Day 3 of my exploration of The Complete Works of Thomas Tallis brings me to a CD titled “Music for Queen Mary.”
For background on Tallis and today’s recording, I turn to a brief excerpt from the superb liner notes, this installment written by Nick Sandon on 12 October 1997.
All of the works by Thomas Tallis included on this recording probably date from the reign of Mary Tudor (1553—8), when music for the Latin rite enjoyed a brief Indian summer. They include his most ambitious essays in two traditional forms—the cyclic Mass Puer natus est nobis and the votive antiphon Gaude gloriosa—as well as the occasional motet Suscipe quaeso and the psalm-motet Beati immaculati.
Nothing about Tallis’s early career suggests that he was destined to reach the top of his profession. Nevertheless, scarcely more than ten years separate his first known musical appointment, which was extremely humble, from his last, which could not have been more prestigious. In 1532 he was organist of the small Benedictine priory at Dover—a minor post if ever there was one. Five years later he had moved to London, where he was employed either as a singer or as organist by the parish church of St Mary-at-Hill, which was noted for its music.
In the spring of 1540 the prospects for an unemployed church musician cannot have seemed promising, but Tallis now succeeded in making what was possibly the most consequential move of his career. A fortnight after Waltham Abbey was dissolved, Canterbury Cathedral ceased to be a Benedictine monastery; it was reorganised with a secular dean and chapter and provided with an enlarged choir consisting of ten boys and twelve men, worthy of the cathedral’s status as the fons et origo of a national church. Tallis joined the new choir during the summer of 1540 and remained one of its senior members for two or three years. These years must have been lively…
NOTE: To read the rest, you’ll have to buy the box set, which I suggest you do.
Just the Facts
CD 3 of this 10-CD box set consists of 13 tracks that clock in at 65:00.
As with the previous two CDs, the music on this one was performed by Chapelle du Roi, conducted by Alistair Dixon.
It was recorded on [fill in this information]
It is marked DDD, which means it is an all-digital recording. (Digitally recorded, Digitally mixed, and Digitally mastered.) Purists, those folks who think vinyl sounds better than CDs (they’re wrong) would probably look askance at this recording. But, to my ears, this is the best way to record music to precisely capture every note. But what do I know?
Just the Feelings
Recording quality: 5
Overall musicianship/vocals: 5
CD liner notes: 5
How does this make me feel: 2
I wasn’t diggin’ today’s CD as much as the previous ones. If I had to guess why, it would be because it all sounds the same.
In fact, I enjoyed reading the liner notes more than I enjoyed listening to the music.
That’s how good the liner notes are – well, they’re that good to somebody like me who loves to learn archaic things. And very little is as archaic as the life and times of Thomas Tallis.
Still, this CD is worth a listen.