26th January 2012 – Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis
This week’s Track comes from Jeremy Telford of the L6.
Thomas Tallis was subject to a lot of pressure, even bullying, during his composing career from other composers (this wasn’t uncommon; Ravel and Debussy were at each other’s necks and Salieri’s rivalry with Mozart was long and bitter), with Italian composers taunting him, waving their 40-part (and even 60-part) motets in his face. To overcome this bullying, he simply had to write a 40 part motet himself that would put these Italian composers in their place. He did exactly this by writing his heavenly Spem in Alium.
Spem in Alium is written for 8 choirs of 5 singers each (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass). Beginning with just a single voice from choir 1, every part enters in one by one and the melody is passed through choirs 1 to 8. In the middle of this are sections ranging from where all 8 choirs are singing to sections where there might be only 1 or 2 choirs. The effect on the listener of the sheer number of ideas contained in the work, together with the effect of different parts coming from different places around the huge choir, can be overwhelming. The work is not often performed, as the piece in itself is very difficult and 40 parts are required.
There are not many other pieces written for so many, and when they are written, it is difficult for them to be performed so these pieces are usually performed together, or in the same concert and of course writing for 40 parts is a very difficult task indeed. Some contemporary 40 part works include Gabriel Jackson’s sanctum est lumen verum, Evdokija Danajloska’s Allele and Antony Pitt’s XL but, in my opinion, none of these compare to Tallis’ Spem in Alium. My recommended recording of this is a performance done by none other than the Tallis Scholars themselves.
edited by KZA to say that Mrs Cooke is singing Choir 5, Sop 2!
