GREENSBORO – What a remarkable event to have the internationally renowned Tallis Scholars come to the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro last Friday evening for a concert of Renaissance sacred vocal music.
This group, which was founded in Great Britain in 1973 by Director Peter Philips, has now given over 2,500 performances and made some 60 recordings in its 50 years, besides receiving numerous awards. It has been crucial in bringing about a reappreciation of the complex polyphony of that acapella form of music, where male and female voices are harmoniously juxtaposed in interwoven layers.
One can readily imagine the intensity of this music when originally sung in medieval churches with stone vaults, where the resonance would create a deeply transcendental experience. It certainly takes one to a mystical place, especially welcome these days when the world is too much with us. The practice of meditation could be enhanced if accompanied with a CD of this music. The secular form of that polyphony took in this period was the very popular madrigal.
The Tallis Scholars, who have been on a worldwide tour for the past two years in East Asia, the U.S., Europe and England, consist of five men and five women on the vocal spectrum of altos, sopranos, tenors and basses. With the conductor Peter Phillips, they are Amy Haworth, Daisy Walford, Sumei Bao-Smith, Elisabeth Paul, Anna Semple, Simon Ponsford, Steven Harrold, Tom Castle, Tim Scott Whitney and Ben Davis. Many thanks to Jay Craven of Kingdom County Productions and the staff of the Highland Center for the Arts for making this unique performance possible.
There were seven selections on the program, all English composers, with the overarching theme of mother and child, appropriate for the Christmas season with its archetypal celebration of the birth of Christ. Almost all the texts were in Latin, the lingua franca of the Church, government and aristocracy of that time in Europe and many were dedicated in praise and prayer to Mary, who in medieval times came to fill an important role of the female element otherwise lacking in the traditional Christian pantheon barring saints.
The first piece was by Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1558), the Gloria from his “Missa Puer natus est nobis.” Fortunately the Tallis Scholars provided the Latin texts and English translations in a three-page supplement to the program, which here expresses gratitude to God, Christ and the Holy Ghost in enhancing the arabesques of different levels of voices, the high altos and sopranos being particularly striking.
“The Votive Mass of the Virgin” by William Byrd (c.1540 – 1623) was next with seven parts in the form of motets, rich in counterpoint and cannons with voices paralleling each other in repetition, quite a feat of scoring for any composer, all in a very peaceful tempo.
For variation, the following selection was a contemporary take on Renaissance polyphony by Mathew Martin (b. 1976), a “Salve Regina” (in Latin) dedicated to Mary, which had more variety of rhythm, textures and dynamics than the previous works, with even some seemingly dishonest passages. The verses were a plea for pity for our human suffering on earth.
After the intermission, the Tallis Scholars sang these short sections from the “Missa Puer matus est mobis” by Tallis, a Sanctus, Benedictus and Angus, with the same ethereal feeling as before. The contribution of Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1973) to this repertoire was “A Hymn to the Virgin”, an early work in his career. It curiously mixed English and Latin texts in its fervent praise of Mary as the Mother of Christ, using the traditional modes of English Renaissance music. John Tavener (1490 – 1545) was another composer of the period, and his “Mater Christi” was a plea to Mary to intervene with Christ for a suplicant’s prayers.
“The Magnificat” of John Nesbett (? – 1488) ended the concert in its tragedy of voices for “all the wondrous things”, God and Christ have done for human kind.
The audience responded with a well deserved standing ovation for a truly memorable performance that highlighted the well-integrated artistry of the singers.
