Tallis: Salvator mundi

16th-century England was a place of much religious change. It was a dangerous and confusing time and it is testament to their incredible skill and musical mastery that composers like Tallis and Byrd were able to produce such magnificent works in such troubled times. Their music left a lasting legacy, influencing some of our most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century composers and surviving over half a millennium to be performed as widely today as they have ever been.

This disc features some of the best-loved classics of Tudor and Jacobean church music together with madrigals by Tallis, Byrd and Gibbons. They are performed alongside pieces by Britten, Tippett and MacMillan including the Five Spirituals from A Child of Our Time and the Choral Dances from Gloriana. The Sixteen has performed this repertoire around the world over the last six years and is one of the ensemble’s most popular concert programmes.

The first recording featuring the Southwark Cathedral Girl choristers, with the Lay-clerks.

A wide-ranging survey of English choral music from the 16th to 21st centuries.

Includes first recordings of works by Judith Bingham, Martin Bussey, David Terry, and Huw Morgan.

Begins and ends with two major choral works by Parry – I was glad and Blest pair of Sirens - both works featured in the 2011 Royal wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton.

Soothing English sacred choral music from the Tudor and Stuart periods, by some of England’s finest composers. Perfect music to calm the soul, performed by the outstanding Richmond Consort. The consort is made up of singers who regularly perform in the UK’s most prestigious cathedrals and colleges. They specialise in early music both sacred and secular and perform regularly throughout the UK and the rest of Europe.

Treasures of Christ Church is a newly recorded, special collection of 500 years of English choral music sung from original manuscripts, uncovering the unique history of music at Christ Church from Tallis, Taverner, Handel, Purcell and Byrd through to world premieres from Rutter and Goodall.

All of the composers on Treasures had an association with Christ Church (whose hallowed halls were famously seen in the Harry Potter films), stretching back to the tenure of John Taverner, through Tallis, Handel, Purcell and Byrd to present day world premiere recordings of works by John Rutter and Howard Goodall.

The history: John Taverner, the most outstanding English composer of his time, was appointed Informator Choristarum of Cardinal College, Oxford in 1526, with the brief of establishing the foremost choral institution in the country. He succeeded magnificently and the tradition continues to this day at what is now known as Christ Church, Oxford. The Choir maintains a special and distinctive place within the great English choral tradition, with an unbroken, continuous tradition of glorious music-making for over five hundred years. Today the choir is renowned for its vibrant sound and artistic versatility, qualities that have been praised throughout the world. Packaging will feature striking visuals with photographs of original manuscripts on pristinely preserved parchment and leather-bound, gold-embossed scores. The promotional video will take viewers through the unrivalled archives and include interviews with Stephen Darlington and the composers.

The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, directed by Timothy Brown perform Tudor Anthems and Motets by an array of sixteenth century composers including the ever popular Byrd and Tallis and the less familiar figures of Dering, Philips, Mudd and Farrant. Clare College Choir is one of the UK’s finest mixed choirs.

Thomas Tallis served four English monarchs during his long life. A Catholic, he survived the tumultuous religious and political upheavals and persecutions of Edward VI and Mary I. He adapted to the demands of the new reformed church, the Church of England under Henry VIII, self appointed ‘Defender of the Faith’. Under Elizabeth I a more tolerant approach to religion emerged – even the ever-present threat of invasion by Catholic Spain did not deter the Queen from allowing her subjects freedom of worship and expression. Elizabeth’s tolerance may have been dueto the fact that she herself was raised as a Catholic, and it is possible that she missed the pomp and ceremony of the Mass compared to the plain and simple Protestant services of her father’s new Church. Tallis had seen most of the old choirs of the monasteries disbanded, and the music destroyed in the dissolution.

He had learned his trade in this world, and to younger colleagues such as William Byrd he must have appeared as if from a bygone age. However, the great survivor was also very open to new compositional techniques from the continent. He adapted many of his Latin settings for the new Church – this practice called ‘contrafactum’ saw many older works given new life. This extended to his masterwork, the huge 40-part motet Spem in alium (which opens this CD) from 1573. Possibly written to celebrate Elizabeth’s 40th anniversary on the throne, it reappeared as Sing and glorify heaven’s high majesty, in which form it was used in 1616 at the investiture of the future Charles I as Prince of Wales.

Though he lived through some of the most tumultuous times in English history, from the reigns of Henry VII to Elizabeth I, Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585) composed music for both the Catholic and Anglican churches that resounds the world over to this day.

Whether singing the monumental splendour of his famous 40-part motet Spem in alium or the intimate prayer I call and cry to thee, O Lord, the internationally renowned Oxford Camerata conducted by Jeremy Summerly are perfectly attuned to Tallis’s timeless genius.