewesClaviorganum.[39]
Late in his life, Tallis lived inGreenwich, possibly close to the royalPalace of Placentia; tradition holds that he lived on Stockwell Street.[11] He was recorded as a member of Elizabeth I's household in June 1585, and wrote hiswill in August that year.[40] He died in his house inGreenwich on 20 or 23 November; the different dates are from a register and the Chapel Royal.[41][42] In his will he left £3.6s.8d. to "my company the gentlemen of Her Majesty's Chapel towards their feast." Thomas Byrd received Tallis' share of the monopoly[15] although it was his father, William Byrd, who would utilise it.
He was buried in the chancel ofSt Alfege Church, Greenwich.[41] A brass memorial plate placed there after the death of his wife (but before the death of Elizabeth (ONDB)) is now lost.[41] His remains may have been discarded by labourers during the 1710s, when the church was rebuilt.[43]
Tallis' epitaph on a brassplaque, lost in the subsequent rebuilding of the church, was recorded by the English clergymanJohn Strype in his 1720 edition ofJohn Stow'sSurvey of London[11][44] It was most likely written by Henry Stanford: a recusant tutor to the Paget Household.[15]
Entered here doth ly a worthy wyght,
Who for long tyme in musick bore the bell:
His name to shew, was THOMAS TALLYS hyght,
In honest virtuous lyff he dyd excell.
He serv'd long tyme in chappel with grete prayse
Fower sovereygnes reygnes (a thing not often seen);
I meane Kyng Henry and Prynce Edward's dayes,
Quene Mary, and Elizabeth oure Quene.
He mary'd was, though children he had none,
And lyv'd in love full thre and thirty yeres
Wyth loyal spowse, whose name yclypt was JONE,
Who here entomb'd him company now beares.
As he dyd lyve, so also did he dy,
In myld and quyet sort (O happy man!)
To God ful oft for mercy did he cry,
Wherefore he lyves, let deth do what he can.
On learning of Tallis' death, William Byrd wroteYe Sacred Muses, his musical elegy to his colleague and mentor. Tallis' widow Joan, whose will is dated 12 June 1587, survived him by nearly four years[11][22] and spent the rest of her life in the care of Richard Cranwell, a gentleman of the Chapel Royal.[25] Anthony Roper received Tallis' gilt cup in Joan's will for the "good favours showed to [her] late husband"[37][25] and William Byrd received Tallis' gilt bowl.
The earliest surviving works by Tallis areAlleluia: Ora pro nobis,Euge Caeli Porta,Magnificat for four voices,[45] and three devotionalantiphons to theVirgin Mary:Salve intemerata, a precocious work of Tallis, with the oldest manuscript dating to the 1520s (London, British Library, Ms. Harley 1709);[46][47]Ave Dei Patris filia; andAve rosa sine spinis. Votive antiphons were sung in the evening after thelast service of the day. Tallis' early output is composed entirely in theEnglish Votive Style that was cultivated in England from the 1470s to the 1540s. Tallis used antiphons composed byJohn Taverner andRobert Fayrfax[48] as models for composing his own antiphons. Taverner in particular isquoted inSalve intemerata, andDum transisset sabbatum.[48] Characteristics of the votive style, such as high, sustained treble lines and lengthy solo verses, were just beginning to be supplanted by the more succinct phrasing of continental traditions by the 1530s, makingMissa Salve Intemerata (Tallis' first of three complete masses, and his onlyparody mass to be completed)[49] more modern in technique than the antiphon from which it is derived.[50]
Gaude gloriosa Dei mater was previously thought to have been one of many revivalist votive antiphons composed in honour ofQueen Mary I, in a similar vein to William Mundy'sVox Patris caelestis. This is due toGaude gloriosa being more advanced than the rest of Tallis' early output, indicating the work of an older, more mature composer.[51] However,Gaude gloriosa's dating was revised after renovations atCorpus Christi College, Oxford in 1978 revealed earlier fragments ofGaude gloriosa that use an English text translated byQueen Katherine Parr.[52] This means the antiphon was likely composed in the 1540s, or even earlier, with its original Latin text referencing the "Gaude" Window in the west transept of Canterbury Cathedral.[53] The cathedral was Tallis' previous workplace before his appointment to the Chapel Royal. It was only after becoming a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal that Tallis received his commission forGaude gloriosa's Englishcontrafactum,Se Lord and behold, which was intended for use inHenry VIII's French campaign and the capture ofBoulogne in 1544.[54]
At Canterbury Cathedral, Thomas Tallis was caught betweenArchbishop Thomas Cranmer's push for reform, and resistance from the more conservative members of the cathedral's chapter.[15] Cranmer recommended a syllabic style of music where each syllable is sung to one pitch, as his instructions make clear for the setting of the 1544English Litany.[55] As a result, the writing of Tallis became more simple. Tallis'Mass for Four Voices, while in Latin, is written in syllabichomophony, with a diminished use ofmelisma.[56]
