To write a new piece based on Spem sounds suspiciously like a hiding to nothing.
The work's early history is obscure, though there are some clues as to where it may have been first performed.
Prime members enjoy Free Two-Day Shipping, Free Same-Day or One-Day Delivery to select areas, Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading, and more. The music itself is entirely different from Striggio's setting. Eight five-voice pods, 40 singers in total – Tallis’s Spem in alium remains one of the towering summits of the choral repertoire. On that day, over 700 singers attended, most of whom had never sung the piece before. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Wateridge's letter is dated 40 years after the Elizabethan date and does not mention either Striggio or the Duke by name. Spem in Alium / Vidi Aquam.
Shorter works by Tallis, Gerarde, Byrd, Ferrabosco and Wilder complete the recital, and a ‘making of’ DVD is included. His work was for ten four-part choirs; Tallis's is for eight five-part choirs. B. Collins described it in 1929 as Tallis's "crowning achievement", along with … A 1611 commonplace book by the law student Thomas Wateridge contains the following anecdote: In Queen Elizabeths time þere was à songe sen[t] into England in 30 p[art]s (whence þe Italians obteyned þe name to be called þe Apices of þe world) wch beeinge Songe mad[e] a heavenly Harmony. Forty speakers are set around the Chapel, each one featuring a single voice of the 40-part choir. The work is a study in contrasts: the individual voices sing and are silent in turns, sometimes alone, sometimes in choirs, sometimes calling and answering, sometimes all together, so that, far from being a monotonous mass, the work is continually changing and presenting new ideas. Reviews.
This recording is particularly noteworthy, since the group is composed of just six men: all forty parts are performed by these six via multitracking. Supposing the "30" to be a mistake, the Italian song referred to has been argued to be either the 40-part motet Ecce beatam lucem or the 40–60-voice mass Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno, both by Alessandro Striggio,[5] who is known to have visited London in June 1567 after a trip through Europe during which he arranged other performances of Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno. "Spem in alium" is a superb recording of the antiphonal choral music composed by Oxford's musical giant of times past, Thomas Tallis. ORA Singers/Suzy DigbyHarmonia Mundi HMM902669.70 68:59 mins. Common to them all is a link to Nonsuch Palace, arguably the location of the first performance of Spem in alium, and the centre of a rich vein of Tudor musical patronage. For anyone who doesn't know, "Spem In Alium" is a motet in forty parts. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Some scholars consider that the Duke of Norfolk commissioned Tallis to write "Spem in alium" for performance at Nonsuch, and that its first performance took place there. Tallis: Spem in alium; In ieiunio et fletu; Derelinquit impius; James MacMillan: Vidi aquam; plus choral works by Ferrabosco, Byrd, Gerarde and Van Wilder Please try again. Finally all voices join for the culmination of the work. Likewise, the only dukedom extant during Elizabeth I's reign was that of Norfolk, so the duke in the letter can only be Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, and so (if the anecdote is trustworthy) his execution in 1572 gives a latest date for the work's composition. Imagiune that!
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