Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585)

“So 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 “Why 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) https://www.bbc.co.uk/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