The reformed Anglican liturgy was inaugurated during the short reign ofEdward VI (1547–53),[57] and Tallis began to write anthems set to English words, as well asservices for theBook of Common Prayer. Tallis' English setting for theBenedictus stylistically dates from this period, although it remained in use as Byrd quoted Tallis' "which hath bene since the world began" melody in his ownGreat Service.[58] Tallis' famousIf ye love me certainly dates from the reign of Edward VI, as theWanley Partbook of 1549-1552 is the earliest source for the anthem.[59]
Queen Mary set about undoing some of the religious reforms of the preceding decades, following her accession in 1553. Mary restored theSarum Rite, and the compositional style of the Chapel Royal reverted to the votive style prevalent early in the century,[60] albeit in a form even more steeped in continental practices than that emerging in the 1530s. The marriage between Mary andPrince Philip of Spain allowed for a new artistic exchange between England and Spain.Philip's chapel choir accompanied him to England in 1554.[61] Therefore, Tallis was exposed to visiting continental composers, as evident inSuscipe quaeso Domine, which is a non-liturgical 7-voice motet composed to celebrate the end of theEnglish schism.Suscipe quaeso is written in a low-pitched Flemish style to suit the singing tradition of Philip's choir.[28]Loquebantur variis linguis andMiserere nostri have the same 7-voice-scoring, meaning that they were also composed with Philip's singers in mind.[28]Miserere nostri is notably written in the complex canonical technique of the continent[62] with its use of multipleaugmentative prolations.[63]
Missa Puer natus est nobis, likely composed in December 1554 for the both chapel choirs, is more conservative in that it is composed around a festivecantus firmus "Puer natus est nobis" that alludes to the birth of a boy for England. Queen Mary believed she was pregnant from 1554-1555, and that the Catholic succession was to be secured,[64] hence the large, celebratory scale ofMissa Puer natus. The mass has characteristics of the English votive style, such ascross-relations, yet the mass also has characteristics of theFlemish tradition.[28] In the tenor part, there are cryptic, puzzle-like patterns made from the varying note lengths with which Tallis modified the cantus firmus. Milsom writes that the patterns are "almost cabbalistic", while Wulfstan suggests that Tallis' use of patterns actually resembleOckeghem's mathematical "games" with cantus firmi.[65] Philips writes that the overallesoteric significance is "difficult to discern".[61]
Some of Tallis' keyboard works were compiled by Thomas Mulliner in a manuscript copybook calledThe Mulliner Book before Queen Elizabeth's reign, and may have been used by the queen herself when she was younger.[66] Following Elizabeth's accession, theAct of Uniformity abolished the Roman Liturgy[3] and firmly established theBook of Common Prayer.[67] Composers resumed writing English anthems, although the practice continued of setting Latin texts among composers employed by Elizabeth's Chapel Royal.[50]
The religious authorities at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, being Protestant, tended to discourage polyphony in church unless the words were clearly audible or, as the1559 Injunctions stated, "playnelye understanded, as if it were read without singing".[68] Tallis wrotenine psalm chant tunes for four voices for ArchbishopMatthew Parker's Psalter published in 1567.[69] One of the nine tunes was the "Third Mode Melody" which inspired the composition ofFantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis byRalph Vaughan Williams in 1910.[70] Another of the tunes, a setting ofPsalm 67, became known as "Tallis's Canon". A version of it published byThomas Ravenscroft was used as the tune forThomas Ken's "All praise to thee, my God, this night".[71]
The Injunctions, however, also allowed a more elaborate piece of music to be sung in church at certain times of the day.[68] Tallis' more complex Elizabethananthems andmotets may have been sung in this context, or alternatively by the many families who sang sacred polyphony at home.[72] Although older works from the reigns of Henry and Queen Mary continued to be copied and distributed, the votive style was superseded by a modern, highly-imitative method of counterpoint,[73] typical of late sixteenth-century choral traditions.[74][75] Tallis' better-known works from the Elizabethan years that employ this method include his settings of theLamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet[29] for theHoly Week, the motetO nata lux, andSpem in alium.
