Thomas Tallis
1505 — 1585
Thomas Tallis was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one of England’s greatest composers, and he is honored for his original voice in English musicianship.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Thomas Tallis.
From the period sources
Thomas Tallis, a distinguished organist and contrapuntist, served under four successive English monarchs: Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queens Mary and Elizabeth, outwardly conforming to their varied forms of worship (Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Vol. 3, 1890). He was organist of Waltham Abbey until its dissolution in 1540, after which he was appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal around 1542. Tallis was the teacher of notable musicians including William Byrd and Elway Bevin, the latter appointed organist of Bristol Cathedral on Tallis’s recommendation (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). His motet ‘O sacrum convivium,’ now known as the anthem ‘I call and cry to thee, O Lord,’ moved Geminiani to exclaim that its author was inspired, according to A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, Vol. 1 (1875).
In 1575, Tallis and William Byrd secured a significant twenty-one-year patent for the exclusive right to print music and ruled music paper, a pioneering venture of its kind (Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Vol. 3, 1890). Their first publication under this patent was Cantiones (1575), a collection of thirty-four motets, sixteen by Tallis and eighteen by Byrd. This work is noted as a beautiful example of early English musical typography, with each voice part printed separately. While much of his music was set to Latin words, Tallis also composed harmonies for the Responses, the Canticle, the Creed, and the Gloria for the Communion Service, all set to English (Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Vol. 3, 1890). His responses, however, have come down to us in a form generally admitted to be “very impure, if not incorrect,” as Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1908) observes.