Thomas Tallis: The Complete Works
Volume 5 - Music for the Divine Office - 2

Chapelle du Roi
directed by Alistair Dixon

Andrew Benson Wilson
Organ

Programme

This fifth volume of music by Tallis contains the choral hymns and responsories not included in Volume 4. It is completed by Tallis’s liturgical organ music: five hymns and three antiphons for the Divine Office, an Alleluia for the Lady Mass and an extended setting of the offertory Felix namque.

Choral hymns and responds

The context in which Tallis and his contemporaries turned to the composition of hymns and responsories was described in the notes to Volume 4 of this series. Tallis’s approach to composing these liturgical items was methodical but inventive. The hymns are essentially settings of the original plainchant melodies. When sung entirely in plainchant, hymns are performed alternatim, the two sides of the choir singing alternate verses to the same melody. Tallis preserved this alternatim structure by setting only the even-numbered verses and usually also the doxology in polyphony, leaving the other verses to be sung to the original chant.

Tallis made two five-part settings of the hymn Te lucis ante terminum, one based on the plainchant melody to which this hymn was sung on Sundays and simple feasts when the choir was ruled, and the other based on the melody sung on ordinary weekdays and feasts without rulers. In each case he provided polyphony only for the second of the three verses, and placed the chant melody unadorned in the highest voice. The festal setting is slightly the more elaborate of the two, the vocal lines being rhythmically more independent of each other, and each phrase of the melody being anticipated in one of the alto lines before entering in the treble, whereas the ferial setting eschews such anticipation. It is rather surprising that Tallis set these verses in compound duple metre, for although this metre had been common in English music during the early fifteenth century it had subsequently fallen out of fashion and been in desuetude for more than a hundred years; Tallis may possibly have chosen it in order to reproduce the effect of an oral tradition of singing plainchant hymns metrically.

Like his hymns, Tallis’s responsories reflect their plainchant background, in that their performance involves the alternation of plainchant and polyphony, and that the polyphonic sections habitually quote the plainchant they replace. A plainchant responsory is a lengthy item following a reading, allowing time for the content of the reading to be digested. It usually consists of the responsory itself, begun by soloists and continued by the choir, a verse sung either by the beginners or by another group of soloists, and the ‘Gloria patri’, sung by the singers of the verse; the choir repeats the last section or last two sections of the responsory after the verse, and the last section again after the ‘Gloria patri’. Tallis and his contemporaries used two contrasting methods of setting responsories: either they set the solo portions in polyphony and left the choral sections in plainchant, or they set the choral sections in polyphony and left the solo portions in plainchant. The first method produces what is known as the solo responsory, while the second results in the choral responsory.

The only solo responsory recorded here is Audivi vocem, the eighth responsory at Matins on the feast of All Saints and also the first responsory at Matins on feasts of several virgins. The Use of Salisbury prescribes special ritual for the singing of this responsory on All Saints’ Day: during the reading of the preceding lesson five boys wearing surplices and with their heads veiled by white amices come from the vestry with lighted tapers in their hands and stand at the quire step; turning to the high altar, they begin the responsory and sing its verse, afterwards returning to the vestry. Presumably for practical reasons, Tallis’s setting is in four parts rather than five: three trebles and an alto represent (one assumes without intentional irony) the wise virgins addressed by the voice from heaven. Within its small dimensions Audivi vocem shows considerable versatility in its treatment of the plainchant melody: the responsory and the verse both begin with symmetrical imitation based on the chant; at ‘clamor factus est’ in the verse the chant melody is sung in long notes by the highest voice above a busy supporting trio; and at ‘ecce sponsus venit’ motives more loosely derived from the chant pass from one voice to another in a less obviously systematic way. Perhaps this was Tallis’s response to the images evoked by the text: the stillness of midnight is abruptly broken by the celestial voice proclaiming the bridegroom’s advent.

