Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). The Complete Works [Chapelle du Roi, 2007].10CD Box Set
flac
Total time: 10:53:19
Chapelle du Roi, conducted Alistair Dixon
Label: Brilliant Classics, 93612

CD1.Music for Henry VIII [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 1996]
Ave Dei patris filia
Ave rosa sine spinis
Alleluia: Ora pro nobis
Euge celi porta
Kyrie: Deus creator
Mass Salve Intemerata: Gloria
Mass Salve Intemerata: Credo
Mass Salve Intemerata: Sanctus & Benedictus
Mass Salve Intemerata: Agnus Dei
Salve Intemerata
Total time: 71'52
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 23-25 October 1996, St.Augustine's Church, Kilburn

CD2.Music at the Reformation [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 1997]
Magnificat
Nunc Dimittis
Sancte Deus
Conditor Kyrie
Mass for Four Voices: Gloria
Mass for Four Voices: Credo
Mass for Four Voices: Sanctus
Mass for Four Voices: Benedictus
Mass for Four Voices: Agnus Dei
Remember not, O Lord God
Hear the voice and prayer
If ye love me
A new commandment
Benedictus
Te Deum for meanes
Total time: 70'32
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 10, 11 & 13 February 1997, St.Augustine's Church, Kilburn

CD3.Music for Queen Mary [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 1997]
Beati immaculati
Introit: Puer natus est nobis
Kyrie: Deus creator
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Gloria
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Gradual: Viderunt omnes
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Alleluia: Dies sanctificatus
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Sequence: Celeste organum
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Sanctus
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Benedictus
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Agnus Dei
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Communion: Viderunt omnes
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Suscipe quaeso
Mass Puer natus est nobis: Gaude gloriosa
Total time: 64'37
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 28-30 May 1997, St.Gude's Church, Hampstead

CD4.Music for the Divine Office I [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 1998]
Hodie nobis caelorum
Salvator mundi
Quod chorus vatum
Videte miraculum
In pace in idipsum
Dum transisset sabbatum
Jesu salvator saeculi
Sermone blando
Jam Christus astra ascenderat
Loquebantur variis linguis
Magnificat
Total time: 66'41
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 29-31 July 1998, St.Gude's Church, Hampstead

CD5.Music for the Divine Office II [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 1999]
Audivi vocem de coelo
Candidi facti sunt
Honor virtus et potestas
Homo quidam fecit coenam
Te lucis ante terminum [ferial]
Te lucis ante terminum [festal]
Natus est nobis hodie
Veni redemptor genitum
Jam lucis orto sidere
Ecce tempus idoneum
Ex more docti mistico
Clarifica me pater I
Clarifica me pater II
Clarifica me pater III
Gloria tibi Trinitas
Iste confessor
Alleluia: Per te Dei genitrix
Felix namque II
Total time: 77'53
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 12-14 October 1998, St.Gude's Church, Hampstead [1-6]; 23-24 May 1999, The Chapel of Knole House, Sevenoaks [7-18]

CD6.Music for a Reformed Church [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 2000]
Christ rising again from the dead
Preces [1st set]
Venite
Te Deum
Benedictus
Responses and collects for Easter Matins
Commandments
Credo
Offertory sentence
Sanctus
Gloria
Preces [2nd set]
Wherewithal shall a young man
O do well unto thy servant
My soul cleaveth to the dust
Magnificat
Nunc Dimittis
Responses and collects for Chrstmas Eve evensong
O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit
Purge me, O Lord
Verily, verily I say unto you
Remember not, O Lord God
O Lord, in thee is all my trust
Out from the deep
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: Man blest no doubt
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: Let God arise in majesty
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: Why fum'th in fight
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: O come in one to praise the Lord
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: E'en like the hunted hind
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: Expend, O Lord, my plaint
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: Why brag'st in malice high
Tunes from Archbishop Parker's Psalter: God grant with grace
Ordinal
Total time: 77'53
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 24-26 July 2000, St.Gude's Church, Hampstead

