Sacred vocal works

Thomas Tallis 1505?-1585

Tuesday 15 October 2002, 8pm

Pre-concert talk 7.45pm

Sacred Heart Cathedral
Hill Street
Wellington

If there is one English composer who can be regarded as Byrd’s equal it is his tutor, Thomas Tallis. He responded to the demands of his medium, whether Latin output for the Recusants or English for the Protestants, with remarkable flexibility and compositional mastery. So highly regarded were Tallis' Latin compositions that alternative English texts were found for several of his Latin motets, thus allowing the pieces to be performed in the context of an Anglican church service; these pieces with multi-lingual texts became known as the contrafacta.

Programme

Canticle: Te Deum for Five Parts

Responses to the Commandments, Psalm 119, Creed, Offertory, Sanctus, Gloria: The Dorian Service

Contrafacta anthem (English version): With all our hearts
Contrafacta anthem (English version): I call and cry to thee
Contrafacta anthem (English version): When Jesus went into Simon the Pharisee's house

Interval

Contrafacta anthem (Latin version): Salvator mundi (1541)
Contrafacta anthem (Latin version): O sacrum convivium
Contrafacta anthem (Latin version): Salvator mundi (1575)

Madrigal: Fond youth is a bubble blown up with breath
Song: O ye tender babes of England
Hymn: Why fum'th in sight

Motet: Loquebantur variis linguis

This concert was part of the 2002 Performance Series.