Thomas Tallis & Good Will

This morning at choir we sang two magnificent pieces of music, one by Handel and the other by Tallis. I'm writing about the Tallis piece. I really didn't know Tallis at all, other than his name, until singing in the St. Boniface Choir with Benjamin Niemczyk, but I'm very grateful I do now. This is the third piece we've done of his, I think. Here is the beginning: 

Tallis, first five measures

Tallis is a master choral composer. I'm moved in particular by the way voices join and separate, agree and clash, rise and fall (both chromatically and dynamically). There is a reverence throughout. I'll give just one swift and pretty simple example, and it has to do with why I love choral singing. 

The sopranos begin, singing the word "O" on a. Then the other parts come in, singing the same syllable, "O," but where are the sopranos? They've gone to the next word, "Lord," yet their pitch still agrees with the basses and with what they, the sopranos, began with. However, the altos disagree; they have a different pitch, e, and the tenors have c. There are agreement and disagreement, meeting and leaving, and you feel these opposites as emotion and form as you sing or listen. Together, the four parts form a lovely, strong, somewhat sad a minor chord. The voice parts need each other in order to express this. 

Of course, the big things all the singers and all the parts agree on are the meter and the key. At least, we'd better!

As we were rehearsing, because of my study of Aesthetic Realism, I was consciously trying to match the sopranos' tone and pitch (an octave lower) and to encourage and strengthen them as I did. Choral music is always good will, which Eli Siegel defined as "the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful, for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful."  People don't know, because Aesthetic Realism is not widely known the way it should be, and I hope they will soon, that choral singing represents how we want to be every moment of our lives, singing or non-singing. That is one reason why I love it.  I am thankful to have learned about this in the class The Art of Singing: Technique and Feeling, taught by Carrie Wilson.  

Here is a link to a rendition I like of "O Lord, Give Thy Holy Spirit" by Thomas Tallis.