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Spem in alium is a forty-part motet by Thomas Tallis, composed circa 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions Thomas Tallis (c 1505 &ndash 23 November 1585) was an English Composer. Though composed in imitative style and occasionally homophonic, its individual vocal lines act quite freely within its fairly simple harmonic framework; allowing for an astonishing number of individual musical ideas to be sung during its ten-to-twelve minute performance time. In Music, homophony (hoʊˈmɒfəni from Greek "homófonos" where ομοιο = the same and φωνή = a sound tone is a texture in which two or more

Contents

History

The early history of the work is obscure. It is listed in a catalogue of the library at Nonsuch Palace made in 1596 as "a song of fortie partes, made by Mr. Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal Palace, built by Henry VIII in Surrey. Tallys. " The earliest surviving manuscripts are those prepared in 1610 for the investiture of Henry Frederick, the son of James I, as Prince of Wales. For other people known as Henry Prince of Wales see Henry Prince of Wales. James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625 was King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James Prince of Wales (Tywysog Cymru is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (and formerly the Kingdom

A 1611 letter written by the law student Thomas Wateridge contains the following anecdote:

In Queene Elizabeths time there was a songe sent into England of 30 parts (whence the Italians obteyned the name to be called the Apices of the world) which beeinge songe mad[e] a heavenly Harmony. The Duke of — bearing a great love to Musicke asked whether none of our English men could sett as good a songe, & Tallice beinge very skillfull was felt to try whether he would undertake the Matter, which he did and mad[e] one of 40 p[ar]ts which was songe in the longe gallery at Arundell house which so farre surpassed the other th[a]t the Duke hearinge of the songe tooke his chayne of gold from of his necke & putt yt about Tallice his necke & gave yt him.

Allowing the "30" to be a mistake, the Italian song referred to is either the 40-part motet Ecce beatam lucem or the 40-60 voice mass Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno‎, both by Alessandro Striggio, 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. The Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, for 40 and 60 voices by Florentine Renaissance composer Alessandro Striggio (c 1536/1537 – February 29 1592 was an Italian composer instrumentalist and diplomat of the Renaissance. [1]

This account is consistent with the catalogue entry at Nonsuch Palace: Arundel House was the London home of Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel; Nonsuch Palace was his country residence. Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal Palace, built by Henry VIII in Surrey. Arundel House was a town-house or palace located between the Strand and the Thames, near St Clement Danes. Henry FitzAlan 19th Earl of Arundel (c1511 – 24 February 1580) was an English nobleman who over his long life assumed a prominent place at the court of all Nonsuch possessed an octagonal banqueting hall, which in turn had four first-floor balconies: it can be speculated that Tallis designed the music to be sung not only in the round, but with four of the eight five-part choirs singing from the balconies.

The Duke of the letter is thought to be Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, and if so (and if the anecdote is trustworthy) the Duke's execution in 1572 gives a latest date for the composition of the work. Thomas Howard 4th Duke of Norfolk ( 10 March, 1536 &mdash 2 June 1572) was an English nobleman also the 1st Earl of Southampton Other historians, doubting the anecdote, have suggested that the first performance was on the occasion of Elizabeth's fortieth birthday in 1573. Other dates have been suggested, including the possibility that it was composed years earlier for Mary Tudor, Elizabeth's predecessor. Mary I (18 February 1516 &ndash 17 November 1558 was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death [2]

Qualities

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 mess, the work is continually presenting new ideas to the listener.

The effect on the listener of the sheer number of ideas contained in the work, compounded with the unusual performance practice of surrounding the audience with performers, is that of inundation, or of being completely overwhelmed.

The work is not often performed, as it requires at least forty singers capable of meeting its technical demands.

Lyrics

Latin

The original Latin text of the motet is from a response (at Matins, for the 3rd Lesson, during the V week of September), in the Sarum Rite, adapted from the Book of Judith. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Sarum Rite was a variant of the Roman Rite widely used for the ordering of Christian public worship including the Mass or Eucharist

Spem in alium numquam habui praeter in te
Deus Israel
qui irasceris
et propitius eris
et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis
Domine Deus
Creator coeli et terrae
respice humilitatem nostram

There is no early manuscript source giving the underlay for the Latin text: the 1610 copies give the underlay for the English contrafactum "Sing and glorify" (see below), with the Latin words given at the bottom. In Vocal music, contrafactum refers to "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music"

English translation

I have never put my hope in any other but in you,
O God of Israel
who can show both anger
and graciousness,
and who absolves all the sins of suffering man
Lord God,
Creator of Heaven and Earth
be mindful of our humiliation

English contrafactum

Sung at the 1610 investiture of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. For other people known as Henry Prince of Wales see Henry Prince of Wales.

