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T E N E b r a E Thomas Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah march 3, 2013, 5pm trinity church TENET JOLLE GREENLEAF, artistic director JULIAN WACHNER, conductor MELISSA ATTEBURY, alto PATRICK FENNIG, alto TIMOTHY HODGES, tenor GEOFFREY SILVER, tenor ERIC DUDLEY, tenor JAMES KENNERLEY, tenor KELVIN CHAN, bass SCOTT DISPENSA, bass STEVEN HRYCELAK, bass THOMAS McCARGAR, bass If ye love me .....................................Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585) Circumdederunt me .................................William Byrd (1540–1623) Appropinquet deprecatio mea .......................Robert White (c. 1538–1574) Lamentations I ....................................................... Tallis O bone Jesu ...................................Robert Parsons (c. 1535–1571/2) Lamentations II ...................................................... Tallis Ave Maria .........................................................Parsons O Sacrum convivium .................................................. Tallis Derelinquit impius .................................................... Tallis
Program Notes Forced into great economy of material but capable of the richest of intricacies, Thomas Tallis enjoyed in his long career no fewer than four monarchs and at least three radical u-turns of liturgical praxis. Born on the cusp of the reign of Henry VII, and flourishing through at least two decades of Elizabeth’s turbulent calming of the ecclesiastical machinations of the Protestant-Catholic dialectic, Tallis, like his younger Catholic colleague William Byrd, enjoyed unprecedented success as a composer of sacred music, and in tracing his output one can easily derive the various edicts and mandates that were handed down to those involved in the liturgical arts in mid-16th-century England. While King Henry VIII sought separation from the church of Rome primarily to claim greater authority within his own country (specifically the authority to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon), opportunistic advisers saw this separation as an opening for the introduction of Reformation theology. With the increasing influence of Thomas Cromwell (Henry’s Chancellor) and Thomas Cranmer (appointed Archbishop of Canterbury) came a corresponding rise in Reformed liturgy. Monasteries were dissolved, liturgical ‘superstition’ was banned, and churches were encouraged to obtain English translations of scripture. The ascension upon Henry’s death in 1547 of the nine-year-old King Edward VI opened the floodgates for royal advisors to proceed with the reformation of the English church, completely abolishing outward evidence of Catholicism. Musically, this entailed disbanding the Concert Royal, in addition to removing and destroying any evidence of ornamental flourish, including the destruction of countless organs and other instruments of the church. 1549 brought the publication of Cranmer’s first Book of Common Prayer; by Edward’s death in 1553, English theology and liturgy were recognizably Protestant. Subsequently, Edward’s half-sister Mary vigorously attempted to restore ties with Rome during her five years on the throne, fighting a bloody battle against heretics and restoring most Roman Catholic liturgy; despite these efforts, Mary’s brief reign only deepened divisions in an already demoralized English church. Entering into this factionalized ecclesiastical chaos, Elizabeth chose to form a church that would provide space for Reformers and Catholics alike, provided that they would recognize her authority. The introduction of a revised form of Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer in 1559, in addition to the passing of the Act of Supremacy (which established Elizabeth as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England) and the Act of Uniformity (requiring, among other things, that all subjects attend Sunday services utilizing the prayer book), standardized English liturgical practice and brought a stability to ecclesiastical life that had not been seen for some twenty years. Thus the true Church of England finally was born, but not without compromise and struggle on the part of Elizabeth and her advisers. Diarmaid MacCulloch writes that, despite her own avowed Protestantism, Elizabeth and her advisors “knew the specialized heroism of making choices about concealing opinions and compromising in dangerous times, rather than the luxury of proclaiming their convictions in unsullied purity,” having had to do much the same under the reign of Queen Mary. 1 Thus, the reforms of 1559 allowed for most Catholics and Protestants alike to worship under the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer (which they were required to do each Sunday, or face a stiff fine). For example, this via media, or middle way, can be recognized in the words of institution in the communion service, which in typical Cranmerian fashion gave theological room for those who would believe in transubstantiation and Communion as a memorial meal alone: “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life; and take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving.” For the next forty years, the majority of English people worshipped in uniformity each Sunday, using the words and absorbing the theology of the prayer book. It is certainly an interesting lesson in composition to view the solutions that 16th century English composers created in reaction to these wildly swaying times, particularly to the “one note for one syllable” edict of Archbishop Cranmer. On our program we have Tallis’ sublime example of this solution in “If Ye Love Me,” and although this program does not go so far as to present the epic, vocally and intellectually virtuoso Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater from Tallis’ early period, we will hear fully “catholic” treatments of Tenebrae texts by Byrd, Parsons and White in addition to those by Tallis. The great Lamentations of Jeremiah by Thomas Tallis serve as an example of the compromise position [via media] of the Elizabethan court. Here we have refined economy of scale and the possibility of clear text intelligibility, but the text is presented in Latin and advanced techniques of polyphonic counterpoint serve as the organizing principle of the music. ©2013 Julian Wachner 1 Diarmaid MacCulloch, “Putting the English Reformation on the Map,” The Prothero Lecture; Transactions of the Royal Historical Society vol. 15 (Dec 2005), p. 75-95 17
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