Posted on 04/13/2017 12:59:45 AM PDT by blueplum
Music from Thomas Tallis’s motet Gaude gloriosa was found buried in the walls of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1978. Recently, the conductor David Skinner has identified the text as being by Henry VIII’s sixth and last queen Catherine Parr.
The words are from Parr’s psalm paraphrase ‘Against Enemies’ in her first publication Psalms or Prayers, published in London in 1544, and were set as a contrafact of Tallis’s Gaude gloriosa Dei mater. The work will be performed at St John’s Smith Square London on Good Friday (14 April 2017).
David Skinner says: ‘These discoveries are not only significant for cultural historians, but also fundamentally challenge our perceptions of Tallis’s music and chronology which have hitherto been fixed in their essentials for nearly half a century. We also have new insight into the role of a Tudor queen in Henry’s court politics. The musical Reformation seems to have come to England somewhat earlier than anticipated. Many fascinating avenues for further research, both musicological and historical, have opened up for the years to come.’
additional: Alamire is to perform a work by Thomas Tallis which has not been heard for over 450 years as part of its concert at St John’s Smith Square on 14 April.
http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/choir_organ/tallis-work-receive-first-performance-450-years/
Music about his previous wives will be heading for debut later.
do you think they’ll want to stick their necks out again?
Reading about Tallis. He lived during the reigns of 4 monarchs, incredible times.
Thomas Tallis died peacefully in his house in Greenwich in November 1585; most historians agree that he died on the 23rd. He was buried in the chancel of the parish of St Alfege Church in Greenwich. To this day, the exact location in St Alfege Church of Tallis’s remains is unknown. His remains may have been discarded by labourers between 1712 and 1714, when the church was rebuilt. Nothing remains of Tallis’s original memorial in the church. Strype is said in 1720 to have found a brass plate with an engraving on it, which read:
“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.”
Thank you - but if it isn’t good, heads will roll!
Ping
How the English language (and grammar) is being transformed!
How the English language (and grammar) is being transformed!
How the English language (and grammar) is being transformed!
Sorry for the multi-post. My one post appeared “stalled” in cyber-space: “clicking back” didn’t help.
Words you shouldn’t use in the same sentence, Henry VIII, wife, and heading.
Did you actually hear this thing? The link as printed seems to lead nowhere to the actual music.
Doesn’t everyone bury their sheet music in the walls?
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