Music as Zeitgeist

This article appeared in the Spectator dated November 14th

Stravinsky once said that music was powerless to express anything at all. Leaving aside the niceties of whether a rising scale can at least represent something hopeful or aspiring, his music, like so much music, does nonetheless have the capacity to express the spirit of an age. Since this is a much vaguer procedure than trying to depict a concrete verbal image in sound – like bird song, or a drunken man, or climbing a ladder – it is surprising how successful composers have been at it. Unwittingly successful, I guess, since how would you deliberately set about writing a piece to capture 2009?

5th podcast from Merton College Choir

The fifth podcast of a live Evensong from Merton College Chapel was made on Wednesday November 5th. Like the previous four it is now available on iTunes (go to iTunes Store, type ‘Merton College’ into the search box and hit the return key). All five should also be available on the University and College sites under podcasts. This latest recording is the first of the choir which formed up fresh at the beginning of the current academic year, marking a further advance in our standards.

The music was:
Prelude: Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 639 (Bach)
Responses: Smith
Psalms 111, 112
Canticles: Short Service (Gibbons)
Anthem: The souls of the righteous (Lewis)
Voluntary: Sonata No. 4 (1st Movement) BWV 528 (Bach)

 
Officiant: The Revd Dr Simon Jones (Chaplain)
Directors of Music: Peter Phillips and Benjamin Nicholas
Organ Scholar: Natasha Tyrwhitt-Drake

I conducted the Gibbons and the Responses (as opposed to the Preces)

The recording was made by Steve Smith of Gimell Records

Peter and Paolo and Raffaele

This is a photo of me eating lunch with Paolo Ramacciotti (left) and Raffaele Puccianti in Florence last September. I would like it to be known that I had been eating lampredotto, which is not for the fainthearted.

TSSS Sydney 2010

Here are most of the details of the 2010 Tallis Scholars Summer School in Sydney:

This course will run from the 16th to the 23rd January 2010. The tutors will be myself, Jan Coxwell and Deborah Roberts. The repertoire is to be:

Victoria: Requiem
A. Lobo: Versa est in luctum
Guerrero: Regina caeli
Vivanco: Magnificat for double choir
Guerrero: Usquequo domine
Esquivel: In paradisum

For further details please contact Liz McKenzie on: lizm@ozemail.com.au or see our website on www.tsss.uk.com

TSSS Seattle 2010

Here are some of the details of the 2010 Tallis Scholars Summer School in Seattle:

The course will run from 24th to the 31st July 2010. We shall be exploring some aspects of the Flemish school in the 16th century, focussing on Isaac and Lassus:

Isaac: Missa Solemnis
Lassus: Motet and Magnificat Aurora lucis rutilat
Lassus: Omnes de Saba
Lassus: Alma redemptoris
Lassus: Lamentations III (Thursday)
Clemens: Ego flos campi
Gombert: Magnificat III

For more information please contact Rebekah Gilmore on tsss.rebekah@gmail.com or phone (+1) 509-668-2468

TSSS Oakham 2010

Here are some of the details of the 2010 Tallis Scholars Summer School in Oakham:

The course will run from 10th to the 17th July 2010, with the final concert on the 17th and the possibility of a Tallis Scholars concert in Merton College, Oxford, on the 14th.

For this 11th edition, I have decided to concentrate on Lassus and the Flemish school:
Lassus: Missa Congratulamini
Lassus: Magnificat Praeter rerum seriem
Gombert: Lugebat Absalon
Lassus: Timor et tremor
Lassus: Extracts from the Prophetiae Sibyllarum
Clemens: Ego flos campi
Wert: Egressus Jesus
Wert: Ascendente Jesus

Please note that this is not the same repertoire as the 2010 Seattle course! For further details please contact Laura Tear on tsss.uk@googlemail.com or telephone: (+44) (0)20 8293 9911

Rehearsal in Florence Cathedral

This photograph was taken in Florence Cathedral by Raffaele Puccianti on the 30th September 2009. It shows my rear view as I conduct the Tallis Scholars, intermingled with the students collected by Raffaele and Paolo Ramacciotti for some intensive study of renaissance music. This concert was the grand finale, attended by a thousand people.

Singing or conducting?

This article will appear in the Spectator magazine dated October 17th

Someone somewhere recently asked me in a public forum whether I would prefer to be a singer, the conductor or a member of the audience at the concerts we give. He himself was of the opinion that he would rather be a singer, saying that the music we do is so complicated that only someone on the inside of it can appreciate exactly what the composer has achieved. If he’s right, the audience don’t stand a chance.

I rushed to my own defence, saying that the guy out front has the best of all worlds, as one would expect if he is to control the performance. He is receiving the sound without distortion, so placed that the voices will come to him equally strongly. With this immediacy he can draw out and shape the phrases, which is both a privilege and a pleasure with music of such quality. In fact I have always opted to stand as close to the singers as possible, believing that only when I can virtually touch them will I have real control over the ensemble. When there is some impediment to this – a microphone or some steps or a piece of furniture in a church – and I am obliged to stand back, I never feel so confident about the end result.

The 2010 Composers Award – press release

The National Centre for Early Music is delighted to announce the 2010 NCEM Composers Award in which they continue to develop their successful partnership with BBC Radio 3 and the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble The Tallis Scholars. This major national award is open to composers up to the age of 25, divided into two age categories: 18 and under, and 19 to 25.

The 2010 NCEM Composers Award invites young composers to compose a new a cappella (unaccompanied) piece for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass.  The Award will be judged by Peter Phillips, Director of The Tallis Scholars; Chris Wines, Senior Music Producer BBC Radio 3 and Delma Tomlin, Director of the NCEM. The winners’ pieces will be premiered by The Tallis Scholars in Chester Cathedral as part of the 2010 Chester Summer Music Festival. BBC Radio 3 will record and broadcast highlights of this concert.

New Tallis Scholars facebook page(s) – for fans everywhere

I am pleased to announce the creation of a Tallis Scholars facebook page for supporters the world over. Although it is very young, this page already includes news about our records, concert programmes and Summer Courses (TSSS). You will probably know better than me how to sign on to it, but www.facebook.com seems to be a good start. And then you can try to guess the identity of Thomas Tallis himself, who has joined as a fan. I hold this to be praise indeed. But please sign on yourself, and encourage your polyphonic friends to do the same.