Spem in alium is written for eight five-voice choirs, and is thought to have been commissioned by the Earl of Arundel upon hearing a secret performance ofAlessandro Striggio'sMissa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno or his 40-part motet,Ecce beatam lucem.Spem in alium takes its text from the apocryphalBook of Judith that concerns the slaying ofHolofernes in order to saveIsrael. Milsom proposes the notion that the Arundel or the Duke of Norfolk, both of whom had Catholic leanings, with the latter implicated in theRidolfi plot, might have commissioned the motet for a text that has covert political meaning, as an allegory for an eventualassassination of Elizabeth.[76] Despite the allegorical association, andSpem in alium appearing in theNonsuch palace catalogue for its presumed performance with Arundel and Norfolk in attendance, there is no evidence that Tallis was involved in the plot himself.[77]Spem in alium has unique numerology: there are 40 voices for40 days of Christ in the Desert, and the motet's length of 69'longs' adds up to T-A-L-L-I-S in Latin letters.[78]
Toward the end of his life, Tallis continued to innovate. Two large-scale keyboard works,Felix namque I andFelix namque II, can be found in theFitzwilliam Virginal Book (FVB 109 & FVB 110) and are composed in a virtuosic manner unparalleled by any other European keyboard tradition of the period.[79][80] Tallis' secular output increased towards the end of his compositional career, as he produced twoIn Nomines, aFantasy, aSolfing Song (Ut-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol), one keyboardLesson in Two Parts (also attrib.John Bull) and English songs such asWhen shall my sorrowful sighing slack? The latter was popular enough to appear in English and Scottish sources.[73]O sacrum convivium andSalvator mundi may also have been written as secular fantasias forviols before being given liturgical texts for the1575 Cantiones sacrae.[73][81]
In the Baldwin Partbooks, two psalm settings survive from Tallis:[82]Dominequis habitabit andLaudate Dominum omnes gentes.Domine quis habitabit is the longer of the two, and is written in the Flemish style.[83]Laudate Dominum, while shorter, is written in a more sprung, lively Elizabethan style.Laudate Dominum made an impression on the young William Byrd, who used the motet as a model for his ownLaudate pueri.[84] Tallis was willing to draw upon his experience in adopting Flemish influences, while also retaining English character in his music through the use ofEnglish cadences.[28]
Tallis was experimental in his final known compositions in the1575 Cantiones sacrae:In jejunio has a high amount ofword-painting, with the motet being purposely and unusually printed at a low pitch[85] to reflect the sorrowful nature of the Lenten text.[86]Derelinquat impius is simply bizarre in that it defies any initial tonal centre. Continuous peregrinations and eccentric seventh intervals at every "misericors est"[87] convey the waywardness of the wicked in the text.[88]
Tallis is remembered as primarily a composer ofsacred vocal music, in part because of the small output of instrumental and secular music that can be successfully attributed to him.[89] Records are incomplete on his works from previous periods; 11 of his 18 Latin-texted pieces from Elizabeth's reign were published, "which ensured their survival in a way not available to the earlier material".[90] Tallis was never referred to as a "father ofEnglish Church music" in his lifetime (unlike Byrd, who was called a "Father of Musicke" in 17th-century chapel rolls); the epithet for Tallis was a product of the Victorian revival.[91] Tallis, nevertheless, was highly revered, withJohn Baldwin, compiler of the Baldwin Partbooks, naming him as one of the greatest composers of the period, although giving much more deference toMundy as one of the "Queen's Pallis".[92] Some of Tallis' works were copied by a scribe ofEdward Paston, who himself gifted copies to another musician and recusant,Sir John Petre.[93] Byrd modelled hisGreat Service andLaudate pueri on earlier settings by Tallis.[58][84] Although Tallis did progress with the continuing changes in English music, his surviving works became outdated by theEnglish Madrigal period and the direct influence of Tallis' music waned.Thomas Morley, in his 1597Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, names "Fairfax,Taverner,Sheppard, Mundy,White,Parsons, W. Byrde" as equals toLassus, and among the greatest composers of their day. Tallis has quite obviously been omitted.[94]
