Reform

Donald Macleod examines how the reforms of Henry VIII impacted Thomas Tallis, who was at the last monastery to be dissolved in England.

“So great a musician are you.....that if the Fates carried you off.....music would be mute.” So wrote a contemporary of Thomas Tallis, showing us just how highly this composer was regarded in his own time. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod traces the career of Tallis, unquestionably one of England's greatest ever composers. We follow him from the early faint mentions of the composer in Dover Priory, to his 40-plus years serving four successive monarchs as part of the Chapel Royal, and through the upheaval of one of the most tumultuous periods in all of English history.

In Tuesday’s episode, Donald explores how the reforms of Henry VIII impacted on Thomas Tallis, who was working at Waltham Abbey - the last monastery to be dissolved in England, and then had to adjust to Henry’s further reform of cathedrals.

Sequence: Celeste Organum - Agnus Dei
Chapelle du Roi
Alistair Dixon, director

Magnificat for 4 voices
Rodolfus Choir
Ralph Allwood, director

Salve Intemerata
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips, director

Mass for four Voices
The Gentlemen of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace
Carl Jackson, director