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• Tallis, Thomas: Sancte Deus

Tallis, Thomas: Sancte Deus

for 4 voices or instruments (AATB/TTBB).

This votive antiphon by Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585) survives in British Library, Add. MS 17802-5, where it is pitched a fifth higher. The total range of the parts is relatively low, and so, while the relatively high sonorities of the original version can sound very fine in a resonant church, for domestic performance, and more particularly for instruments, the lower pitch seemed more appropriate (but see below).
In choosing the voices or instruments for this piece it is important to balance the two upper parts well. A slow minim beat will allow the expressive rhythms to “float”.
In this edition the original note values have been halved. The occasional editorial accidental appears printed small above the stave. I am grateful to Clifford Bartlett for translating the text.