Modern scholars generally believe that Tallis stood out among other important composers of the time, includingChristopher Tye andRobert White. The author and composerErnest Walker wrote that "he had more versatility of style" than Tye and White, and "his general handling of his material was more consistently easy and certain".[95] John Milsom, musicologist and editor ofearly music scores, wrote that Tallis modified and revised his scores far more thanJohn Sheppard and White, deliberately aligning later copies of his older works to a newer continental technique ofimitative counterpoint.[96] David Allinson, musicologist and director of music atCanterbury Christ Church University, commented in a 2005 NPR segment that Tallis' "Spem in alium is about twenty times better'" than Striggio's 40-part motet because "where the Striggio is content to rely on big, harmonic effects and contrasts, Tallis' piece is a truly woven polyphonic piece of music."[97] Also in 2005, Tess Knighton, musicologist and historian, wrote that Tallis was, "undoubtably a genius".[98]
In 1971, theThomas Tallis School inKidbrooke opened, a mixedcomprehensive school named after the composer.
Most of Tallis' music that remained in continuous use following his death was his music in the English language,[99] mostly notably his Dorian Service, individual movement settings such as theBenedictus andTe Deum for means, two sets of responses, two double-chants and various other hymns, psalms and anthems for theBook of Common Prayer. It was only in theVictorian period, when interest inearly music began to increase, thatSpem in alium was rediscovered and began to be experimented with immediately.[99] 20th century composers, such asRalph Vaughan Williams andHerbert Howells, borrowed Tallis' themes for use in their own music. In the 1920s, the monumental seriesTudor Church Music, produced with the support of theCarnegie Trust, revived Tallis' Latin music from across his career.R. R. Terry, chairman of the Carnegie trust at the time, pushed for the revival of Tudor church music in order to increase the choral repertoire for use atWestminster Cathedral.[23]
Early music groups, such as theClerkes of Oxenford andThe Tallis Scholars, further contributed to interest in Tallis' Latin music. Chapelle du Roi recorded the complete works of Tallis in 2005 to celebrate 500 years since the estimated birth of Thomas Tallis.[100] Alamire also recordedSe Lord and behold for their 2017 album Queen Katherine Parr and Songs of Reformation under the label Obsidian.[54]
No contemporaneous portrait of Tallis survives; the one painted byGerard Vandergucht dates from 150 years after the composer's death, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a fair likeness. In a rare existing copy of hisblackletter signature, he spelled his name "Tallys".[101]
A fictionalised version ofThomas Tallis was portrayed byJoe Van Moyland in the 2007Showtime television seriesThe Tudors.[100] In 2018,If ye love me was sung at thewedding ofPrince Harry andMeghan, Duchess of Sussex.[102]
TheGloria ofMissa Puer natus est nobis was rearranged by Tangerine Dream and used in their soundtrack forThe Keep.Spem in alium features prominently in films such asTouching the Void (2003)[103] andBoychoir (2014),[104] as well as television programmes such asEndeavour (2019) andMystery Road (2020).Spem in alium reached the No. 1 spot on the Classical Singles Chart in 2012 after being featured in theclassical album for Fifty Shades of Grey.[105]Audivi vocem features inInspector Gadget (1999) andThe Perfect Game (2009).[106]If ye love me features inWreckers (2011)[107] andVox Lux (2018),[108] while Tallis'Te Deumfor means can be heard during Queen Elizabeth's coronation inElizabeth (1998).[109]
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