In the three choral responsories on this disc the plainchant forms the backbone of the polyphonic texture, being quoted in the tenor part in equal note values somewhat larger than those of the other voices. Here too, however, the basic procedure allows significant variance in detail. In Candidi facti sunt (the responsory at first Vespers of one or more apostles or an evangelist in Eastertide) the chant is almost wholly confined to the tenor, with only a brief allusion to it by the alto and contratenor at ‘splendorem’. As if to compensate for any feeling of looseness that this might cause, the four non-chant-bearing voices weave an unusually persistent imitative texture around the plainchant melody, creating a feeling of density and uncompromising determination rather reminiscent of Sheppard. The scoring of Honor virtus et potestas (the sixth responsory at Matins on Trinity Sunday) is in contrast more obviously imaginative, with voices dropping out both to create variety of timbre and to allow some of the imitative passages to speak more tellingly (for example, at ‘unitati in trinitate’). In Honor virtus all five voices quote the chant at two architecturally significant points: the beginning of the whole setting, and the beginning of the section ‘in perenni seculorum tempore’ repeated after the plainchant verse and the ‘Gloria patri’. Tallis adopted the same procedure in Homo quidam fecit (the responsory at first Vespers of Corpus Christi) where the free voices allude to the chant at the very beginning and again at the start of the repeated section ‘Quia parata sunt omnia’. Homo quidam is also given a strong sense of impetus through its vigorous declamation and through a series of textural climaxes in which a vocal trio or quartet expands to the full complement of six voices.

Nick Sandon, 1 October 1999

The Keyboard Music of Thomas Tallis

Tallis’s surviving output of written keyboard music is small in the light of his great reputation and when compared with that of his assumed pupil William Byrd. This smallness can be put down to two things, not mutually exclusive: the possibility that much of his written music has been lost, and the likelihood that most of his keyboard performances were improvised. A little of it was copied down in a small book by Thomas Mulliner in the middle years of the sixteenth century, apparently for the purposes of practice and (possibly) emulation.

Most of what has come down to us is in fact based on plainchant melodies, and it is in this context above all, as an adjunct to vocal worship, that improvisation would have been the normal method of composition. Two lengthy plainsong settings by Tallis stand out: they are settings of the Offertory Felix namque, a chant performed at Mass during the offering of the gifts (in this case at Masses in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary). They are connected to a long tradition in England of supplying organ music at the Offertory of the Catholic Mass, and the extant witnesses to it are based more often than not on this very chant. However, in view of the dates assigned to Tallis’s settings in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (1562 and 1564) it seems unlikely that they were intended for that liturgy (though it is possible that the one dated 1564 is a revision of a work so intended).

The present CD contains music that in most cases was certainly intended for the liturgy, and it offers reconstructions based on what is known of liturgical practice at the time when this music was most probably written, the later years of Henry VIII and those of Queen Mary I. In principle, the organ was used as a substitute for the voices, replacing text that would otherwise have been sung either in plainchant or in some kind of polyphony. Most often the form involves an alternation of organ and voices, and it is one of the tasks of the editor and performer to identify the correct music to go with the organ piece or pieces. This is not always easy, for such works do not always have titles in the manuscripts. The Alleluia Per te Dei genitrix on this CD was long known as a ‘Fantasy’ until its plainchant basis, and hence its liturgical function, were revealed.

It is usually assumed that the vocal sections of such schemes would have been sung in plainchant, but this cannot be taken for granted. It has been argued that the polyphonic hymns of John Sheppard, for example, would fit in well with certain sequences of organ verses on the same melodies. That is partly because of a convention whereby the organist took the odd-numbered verses, while polyphonic settings were normally of even-numbered verses. Of course either type of setting could alternate with plainchant. Another possibility is to combine organ settings with simple polyphony of a type that in the sixteenth century could have been improvised. Such improvisable polyphony, if for three voices, was usually called faburden, and there are some reconstructions of this kind of singing on this CD.

One difficulty in the case of Tallis’s organ settings is that the surviving hymn-verses are too few in number to supply all the odd-numbered verses of any of the relevant hymns. As noted above, Thomas Mulliner merely sampled the repertory and his book was not intended for liturgical use. In order to make up a scheme for any complete hymn, therefore, music by other composers has been used, and faburden has also been brought into play in order to provide an element of alternation when sufficient organ music was not available. There is some support in the surviving manuscripts for the mixing of pieces from different sources in order to provide the music for a complete hymn, and to do this seems less speculative than to offer modern attempts at ‘improvisation’.

