Thomas Who ?

Classical music's roots go back a long way, although most people know little of who preceded the famous Italian and German composers of the 17th century. One English composer who deserves to better known is Thomas Tallis, (c. 1505 - 1585), who in his lifetime was a reknowned composer of sacred choral music. Tallis remained a Catholic at time of considerable religious upheaval in the British Isles, and the fact that he was able to continue to write for both the Catholic and Anglican churches illustrates the esteem in which he was held. Aside from his association with Vaughan Williams, Tallis is probably best known today as the composer of Spem In Alium, an astonishingly beautiful motet for 40 voices.

To find out more about the works of Thomas Tallis and what recordings are available, click here to visit the Gimmell Records / Tallis Scholars web site. The sample below is an extract from Gimmell CD999 - a CD of 80 minutes of great choral music - highly recommended!

Download a mp3 file of the complete Tallis theme. (Info: 8-bit mono. Size: 203 K. Length: 50 seconds)

Background

The theme that Vaughan Williams used to such great effect was the third of nine tunes Tallis composed in 1567 as part of a psalter for the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. The words Tallis set to this tune are as follows :

"Why fum'th in fight the Gentiles spite, in fury raging stout ?
Why tak'th in hand the people fond, vain things to bring about ?
The Kings arise, the Lords devise, in counsels met thereto,
against the Lord with false accord, against His Christ they go."

By all accounts, RVW had come across the Tallis psalter tunes whilst editing The English Hymnal. When you hear Tallis' tune sung, it is instantly recognisable as the melody in RVW's masterpiece. In fact, it's easy to imagine the reaction of RVW when he first heard it, probably something along the lines of "That would sound wonderful on strings" ...