William Byrd is the root, but Thomas Tallis is the flowering of English music. The sacred works he composed for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth defined the character of English music the way those sovereigns defined the character of the English nation. The thematic clarity, the harmonic lucidity, the modal austerity, the rhythmic inevitability, and especially the exalted sense of spiritual ecstasy, all the things that distinguished English music from Continental music for two centuries first became fully ...
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William Byrd is the root, but Thomas Tallis is the flowering of English music. The sacred works he composed for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth defined the character of English music the way those sovereigns defined the character of the English nation. The thematic clarity, the harmonic lucidity, the modal austerity, the rhythmic inevitability, and especially the exalted sense of spiritual ecstasy, all the things that distinguished English music from Continental music for two centuries first became fully themselves in Tallis. This disc of his works for the Chapel Royal, with Andrew Carwood leading the Cardinall's Musick, a 16-voice choir from England, does everything a Tallis disc should do and does the one thing a Tallis disc has to do supremely well. The clarity of the singing, the lucidity of the textures, the austerity of the intonation, and the inevitability of the rhythms are impeccable, but the ecstatic sense of spiritual exaltation is truly awe-inspiring. English music doesn't get...
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Add this copy of Tallis: Gaude Gloriosa to cart. $32.50, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2005 by HYPERION RECORDS: CDA67548.