The hymns on this CD are Iste confessor (for feasts of Confessors), Ecce tempus idoneum (for first Vespers in Lent), Jam lucis orto sidere (for Prime, the tune being one used during the octave of Epiphany), Ex more docti mistico (for second Vespers in Lent), and Veni redemptor gentium (for Vespers on Christmas Eve and during the Christmas season). For each of these there is music by Tallis for either one or two verses.

The other form most represented is the antiphon. Gloria tibi trinitas was used as a psalm-antiphon at first Vespers on Trinity Sunday, and also for the Quicunque vult at Prime on ferias and other lesser occasions. Neither of these liturgical contexts is likely to have called for an organ setting, and no reconstruction is offered to support Tallis’s setting of this melody1. Nor has a reconstruction of the full psalmody been attached to the quaint little Natus est nobis, the antiphon for the four psalms at Compline during Christmas week.

Except on major feasts, antiphons were normally sung in an abbreviated form before a psalm or canticle, and in full only at the end. This is illustrated on this CD by Clarifica me pater, for use with the Magnificat at first Vespers of Palm Sunday. Tallis, like some later composers, also set a slightly extended version of this melody, the exact purpose and origin of which are unknown.

The one item for the Mass (apart from the settings of Felix namque, if relevant) is the Alleluia with the verse Per te Dei genitrix for Masses in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here the organ takes on the role of the ‘ruler of the choir’—that is, it performs the sections of the chant that would have been sung by that personage—the remainder being supplied in choral chant.

Tallis’s written music for the liturgy is modest in style and very appealing. (That is another reason for thinking the Felix namque pieces non-liturgical.) Usually the plainsong is elaborated somewhat, and disguised by the surrounding polyphony. The Gloria tibi trinitas is, unusually for Tallis, in a gaunt two-part idiom, the plainchant much disguised in the bass. That again sets it somewhat apart, while the remaining pieces suggest by their gentle, quasi-vocal style an origin during the years of Mary’s short reign (1553-8). That is not so true of the ‘imported’ pieces used on this recording, some of which go back to Henrician times, but as we have said a mixture of styles is often found amongst the patchwork compilations of the larger sources. One of these, Additional MS 29996 in the British Library, contains three liturgical collections, and it is from the hymns in these that our extra pieces are taken.

It is just possible that John Blitheman’s six settings of Gloria tibi trinitas (Mulliner Book, nos. 91-96) were intended as a set for the Quicunque vult at Prime on Mondays to Saturdays; in which case Tallis’s piece may also be considered liturgical. The odd subtitle in the manuscript (Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 371)—’ij parts on a rownd tyme’—is unexplained.

John Caldwell, July 2001

Performer's Note

Recording the organ works of Tallis involves a number of difficult decisions, not least the choice of organ. There are no surviving English organs from the sixteenth century, and very few from the seventeenth century. We have no idea of the sound of the organs that Tallis knew, although written evidence, and the recent emergence of soundboards from two small early sixteenth century organs, give some tantalising clues about the size and number of stops.

The organ in the late medieval private chapel of Knole, a vast country house in Kent, is arguably the oldest playable organ in England. Knole was owned during Tallis’s lifetime by both Archbishop Cranmer and Henry VIII, his employers respectively at Canterbury Cathedral and the Chapel Royal. The organ sits at ground level at the liturgical ‘west end’ of the chapel below a wooden gallery, the rest of the chapel being arranged in collegiate choir layout. There are four ranks of oak pipes (Stopped Diapason 8, Principal 4, Twelfth 22/3 and Fifteenth 2) contained in a rectangular ornamented chest with the keyboard at the top. Such small wooden-piped organs seem to be part of a tradition dating back to at least 1500 and continuing through to the end of the seventeenth century. The Knole organ has had a chequered history. We do not know who built it, when it was built, when it first appeared at Knole or where it might have been before it arrived. An early guidebook refers to the date of 1623 being marked on the organ, although this is not apparent today. There are stylistic pointers to it dating from the early 17th century, notably the casework. A date in the 1620s is conjectured, although it is just possible that a few parts, including the soundboard and some pipes, could be earlier. It has been moved a few times within the house, and various repairs, alterations and additions have taken their toll. Like an old family retainer it is showing its age, and can be somewhat irascible and unpredictable. Its joints are not what they were and can sound rather rattly. It also has some difficulty breathing at times, although the regular creak of the bellows being pumped (by foot) is a reassuring link with the pre-electric past. The pitch is sharp (A460 Hz). The quarter-comma meantone temperament, with its pure thirds, is well suited to music of this period. Whatever its provenance, the sound of this organ in the Knole chapel acoustic might not be far from what Tallis knew in the Chapel Royal.

