Tallis: Complete English Anthems

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Free Music Notes for Tallis: Complete English Anthems

Free Music Review: Astonishing music
Hit: 5 Stars

--English Anthems--
There are twelve anthems here. Tallis recognised the needs of the newly Protestant clergy, who looked for intelligibility and simplicity in the worship. These anthems were in the vernacular of the people, some of the earliest liturgical anthems in English (as prior to this, the Catholic church celebrated in Latin). However, the compositions here span the time from the young King Edward's reign to the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign, a time of great shifting of religious foundations and sensibilities.

There are some pieces here for men's voices only - four-part pieces such as 'If ye love me' and 'Here the voice and prayer' are quick famous, and very concise in scope. Other pieces are more elaborate, MATB choirs, and a few very substantial five-voice compositions, 'Christ rising' and 'Blessed are those', the later scored for a standard pre-Reformation choir of treble, mean, countertenor, tenor and bass.

The 'Tunes for Archbishop Parker' consists of eight tunes, two of which may be very familiar - the 'Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis' by Ralph Vaughn Williams comes from this number, as does Tallis' classic 'Canon'.

--Liner Notes--
Being internationally acclaimed, the Tallis Scholars' CDs typically present their commentary and texts in English, French, German and Italian (together with any Latin texts); that is true of this disc. The cover art also typically represents visual arts contemporary with the compositions - here it is a piece from Hans Holbein the Younger, a portrait of Edward VI as a child, painted in 1538, during Tallis' lifetime.

--The Tallis Scholars--
The Tallis Scholars, a favourite group of mine since the first time I heard them decades ago, are a group dedicated to the performance and preservation of the best of this type of music. A choral group of exceptional ability, I have been privileged to see them many times in public, and at almost every performance, their singing seems almost like a spiritual epiphany for me, one that defies explanation in words. Directed by Peter Phillips, the group consists of a small number of male and female singers who have trained themselves well to their task.

Their recordings are of a consistent quality that deserve more than five stars; this particular disc of pieces by Thomas Tallis, the namesake of the group, deserves a place on the shelf of anyone who loves choral music, liturgical music or Gregorian chant, classical music generally, or religious music. It is remarkable, both in composition and performance. The original recording was made in 1986.

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