Sing and glorify heaven's high Majesty,
Author of this blessed harmony;
Sound divine praises
With melodious graces;
This is the day, holy day, happy day,
For ever give it greeting,
Love and joy, heart and voice meeting:
Live Henry princely and mighty,
Harry live in thy creation happy.

Renditions

One of the best-known recordings of the motet is by the Tallis Scholars. The Tallis Scholars are a British vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part with a core group of ten singers Other recordings include those by the Choir of Winchester Cathedral; the Oxford Camerata; the Choirs of King's and St John's Colleges, Cambridge; The Sixteen; Cantillation; and, most recently (2006), by the British male a capella group, the King's Singers. Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest Cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of King's College Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. St John's College, an institution known formally as The Master Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is a The Sixteen is an English Choir performing early Religious music. The King's Singers are a celebrated and long-lived British A cappella vocal ensemble. This recording is particularly noteworthy, since the group is composed of just six men: all forty parts are performed by these six via multitracking. Multitrack recording ('multitracking' or just 'tracking' for short is a method of Sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create The Kronos Quartet has also recorded an instrumental version of the motet on their album, Black Angels. Kronos Quartet is a String quartet founded by Violinist David Harrington in 1973 Cellist Peter Gregson has also multitracked Spem in Alium, performing all 40 parts on one cello.

Another version of this motet is featured in Janet Cardiff's Forty-Part Motet (2001), an exhibition which is part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Janet Cardiff (born 1957-03-15) is a Canadian installation artist The National Gallery of Canada ( Musée des beaux arts du Canada) located in the capital city Ottawa Ontario, is one of Canada 's premier Art Ottawa (ˈɒtəwə or sometimes /ˈɒtəwɑː/ is the Capital of Canada and the country's fourth largest municipality. Ontario (ɒnˈtɛrioʊ is a province located in the central part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest after Quebec Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page

The exhibit is set in the Rideau Street Chapel, which is the salvaged interior of a demolished school chapel that is now in permanent display at the National Gallery. The Rideau Street Chapel was part of the Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on Rideau Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Forty speakers are set around the Chapel, each one featuring a single voice of the forty-part choir. The result is a highly-enhanced polyphonic effect, as visitors may hear each individual voice through its corresponding speaker, or listen to the voices of the entire choir blending in together with varying intensities, as one moves around the Chapel. In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony Previously it toured the world, including in early 2006 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where it was a temporary installation in one of the contemporary rooms. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street between Fifth The City of New York

On 10 June 2006, the BBC asked for 1,000 singers to meet, rehearse and perform the piece in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester for what was almost certainly the largest performance of the piece in history. Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The Bridgewater Hall is an international Concert venue in Manchester, England. On that day, over 700 singers attended, most of whom had never sung the piece before. A program following the day's events was broadcast on BBC Four on December 9, 2006. BBC Four is a BBC Television channel available to digital television ( Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable) viewers in the Events 536 - Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city [3][4]

The piece featured prominently in the Poliakoff drama, Gideon's Daughter. Gideon's Daughter is the second of two linked BBC television dramas written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff. Spem in alium accompanies the film Touching the Void, and reaches a climax when Yates and Simpson reach the summit of the mountain. Touching the Void is a 2003 Documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous

Tallis' Spem in alium has also inspired several modern composers to write 40-part choral works, for example Giles Swayne's The Silent Land (1998), Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's Tentatio (2006) and Peter McGarr's Love You Big as the Sky (2007). Giles Oliver Cairnes Swayne (born June 30, 1946) is a British Composer. Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (born 1963 in Turku, Finland) is a Finnish translator and Composer of Classical music. A London-based choral festival, the Tallis Festival, inspired by Spem in alium, commissioned both Mäntyjärvi and McGarr to compose in this genre. The Tallis Festival, hosted by Exmoor Singers of London forms the Tallis Festival Choir for just one weekend every 12 to 18 months

External links

References

Notes

  1. ^ Moroney, p. 28-33
  2. ^ George Steel (March 2002). "The Story of Spem in alium". Andante.  
  3. ^ People's Chorus. BBC.
  4. ^ Programme info. BBC.
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