For the performer, there are several aspects of performance practice that need to be addressed. For example, the only ornament signs used in England until the mid 17th century were single or double diagonal slashes through note stems. There are various theories about what these signs mean, but no consistent evidence. The most common interpretations are that the signs either indicate whether an upper or lower note alternation is intended, or a suggestion of the number of repetitions required. The single slash could also indicate a slide up to the marked note, as it did later in the seventeenth century. But no one theory works consistently, even within one piece. Equally confusing is whether the ornaments, particularly in the Felix namque, are original. There is inconsistency between sources and many ornaments are likely to have been added by others. Also problematical is the application of accidentals, including the distinctive Tudor use of false relations (the simultaneous sounding of a note and its chromatic alteration, usually an octave apart) and other aspects of musica ficta. This is a major feature in the music of Tallis, and can be heard particularly in the last verse of Ex more docti and Clarifica me pater II. As is so often the case, many aspects of interpretation were left up to the player.

Andrew Benson-Wilson, January 2002

Texts

Audivi vocem de coelo

R. Audivi vocem de coelo venientem: venite omnes virgines sapientissimae; oleum recondite in vasis vestris dum sponsus advenerit.

V. Media nocte clamor factus est: ecce sponsus venit.

R. Oleum recondite in vasis vestris dum sponsus advenerit.

Candidi facti sunt

R. Candidi facti sunt Nazarei ejus, alleluia; splendorem Deo dederunt, alleluia; et sicut lac coagulati sunt, alleluia.

V. In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum: et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum.

R. Et sicut lac coagulati sunt, alleluia.

V. Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.

R. Et sicut lac coagulati sunt, alleluia.

Honor virtus et potestas

R. Honor, virtus, et potestas, et imperium sit Trinitati in Unitate, Unitati in Trinitate, in perenni saeculorum tempore.

V. Trinitati lux perennis, Unitati sit decus perpetim.

R. In perenni saeculorum tempore.

V. Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.

R. In perenni saeculorum tempore.

Homo quidam fecit coenam

R. Homo quidam fecit coenam magnam, et misit servum suum hora cenae dicere invitatis ut venirent, quia parata sunt omnia.

V. Venite, comedite panem meum, et bibite vinum quod miscui vobis.

R. Quia parata sunt omnia

V. Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.

R. Quia parata sunt omnia.

Te lucis ante terminum

Te lucis ante terminum,
Rerum Creator poscimus
Ut solita clementia
Sis praesul et custodiam.

Procul recedant somnia
Ex noctium phantasmata
Hostemque nostrum comprime
Ne polluantur corpora.

Praesta, Pater omnipotens,
Per Jesum Christum Dominum;
Qui tecum in perpetuum
Regnat cum Sancto Spiritu. Amen.

Natus est nobis hodie

Natus est nobis hodie salvator qui est Christus dominus in civitate David.

Veni redemptor gentium

Veni Redemptor gentium
ostende partum virginis
miretur omne seculum
talis decet partus Deum.

Non ex virile semine
sed mystico spiramine
verbum Dei factum caro
fructusque ventris floruit.

Alvus tumescit virginis
claustra pudoris permanent
vexilla virtutum micant
versatur in templo Deus.

Procedens de thalamo suo
pudoris aula regia
gemine gigas substantie
alacris ut currat viam.

Egressus eius a Patre
regressus eius ad Patrem:
excursus usque ad inferos:
recursus ad sedem Dei.

Equalis eterno Patri
carnis tropheo accingere
infirma nostri corporis
virtute firmans perpetim.

