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Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585)

Donald Macleod discovers how Thomas Tallis navigated the tumultuous world of Tudor England to succeed in serving 4 monarchs.

β€œSo great a musician are you.....that if the Fates carried you off.....music would be mute.” So wrote a contemporary of Thomas Tallis, showing us just how highly this composer was regarded in his own time. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod traces the career of Tallis, unquestionably one of England's greatest ever composers. We follow him from the early faint mentions of the composer in Dover Priory, to his 40-plus years serving four successive monarchs as part of the Chapel Royal, and through the upheaval of one of the most tumultuous periods in all of English history.

O Sacrum Convivium
Lamentations of Jeremiah I & II
Euge celi porta
Alleluia. Per te Dei genitrix
Ave, rosa sine spinis
When shall my sorrowful sighing slack
Sequence: Celeste Organum - Agnus Dei
Magnificat for 4 voices
Salve Intemerata
Mass for four Voices
Magnificat for 5 voices
5 part Litany
Sancte Deus
Hodie nobis caelorum
Videte Miraculum for Vespers on Purification of Virgin Mary
Remember not, O Lord God
Te Deum for Meanes
If Ye Love Me
A New Commandment
Gaude Gloriosa
In nominee II
Mass: Puer natus est nobis – Agnus Dei
Archbishop Parker’s Psalter: O Come in One to Praise the Lord; E’en like the Hunted Hind; Expend, O Lord, my Plaint; Why Brag’st in Malice High ; God Grant with Grace
Psalm 2, the third of 9 tunes for Archbishop Parker’s psalter β€œWhy Fum’th In Fight”
Suscipe quaeso domine
My Soul Cleaveth to the Dust
O Nata Lux (arr. Christian Forshaw)
Spem in alium
Cantiones Sacrae - Salvator Mundi I; Derelinquit impius; Semone blando angelus; In ieiunio
Miserere nostri

Presented by Donald Macleod
Produced by Sam Phillips

For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585) /programmes/m001h57j

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

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59 minutes

Podcast