Tallis Scholars

Light of heavenly spheres – Tallis Scholars 50th Anniversary
The idea behind this programme was to include music which goes round and round, suggesting the motion of the planets. So we have pieces where the voices circle each other (Gibbons, Morley); pieces which describe light, arguably planetary light (Muhly, White, Rutter, Byrd, Fayrfax, Tallis); pieces which make use of canon (Palestrina, Josquin) - a technique which is based on two parts circling round each other; and Isaac's hymn to the angels and archangels, who traditionally inhabit the vastnesses of space. But perhaps the most complete of these choices is the last one, where Josquin involves his six-part choir in three separate canons. Here the top two parts move round each other, as do the third and fourth parts; and all of this is underpinned by two bass parts singing the L'homme armé melody in a special, retrograde canon made up of long-notes, God-like.