CD7.Music for Queen Elizabeth [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 2000]
Salvator mundi I
O sacrum convivium
In manus tuas
O nata lux de lumine
Absterge Domine
Discomfort them O Lord
Domine, quis habitabit
Laudate Dominum
Miserere nostri
Salvator mundi II
Mihi autem nimis
O salutaris hostia
In ieiunio et fletu [Low
In ieiunio et fletu [High]
Derelinquit impius
Spem in alium
Total time: 62'45
Elizabeth Franklin-Kitchen, Emma Preston Dunlop, sopranos. William Missin, David Bates, William Towers, Richard Poyser, altos. Benjamin Rayfield, Daniel Ludford-Thomas, Ben Hulett, tenors. Francis Brett, Eamonn Dougan, Cheyney Kent, Chris Adams, basses [1-15]
Emma Preston Dunlop, Angela Henckel, Sarah Probert, Alicia Carroll, Andrea Brown, Ghislaine Morgan, Natalie Clifton-Griffith, Lisa Beckley, sopranos. Ashley Stafford, William Towers, Stephen Carter, Ben Turner, Lucy Ballard, Edward Breen, Richard Poyser, Ian Aitkenhead, altos. Benjamin Rayfield, Mark Dobell, David Barcly, Julian Stocker, Greg Moore, Gerry o'Bierne, Daniel Ludford-Thomas, Andrew Hewitt, tenors. Ben Davies, Robert Rice, Andrew Hope, Eamonn Dougan, Robert Evans, Sam Evans, Edward Wickham, Graham Trew, baritones. Francis Brett, Nick Warden, Cheyney Kent, Jonathan Arnold, Paul Brough, Julian Empett, Paul Charrier, Adrian Hutton, basses [16]
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 13-15 November 2000, St.Gude's Church, Hampstead

CD8.Lamentations and Contrafacta [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon, 2002]
Lamentations of Jeremiah I
Lamentations of Jeremiah II
Wipe away my sins
Forgive me, Lord, my sin
Blessed are those that be undefiled
Arise, O Lord, and hear
With all our hearts
I call and cry to thee
O sacred and holy banquet
When Jesus went into Simon the Pharisee's house
Blessed be thy name
O Praise the Lord II
Sing and glorify heaven's high majesty
Total time: 63'22
Chapelle du Roi, dir. Alistair Dixon. Recorded: 24-27 September 2002, All Hallows' Church, Gospel Oak
 
CD9.The Instrumental Music and Songs I [2004]
In nomine I [Charivari Agreable]
In nomine II [Charivari Agreable]
A Solfing Song [Charivari Agreable]
Salvator mundi (trio) [Charivari Agreable]
Fantasia [Charivari Agreable]
Felix namque II [Lynda Sayce]
Felix namque I [Laurence Cummings]
When shall my sorrowful sighing slack [Laurence Cummings]
Like as the doleful dove [Laurence Cummings]
O ye tender babes [Laurence Cummings]
Purge me, O Lord [Laurence Cummings]
Per haec nos [Laurence Cummings]
A point [Laurence Cummings]
Lesson: two parties in one [Laurence Cummings]
Remember not, O Lord God [Laurence Cummings]
Per haec nos [Andrew Benson-Wilson]
A point [Andrew Benson-Wilson]
Lesson: two parties in one [Andrew Benson-Wilson]
Tu nimirum [Lynda Sayce & Stephen Taylor]
When shall my sorrowful sighing slack [Lynda Sayce & Stephen Taylor]
Like as the doleful dove [Lynda Sayce & Stephen Taylor]
O ye tender babes [Lynda Sayce & Stephen Taylor]
Ye sacred muses (William Byrd, c.1540-1623) [Charivari Agreable & Stephen Taylor]
Total time: 75'15
Charivari Agreable [1-5, 23]. Lynda Sayce, lute [6, 19-22]. Laurence Cummings, virginals [7, 10, 12, 13] & harpsichord [8, 9, 11, 14, 15]. Andrew Benson-Wilson, organ [16-18]. Stephen Taylor, countertenor [19-23]
Recorded: 13-15 May 2004, St.Andrew Church, Toddington [1-6, 19-23]; 2 August 2004, Fenton House, Hampstead [7-15]; 23-24 May 1999, The Chapel of Knole House, Sevenoaks [16-18]

CD10.The Instrumental Music and Songs II [2004]
Litany [Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon]
Verset I [Andrew Benson-Wilson]
Verset II [Andrew Benson-Wilson]
Felix namque I [Andrew Benson-Wilson]
Total time: 26'44
Recorded: July 2000, St.Gude's Church, Hampstead [1]; May 1999, The Chapel of Knole House, Sevenoaks [2-4]

