Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis | |
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Born | c. 1505 Probably Kent |
Died | 23 November 1585 (aged 79–80) |
Works | List of compositions |
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Part of a series on |
Renaissance music |
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Overview |
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Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585;[n 1] also Tallys or Talles) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one of England's greatest composers, and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.[2]
Life
Youth
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 of
There are suggestions that Tallis sang as a
Career
Tallis served at court as a composer and performer for
He avoided the religious controversies that raged around him throughout his service to successive monarchs, though he remained, in the words of the historian Peter Ackroyd, an "unreformed Roman Catholic".[11] Tallis was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit each monarch's different demands.[12] He stood out among other important composers of the time, including Christopher Tye and Robert White. The author and composer Ernest 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".[13] Tallis taught the composer William Byrd, as later associated with Lincoln Cathedral; as also Elway Bevin, an organist of Bristol Cathedral and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.[14]
1530s and 1540s
No record of Tallis exists before 1531, when he is named in the accounts of the Kent Benedictine house Dover Priory.[7] He was employed there as the organist,[15] responsible for directing chants from the organ [16] A "Thomas Tales" is named as the "joculator organorum" at the priory and received an annual payment of £2.[10] The priory was dissolved in 1535, but there is no surviving record of Tallis's departure.[17][10]
Tallis's whereabouts are not known for the several months after this until mention is made of his being employed at St Mary-at-Hill in London's Billingsgate ward. [17] 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.[10][18]
Towards the end of 1538 Tallis moved to a large
By the summer of 1540 Tallis had moved to the formerly monastic but recently
Employment at the Chapel Royal
Tallis's employment in the Chapel Royal probably began in 1543. His name appears on a 1544 lay 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.[10]
Around 1552, Tallis married, probably for the first time, his wife being Joan, the widow of a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. Like many other members of the royal household choir, Tallis and his wife lived in Greenwich,[20] although it is not known if he ever owned his house there. He probably rented a house, by tradition in Stockwell Street.[10] There seem to have been no children of the marriage. [10]
Queen Mary I granted Tallis a lease on a manor in Kent which provided a comfortable annual income.[21] He was present at her funeral on 13 December 1558 and at the coronation of Elizabeth I the following month.[20]
Tallis was an eminent figure in Elizabeth's household chapel, but as he aged he became gradually less prominent.
Final years
Late in his life, Tallis lived in Greenwich, possibly close to the royal Palace of Placentia; tradition holds that he lived on Stockwell Street.[10] He was recorded as a member of Elizabeth I's household in June 1585, and wrote his will in August that year.[25] He died in his house in Greenwich on 20 or 23 November; the different dates are from a register and the Chapel Royal.[26][27]
He was buried in the chancel of St Alfege Church, Greenwich.[26] A brass memorial plate placed there after the death of his wife (but before the death of Elizabeth (ONDB))[clarification needed] is now lost.[26] His remains may have been discarded by labourers during the 1710s, when the church was rebuilt.[28]
His epitaph on a brass plaque, lost in the subsequent rebuilding of the church, was recorded by the English clergyman John Strype in his 1720 edition of John Stow's Survey of London[10][29]
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.
William Byrd wrote the musical elegy Ye Sacred Muses on Tallis's death. His widow Joan, whose will is dated 12 June 1587, survived him by nearly four years.[10][20]
Works
Early works
The earliest surviving works by Tallis are Ave Dei patris filia, Magnificat for four voices,
The reformed Anglican liturgy was inaugurated during the short reign of Edward VI (1547–53),[34] and Tallis was one of the first church musicians to write anthems set to English words, although Latin continued to be used alongside the vernacular.[35] Queen Mary set about undoing some of the religious reforms of the preceding decades, following her accession in 1553. She restored the Sarum Rite, and compositional style reverted to the elaborate writing prevalent early in the century.[36] Two of Tallis's major works were Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater[37] and the Christmas Mass Puer natus est nobis, and both are believed to be from this period. Puer natus est nobis based on the introit for the third Mass for Christmas Day may have been sung at Christmas 1554 when Mary believed that she was pregnant with a male heir.[20] These pieces were intended to exalt the image of the Queen, as well as to praise the Virgin Mary.[36]
Some of Tallis's works were compiled by Thomas Mulliner in a manuscript copybook called The Mulliner Book before Queen Elizabeth's reign, and may have been used by the queen herself when she was younger. Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister in 1558, and the Act of Uniformity abolished the Roman Liturgy[2] and firmly established the Book of Common Prayer.[38] Composers resumed writing English anthems, although the practice continued of setting Latin texts among composers employed by Elizabeth's Chapel Royal.
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 the
Later works
Toward the end of his life, Tallis resisted the musical development seen in his younger contemporaries such as Byrd, who embraced compositional complexity and adopted texts of disparate biblical extracts.[46] Tallis was content to draw his texts from the Liturgy[2] and wrote for the worship services in the Chapel Royal.[2] He composed during the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, and his music often displays characteristics of the turmoil.[47]
Legacy
Tallis is remembered as primarily a composer of
No contemporaneous portrait of Tallis survives; the one painted by Gerard 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 his blackletter signature, he spelled his name "Tallys".[49]
In 1971, the Thomas Tallis School in Kidbrooke opened. A mixed comprehensive school named after the composer.
A fictionalised version of
References
Notes
- ^ 3 December 1585 by the Gregorian calendar
Citations
- ^ Cole 2008a, pp. 212–226.
