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• Tallis, Thomas: The Four Secular Songs

Tallis, Thomas: The Four Secular Songs

for 4 voices or instruments.

Sadly, very little secular music by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) has survived, which is a minor tragedy, to judge by the quality of the four songs printed here. As one would expect, the dominant influence is French, or at least Franco-Flemish, but some of the inflexions are recognisably English. And of course the fact that the text lines are longer than is normal in chansons gives these pieces quite a distinctive character. Perhaps the most original piece is Like as the Doleful Dove, in which the top part stays on one note for longer than one would expect in a secular work of this time. leaving the bass to provide the main interest. The rather low pitch of the bass (originally going down to C) suggests the possibility that the piece may have been conceived as a consort song, Again there is a parallel with the Franco-Flemish chanson: many pieces by Crecquillon and similar composers seemed to be designed at least partly with solo voice and viols in mind.
In this edition the original note values have been halved. Like as the Doleful Dove has been transposed up a tone. All four songs appear in the Mulliner Book (British Library, Add. MS 303513); in the case of no.3 this is the only musical source. No. 1 appears after Tenbury MS 958 (now in Bodleian Library), no. 2 after London, Royal College, MS 722, a score dated around 1800, and no. 4 after British Library, Add. MSS. 30480-4 and Royal App. 74-6, mostly the latter.