The instruments
The organ tracks of cd 9 and 10 were recorded on the organ in the late medieval private chapel of Knole in Kent, arguably the oldest playable organ in England. Knole was owned during Tallis’s lifetime by both Archbishop Crammer and Henry VIII, his employers respectively at Canterbury Cathedral and the Chapel Royal. There are four ranks of oak pipes (Stopped Diapasson 8, Principal 4, Twelfth 22/3 and Fifteen 2) contained in a rectangular ornamented chest with
the keyboard at the top. The Knole organ has had a chequered history. We do not know who built it, when it was built, when it first appeared at Knole or where it might have been before it arrived. An early guidebook refers to the date of 1623 being marked on the organ, although this is not apparent today. The quarter-comma meantone temperament, with its pure thirds, is well suited to music of this period.
Laurence Cummings plays a virginal attributed to Vincentius Pratensis, Italy of the late 16th or early 17th century, and a single strung harpsichord, built in Italy around 1590, builder unknown.
Lynda Sayce plays a 7 course lute in G by Michael Lowe (track 6 solo), a 7 course lute in F by Martin Shepherd, and a 8 course bass lute in D by Ivo Magherini.


 "Tallis is dead and music dies". So wrote William Byrd, Tallis's most distinguished pupil, capturing the esteem and veneration in which Tallis was held by his fellow composers and musical colleagues in the 16th century and, indeed, by the four monarchs he served at the Chapel Royal.
Tallis was undoubtedly the greatest of the 16th century composers; in craftsmanship, versatility and intensity of expression, the sheer uncluttered beauty and drama of his music reach out and speak directly to the listener. It is surprising that hitherto so little of Tallis's music has been regularly performed and that so much is not satisfactorily published.
This series of ten compact discs will cover Tallis's complete surviving output from his five decades of composition, and will include the contrafacta, the secular songs and the instrumental music - much of which is as yet unrecorded. Great attention is paid to performance detail including pitch, pronunciation and the music's liturgical context. As a result new editions of the music are required for the recordings, many of which will in time be published by the Cantiones Press.
Alistair Dixon

To complete the series of The Complete Works of Thomas Tallis we include with this 10th disc consisting of four tracks. The first of these tracks was recorded in Juli 2000 as part of the recording for CD 6 in this series. Space did not permit the inclusion of the Litany which is therefore heard here. The remaining three tracks were recorded at the organ in the chapel of Knole in Sevenoaks in may 1999 at the same time as the organ music found on CD 5. Tracks two and tree should be considered dubia since in their source they appear untitled, with a composer ascription that is almost decipherable. Whilst this could be read as ‘Tallis’ this is by no means certain. The final tracks is a recording of the first Felix Namque setting which can also heard played on the virginals on CD 9.


This fine complete set makes all music by Thomas Tallis easily accessible. The eight singers of the English ensemble Chapelle du Roi have dedicated themselves to religious Renaissance music for some thirteen years now. Their performances are being praised by audiences and critics alike. A rare treat. 
Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) musically must have been quite a diplomat. He managed to serve four different monarchs in a row, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. He mainly wrote church music. The quality of his output ranges from undistinguished to absolutely first class. Today his 40-part motet Spem in alium has become renowned. 
Tallis enjoys his fame mainly in Anglo-Saxon countries. This set of his complete works should be able to enhance his reputation. The Chapelle du Roi under Alistair Dixon took several years to complete these 10 records. Each of these is dedicated to a part of Tallis’s works ordered by their origin or purpose: Music for Henry VIII, Music at the Reformation, etc. 
Tallis is dead and music dies. So wrote William Byrd, Tallis's most distinguished pupil, capturing the esteem and veneration in which Tallis was held by his fellow composers and musical colleagues in the 16th century and, indeed, by the four monarchs he served at the Chapel Royal. 
Tallis was undoubtedly the greatest of the 16th century composers; in craftsmanship, versatility and intensity of expression, the sheer uncluttered beauty and drama of his music reach out and speak directly to the listener. It is surprising that hitherto so little of Tallis's music has been regularly performed and that so much is not satisfactorily published. 
This series of ten compact discs will cover Tallis's complete surviving output from his five decades of composition, and will include the contrafacta, the secular songs and the instrumental music - much of which is as yet unrecorded. Great attention is paid to performance detail including pitch, pronunciation and the music's liturgical context. As a result new editions of the music are required for the recordings, many of which will in time be published by the Cantiones Press.