- ^ a b c d Farrell 2001, p. 125.
- ^ a b Harley 2015, p. 1.
- ^ Harley 2015, pp. 1–2.
- ^ a b Walker 1907, p. 34.
- ^ Lord 2003, p. 80.
- ^ a b Harley 2015, p. 2.
- ^ Holman 1999, p. 201.
- ^ Thomas 1998, p. 136.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Doe & Allinson 2009.
- ^ Ackroyd 2004, p. 176.
- ^ Phillips 2005, p. 8.
- ^ Walker 1907, p. 44.
- ^ Walker 1907, p. 56.
- ^ Lord 2003, p. 197.
- ^ Harley 2015, p. 4.
- ^ a b Harley 2015, p. 5.
- ^ Harley 2015, pp. 5–6.
- ^ a b c Harley 2015, p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e f Milsom 2008.
- ^ a b Cole 2008b, p. 93.
- ^ a b c Holman 1999, p. 1.
- ^ a b Lord 2003, p. 69.
- ^ Lord 2003, p. 70.
- ^ Harley 2015, pp. 211–212.
- ^ a b c Harley 2015, p. 212.
- ^ Rimbault 1872, p. 192.
- ^ Downes 1987, pp. 110–111.
- ^ Rimbault 1872, pp. 192–193.
- ^ Harley 2015, p. 224.
- ^ Willis 2016, p. 52.
- ^ Manderson 2000, p. 86.
- ^ a b Harley 2015, p. 222.
- ^ Lord 2003, p. 75.
- ^ Lord 2003, p. 200.
- ^ a b Shrock 2009, p. 148.
- ^ "Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater (Thomas Tallis)". ChoralWiki. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
- ^ Thomas 1998, p. 89.
- ^ a b Willis 2016, p. 57.
- ^ Lord 2003, p. 86.
- ^ Steinberg 2008, p. 291.
- ^ "Tallis's Canon". Hymnary.org.
- ^ Milsom 2003, p. 163.
- ^ Phillips 2005, p. 11.
- ^ Phillips 2005, p. 13.
- ^ Phillips 2005, p. 9.
- ^ Gatens 2005, p. 181.
- ^ Harley 2015, p. 227.
- ^ Cole 2008b, p. 62.
- ^ "BBC Two - The Tudors, Series 1, Episode 1". BBC. 5 October 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
Sources
- ISBN 978-1-85619-721-2.
- Cole, Suzanne (2008a). "Who is the Father? Changing Perceptions of Tallis and Byrd in Late Nineteenth-Century England". S2CID 162209818.
- Cole, Suzanne (2008b). Thomas Tallis and His Music in Victorian England. Woodbridge: ISBN 978-1-84383-380-2.
- Doe, Paul; Allinson, David (2009). "Tallis [Tallys, Talles], Thomas". ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
- Downes, Kerry (1987). Hawksmoor. World of Art. London: Thames and Hudson. OCLC 472150026.
- Farrell, Joseph (2001). Latin Language and Latin Culture: From Ancient to Modern Times. Cambridge: ISBN 978-0-521-77663-9.
- Gatens (2005). "Tallis: Works, all". American Record Guide. Vol. 86, no. 3 May–June. Cincinnati, Ohio. ISSN 0003-0716.
- Harley, John (2015). Thomas Tallis. Farnham, UK: ISBN 978-1-317-01036-4.
- ISBN 978-0-521-58829-4.
- Lord, Suzanne (2003). Music from the Age of Shakespeare: A Cultural History. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-31713-2.
- Manderson, Desmond (2000). Songs without Music: Aesthetic Dimensions of Law and Justice. ISBN 978-0-520-92221-1.
- Milsom, John (2003). "Sacred Songs in the Chamber". In John Morehen (ed.). English Choral Practice, 1400-1650. Cambridge: ISBN 978-0-521-54408-5.
- Milsom, John (2008). "Tallis, Thomas (c.1505–1585)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26954. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Phillips, Peter (2005). "Sign of Contradiction: Tallis at 500". JSTOR 30044086.
- Shrock, Dennis (2009). Choral Repertoire. ISBN 978-0-19-971662-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-534066-2.
- Rimbault, Edward F. (1872). The Old Cheque-book: Or Book of Remembrance, of the Chapel Royal, from 1561-1744. Camden Society.
- Thomas, Jane Resh (1998). Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. ISBN 978-0-395-69120-5.
- OCLC 869715.
- Willis, Jonathan (2016). Church Music and Protestantism in Post-Reformation England: Discourses, Sites and Identities. ISBN 978-1-317-16624-5.
Further reading
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Collins, H. B. (1929). "Thomas Tallis". JSTOR 726038.
- Davey, Henry (1898). Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In
- Milsom, John (1983). English Polyphonic Style in Transition: a study of the sacred music of Thomas Tallis (Thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 29743412.
- Pike, Lionel (1984). "Tallis: Vaughan Williams: Howells: Reflections on Mode Three". S2CID 143715625.
External links
- Recordings of church music by Tallis in Latin and English from Umeå Akademiska Kör
- The Mutopia Project has compositions by Thomas Tallis
- List of compositions by Thomas Tallis at the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (registration required to view the digitised images)
- Free scores by Thomas Tallis in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Free scores by Thomas Tallis at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Image of Tallis's signature in a book from one of his early places of employment, Waltham Abbey.
- Works by Tallis listed at the EECM Primary Source Database