Presepe iam fulget tuum
lumenque nox spirat novum
quod nulla nox interpolet
fide quo iuge luceat.

Deo Patri sit gloria
eiusque soli Filio
cum Spiritu Paraclyto
nunc et in perpetuum. Amen.

Jam lucis orto sidere

Jam lucis orto sidere
Deum precemur supplices:
ut in diurnis actibus
nos servet a nocentibus.

Linguam refrenans temperet
ne litis horror insonet
visum fovendo contegat
ne vanitates hauriat.

Sint pura cordis intima
absistat et vecordia
carnis terat superbiam
potus cibique parcitas.

Ut cum dies abscesserit
noctemque sors reduxerit
mundi per abstinentiam
ipsi canamus gloriam.

Deo Patri sit gloria
eiusque soli Filio
cum Spiritu Paraclyto
nunc et in perpetuum.

Ecce tempus idoneum

Ecce tempus idoneum
medicina peccaminum
quibus Deum offendimus
corde verbis operibus

Qui pius et propitius
nobis pepercit actibus
ne nos cum nostris perderet
tantis iniquitatibus

Hunc igitur ieiuniis
cum precibus et lacrimis
multisque bonis aliis
placemus devotissimi

Ut nos a cunctis sordibus
purgans ornet virtutibus
angelicis et cetibus
coniungat in caelestibus

Sit benedictus genitor
eiusque unigenitus
cum Spiritu Paraclyto
trinus et unus Dominus. Amen.

Ex more docti mistico

Ex more docti mistico
servemus hoc jejunium
deno dierum circulo
ducto quater notissimo

Lex et prophetae primitus
hoc praetulerunt postmodem
Christus sacravit omnium
Rex atque factor temporum.

Utamor ergo parcius
verbis cibis et potibus
Somno iocis et articus
perstemus in custodia.

Vitemus autem pessima
quae subruunt mentes vagas
Nullumque demus callidi
Hostis locum tyrannidi.

Dicamus omnes cernui
Clamemus atque singuli
ploremus ante iudicem
flectamus iram vindicem.

Nostris malis offendimus
tuam Deus clementiam
effunde nobis desuper
remissor indulgentiam.

Memento quod sumus tui
licet caduci plasmatis
ne des honorem nominis
tui precamur alteri.

Laxa malum quod fecimus
auge bonum quod poscimus
placere quod tandem tibi
possimus hic et perpetim.

Praesta beata trinitas
concede simplex unitas
ut fructuosa sint tuis
ieiuniorum munera. Amen.

Clarifica me pater

Magnificat: anima mea Dominum.
Et exsultavit spiritus meus: in Deo salutari meo.
Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae: ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes.
Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: et sanctum
nomen ejus.
Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies:
timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo: dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede: et exaltavit humiles.
Esurientes implevit bonis: et divites dimisit inanes.
Suscepit Israel puerum suum: recordatus
misericordiae suae.
Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros: Abraham et
semini ejus in saecula.
Gloria Patri et Filio: et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper: et in
secula seculorum. Amen.

Clarifica me pater apud temetipsum claritate quam habui priusquam mundus fieret. Alleluja.

Gloria tibi trinitas

Gloria tibi trinitas equalis una deitas
et ante omnia secula et nunc et in perpetuum.

Iste confessor

Iste confessor Domini sacratus
festa plebs cuius celebrat per orbem
hodie letus meruit secreta
scandere celi.

Qui pius prudens humilis pudicus:
sobrius castus fuit et quietus
vita dum presens vegetavit ejus
corporis artus.

Ad sacrum cujus tumulum frequenter
membra languentum modo sanitati
quolibet modo fuerint gravati
restituuntur.

Unde nunc noster chorus in honore
ipsius hymnum canit hunc libenter
ut piis ejus meritis iuvemur
omne per aevum.

Sit salus illi decus atque virtus
qui supra celi residet cacumen
totius mundi machinam gubernat
trinus et unus. Amen.

Alleluia: per te Dei genitrix

Alleluia: per te dei genitrix nobis
est vita perdita data
que celo suscepisti prolem
et mundo genuisti salvatorem.

Photo: The Plumley Organ Archive