Composers Datebook
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585) was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral musi and with William Byrd, considered the leading composer of the English Renaissance. Tallis is one of England's greatest composers, and he is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.
No contemporaneous portrait of Tallis survives; the one painted by Gerard Vandergucht dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a fair likeness. In a rare existing copy of his blackletter signature, he spelled his name "Tallys".
His works include Tallis's Canon ('Glory to thee my God this night'), the antiphonal Spem in alium non habui (English: "I have never put my hope in any other...") for 40-part Renaissance motet, composed in c. 1556/1570 for eight choirs of five voices each, and a collection of 34 motets, Canioness sacarae, of which 16 are Tallis and 18 by Byrd. Tallis was one of the earliest composers to write for the Anglican liturgy.
Early Life
Little is known about Thomas Tallis's early life. He was born in the early 16th century toward the end of Henry VII's reign. The name "Tallis" is derived from the French word taillis, which means a "thicket." There are suggestions that he was a child of the chapel (boy chorister) of the Chapel Royal, the same singing establishment which he joined as an adult.
Tallis's first known musical appointment was in 1532 as organist of Dover Priory (now Dover College), a Benedictine priory in Kent. His career took him to London, then to Waltham Abbey in the autumn of 1538, a large Augustinian monastery in Essex which was dissolved in 1540. He was paid off and acquired a book about music that contained a treatise by Leonel Power which prohibits consecutive unisons, fifths, and octaves.
Composer of the English Renaissance
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585) was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral musi and with William Byrd, considered the leading composer of the English Renaissance. Tallis is one of England's greatest composers, and he is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.
No contemporaneous portrait of Tallis survives; the one painted by Gerard Vandergucht dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a fair likeness. In a rare existing copy of his blackletter signature, he spelled his name "Tallys".
His works include Tallis's Canon ('Glory to thee my God this night'), the antiphonal Spem in alium non habui (English: "I have never put my hope in any other...") for 40-part Renaissance motet, composed in c. 1556/1570 for eight choirs of five voices each, and a collection of 34 motets, Canioness sacarae, of which 16 are Tallis and 18 by Byrd. Tallis was one of the earliest composers to write for the Anglican liturgy.
Early Life
Little is known about Thomas Tallis's early life. He was born in the early 16th century toward the end of Henry VII's reign. The name "Tallis" is derived from the French word taillis, which means a "thicket." There are suggestions that he was a child of the chapel (boy chorister) of the Chapel Royal, the same singing establishment which he joined as an adult.
Tallis's first known musical appointment was in 1532 as organist of Dover Priory (now Dover College), a Benedictine priory in Kent. His career took him to London, then to Waltham Abbey in the autumn of 1538, a large Augustinian monastery in Essex which was dissolved in 1540. He was paid off and acquired a book about music that contained a treatise by Leonel Power which prohibits consecutive unisons, fifths, and octaves.
Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium, with Tallis Scholars Ensemble.
