booklet042 7/9/04 10:10 am Page 1 SIGCD042 DDD Thomas Tallis 20 bit digital recording The Complete Works - Volume 9 Disc One 1. In nomine I (a) [2:03] 18. Lesson: two partes in one (e) [5:24] 2. In nomine II (a) [3:32] 19. Tu nimirum (b, f) [2:00] 3. A Solfing Song (a) [2:10] 20. When shall my sorrowful 4. Salvator Mundi (trio) (a) [1:58] sighing slack (b, f) [4:35] 5. Fantasia (a) [4:20] 21. Like as the doleful dove (b, f) [1:40] 6. Felix namque II (b) [12:10] 22. O ye tender babes (b, f) [1:36] 7. Felix namque I (c) [10:46] 23. Ye sacred muses (Byrd) (a, f) [3:26] 8. When shall my sorrowful sighing slack (d) [1:40] Total running time: [75:15] 9. Like as the doleful dove (d) [1:40] 10. O ye tender babes (c) [1:32] Disc Two 11. Purge me, O Lord (d) [1:26] 12. Per haec nos (c) [1:48] 1. Litany (g) [14:29] 13. A Point (c) [0:37] 2. Verset I (e) [0:54] 14. Lesson: two partes in one (d) [5:24] 3. Verset II (e) [0:44] 15. Remember not, O Lord God (d) [3:19] 4. Felix namque I (e) [10:33] 16. Per haec nos (e) [1:19] 17. A Point (e) [0:38] Total running time: [26:44] Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK booklet042 7/9/04 10:10 am Page 3 Editions Thomas Tallis - The Complete Works Salvator Mundi Trio (track 4) edited Alistair Dixon, Fantasia (track 5) edited John Milsom, Felix namque, arranged for lute (track 6) edited Lynda Sayce, Tu nimirum (track 19) edited Christopher Godwin Tallis is dead and music dies. So wrote William Byrd, Tallis’s most distinguished pupil, capturing the Tracks 1-6, and 19-23 recorded at St Andrew’s Church, Toddington, 13-15 May 2004 esteem and veneration in which Tallis was held by his fellow composers and musical colleagues in the Producer and engineer: Adrian Hunter 16th century and, indeed, by the four monarchs he served at the Chapel Royal. Tracks 7-15 recorded at Fenton House, Hampstead, 2 August 2004 Producer and Engineer: Mike Hatch (Floating Earth) Tallis was undoubtedly the greatest of the 16th century composers; in craftsmanship, versatility and Tracks 16-18 recorded at the Chapel, Knole House, 23-24 May 1999 intensity of expression, the sheer uncluttered beauty and drama of his music reach out and speak Producer: Alistair Dixon, Engineer: Simon Eadon (Floating Earth) directly to the listener. It is surprising that hitherto so little of Tallis’s music has been regularly Editor: Dave Hinitt (Floating Earth) performed and that so much is not satisfactorily published. Booklet notes: John Milsom German translation: Margarete Forsyth, French translation: Mariane Rosel-Miles This release is the ninth and final volume in a series which Booklet design & typesetting: Jan Hart covers Tallis’s complete surviving output from his five decades of Text and translation editor: Christine Darby composition, and includes the contrafacta, the secular songs and Cover design: ATX Design the instrumental music—much of which is previously Illustration of Thomas Tallis: Kate Smith unrecorded. Great attention has been paid to performance detail including pitch, pronunciation and the music’s liturgical context. As a result new editions of the music have been P 2004 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd. required for the recordings, many of which will in time be Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of published by The Cantiones Press. Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from No portrait of Thomas Tallis survives from his lifetime. The Phonographic Performance Ltd, 1 Upper James Street, London W1R 3HG, England familiar picture that exists in a pair with a portrait of William Byrd is in fact an 18th century engraving from a book by © 2004 The copyright of this CD booklet, notes, translations and visual design is owned by Signum Records Ltd. N. T. Haym (1679-1729). That portrait depicts Tallis as a young man in clothes and a hair style that are about a hundred years All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or too late; rather more Jacobean than Tudor. transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records. Thomas Tallis by Kate Smith, As part of the Thomas Tallis project, Chapelle du Roi has London 1997 commissioned the London artist, Kate Smith, to produce a new Booklet part number: SIGCD042.1 CD part number: SIGCD042 portrait showing Tallis in the clothes that a senior member of the 16th century Royal Household would have worn. Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.signumrecords.com - 2 - - 31 - booklet042 7/9/04 10:10 am Page 5 Academy of Ancient Music and is currently organ, although this is not apparent today. The involved in a number of projects with Charivari quarter-comma meantone temperament, with its Thomas Tallis Agreable, a period instrument ensemble based in pure thirds, is well suited to music of this period. Instrumental music and songs Oxford. He has a particular interest in the nurture of young voices and teaches singing at Laurence Cummings plays a virginals attributed various establishments, including Eton College. to Vincentius Pratensis, Italy of the late 16th or This ninth and final volume of The Complete keyboard pieces were composed for England’s early 17th century, and a single strung Works of Thomas Tallis explores the most obscure most celebrated amateur performer, Queen The London-based Chapelle du Roi is a choir harpsichord, built in Italy around 1590, builder and enigmatic corner of Tallis’s output: the Elizabeth herself. specialising in the performance of sacred unknown. secular music. The very existence of this music renaissance music. Founded in October 1994, calls for some explanation. Tallis was a An alternative performance context comes to mind the group undertakes a substantial programme Lynda Sayce plays a 7 course lute in G by Michael professional church musician for his entire adult for some of the secular music. As a member of the of concerts and recordings each year in which it Lowe (track 6 solo), a 7 course lute in F by career, and in that capacity he served as an Chapel Royal, Tallis worked alongside generations aims to present historically informed Martin Shepherd, and an 8 course bass lute in D organist, a singer, an administrator and, most of choirboys, and almost certainly there would performances of music—often repertoire which by Ivo Magherini. importantly from our modern point of view, a have been times when he assisted in their training, is less well known and deserving of greater composer of church music for voices and organ. or wrote pieces for them to perform outside their attention. To complete the series of The Complete Works His official duties did not require him to write chapel duties. In fact, there is a strong case for of Thomas Tallis we include with this final secular songs, or pieces to be played on viols, linking several of Tallis’s secular songs with volume a ‘bonus’ disc consisting of four tracks. The instruments virginals or harpsichord. Why, then, do these choirboy plays. His instrumental consort music, The first of these tracks was recorded in July ‘unofficial’ works by him exist? too, and some of the keyboard pieces, possibly 2000 as part of the recording for volume 6 in connect with pedagogy and the musical training of The organ tracks on this volume were recorded this series. Space did not permit the inclusion of There is probably more than one explanation. choristers. on the organ in the late medieval private chapel the Litany which is therefore heard here. The Some pieces may have been destined for of Knole in Kent, arguably the oldest playable remaining three tracks were recorded at the performance at the Tudor court. The English Not all the music on these discs, however, is organ in England. Knole was owned during organ in the chapel of Knole in Sevenoaks in monarchs, from Henry VII onwards, retained an ‘secular’ in its origins. Some works that Tallis Tallis's lifetime by both Archbishop Cranmer and May 1999 at the same time as the organ music impressive staff of secular musicians: keyboard conceived for choral performance in church were Henry VIII, his employers respectively at found on Volume 5. Tracks two and three players, lutenists, consorts of instrumentalists, and taken over by amateur musicians, to be arranged, Canterbury Cathedral and the Chapel Royal. should be considered dubia since in their a small ensemble of chamber singers. Their sung and played in circumstances quite different There are four ranks of oak pipes (Stopped source they appear untitled, with a composer personnel is well documented, but almost nothing from those the composer originally had in mind. Diapason 8, Principal 4, Twelfth 22/3 and ascription that is almost decipherable. Whilst is known about the music they played and sang. These annexed pieces underline the fact that Fifteenth 2) contained in a rectangular this could be read as ‘Tallis’ this is by no means Tallis, who was a member of the Chapel Royal—a Tallis’s music was used and admired far beyond ornamented chest with the keyboard at the top.