"Spem in Alium" by Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585) Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585) Refer: http://www.classical-composers.org/cgi-bin/ccd.cgi?comp=tallis Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585) Refer: http://home.sprintmail.com/~cwhent/Morley.html William Byrd obtained with Thomas Tallis, January 1575, a patent from Queen Elizabeth for "importation of music from foreign sources," and printing and selling music and music paper for twenty-one years. They imported a fount of type from Johann Petreius of nuemberg and employed Thomas Vautrollier, Blackfriars, London, to print for them Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur.....1575. The type then remained unused until after the death of Vautrollier in 1587, when it passed into the possession of Thomas East (Este), some of whose imprints describe him as the assigne of William Byrd. Tallis died in November 1585, after which Byrd held the patent alone until its expiration. Thomas Tallis - some text incorporated into: "Government funded central initiatives for encouraging a diversity of freely available crystallographic software; and the threat of Crystallographic Software Patents" by Lachlan M. D. Cranswick Refer: http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/poster-talks/aca2003/index.htm Thomas Tallis 1505 - 1585) "the Father of English Church Music" "most influential English composer of his generation' "In 1575, Queen Elizabeth granted a monopoly on printing music to Thomas Tallis and William Byrd." "the music-patent was one of the factors which hampered the full flowering of musical publishing in England in the sixteenth and in the beginning of the seventeenth centuries." Spem in alium - Thomas Tallis Refer: http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/music/ttallis.htm Refer: http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/music/tallis.htm Spem in alium - Thomas Tallis Refer: http://www.geocities.com/saxandclarinet/spem_in_alium.html Spem in alium - Thomas Tallis Refer: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/shipsey/midis/others/spem_in_alium.htm Spem in alium - Thomas Tallis Refer: http://www.artsworld.com/music-dance/works/s-u/spem-in-alium-thomas-tallis.html This is a remarkable piece: a forty-part motet, each part written out separately. Voices come in one by one with the words 'Spem in alium', and weave in and out until the huge thrilling moment several minutes into the work when all 40 voices suddenly sing together. Another theory is more commercial. During the mid-1500s, there was a kind of war going on between English and continental music publishers to see who could produce the biggest vocal blockbuster. Tallis's 40-part extravaganza, still one of the most remarkable pieces in the repertoire, was the one that trumped everyone. Mr Tea wrote about Tallis' Spem in Alium: Refer: http://et.stok.co.uk/articles/1115-1.html Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 10:05:13 +0200 From: Ferenc Riesz [riesz at mfa dot kfki dot hu] Subject: OT: Tallis' Spem in Alium Mr Tea wrote about Tallis' Spem in Alium: >BUT... if you follow up this recommendation, take care over which recording >you buy. The best I've heard is a 1974 performance on EMI by David Wulstan >and 'The Clerkes of Oxenford'. A 1985 Gimell release by Peter Phillips and >the Tallis Scholars comes a respectable second, while the one to avoid is a >70s Decca recording with the choir of Kings College, Cambridge, which is >just a florid, overblown mess (musta been cut with something). Another very good - if not the best! - recording is Utopia Triumphans by the Huelgas Ensemble on Sony Classical with other many-part renaissance choral pieces. Highly recommended! See http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/66261/index.html Ferenc "Spem in Alium" by Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585) "Spem in Alium" Spem in alium numquam habui praeter in te Deus Israel qui irasceris et propitius eris et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis Domine Deus Creator coeli et terra respice humilitatem nostram I have never put my hope in any other but in you God of Israel who will be angry and yet become again gracious and who forgives all the sins of suffering man Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth look upon our lowliness