40 Cellos play Thomas Tallis' Spem in alium at the RNCM
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Thomas Tallis’ 40-part motet, Spem in alium in this version arranged by James Heathcote.
Forty cellists perform one of the greatest pieces of early English music.
Wonderful interpretation of a vocal piece into a musical piece yet capturing the cadence and soulful atmosphere of the piece. Thank you
This is astonishing! This has got to be one of the most complex, difficult to sing/play pieces ever written but these young people do a magnificent job translating it from voices to instruments only. And the conductor! So young, yet so absolutely professional! Congratulations to all concerned. A truly magnificent job.
I have taking part in playing this wonderful piece in a recorder orchestra at Dolmetsch summer course in 1994. I don´t know how it sounded if you were just listening, but it was magical to play and be a part of it and inside the orchestra it sounded nice. We were sitting in a circle and the music went like a wave round and round.
This makes it a lot easier to hear every individual voice at once. The problem unfortunately with pieces that require many singers and the acoustics of many churches/cathedrals is the sound sometimes tends to get muddled together, making it difficult to isolate every individual voice. Same with the organ.
However, the interplay between the actual voices and the reverb of the acoustics was what many, many composers had in mind in the Renaissance, including Tallis. You're right, though, Spem in Alium, in particular, gets a bit overwhelming... I think it should be performed with as few voices as possible, as little as one per part, if possible, to give it at least a bit of clarity.
But that’s the point - you are not meant to hear each part in isolation. It’s written almost as a 16th version of a tonal (but modal, because it is the Renaissance) cluster. The issue generally is the placement of the singers in the venue to get the optimum sound in terms of acoustics. Also the human voice is quite different to a cello in terms of frequency (rate and type of vibration). This does nothing for me. Just a group of cello players. If you want clarity watch the King’s Singers recording of this piece ruclips.net/video/XJDLQZWKWe8/видео.html
@@donna25871 It doesn't work with the cellos.
@@donna25871 I'd love to hear this played by cellos, violas and violins for better clarity - imagine a Vaughan Williams approach as with the Tallis Fantasia, although the difference there is that RVW took a "simple" four parts and arranged upwards, whereas Spem is already arranged upwards, so to speak. I composed a motet then recorded it with a string quartet and I think it sounds wonderfully clear and rich just with four instruments. Played on four cellos would give it a different and possibly worse colour.
I went to an exhibition at the Baltic in Gateshead a few years back. There was a room set out with forty small speakers on tall stands in a circle and you could sit in the middle to listen. Each speaker played a separate voice. I can't tell you how moving it was.
Holy crap, this is gorgeous.
i agree, the conductor is gorgeous
I swear some of you people, if you go to heaven will just bitch about how loud them angels is singing.
This is a youth orchestra. The intonation is a bit off in places, especially the higher registers where it is difficult for cellos to hit perfectly. Overall it is an inspiring performance and I listen to it often.
Agreed. people can be so unforgiving and elitist in their approach to listening.
It's also a very challenging piece, so I commend their bravery in performing what is ostensibly an incredibly difficult choral work and transposing it to cello.
That is the funniest and truest statement I've ever heard!
Beautiful ❤️
One of the most astonishing and beautiful pieces of music ever created. Only ever heard the choral version before, so this is really stunning to hear
I once heard (on public radio) a version performed by the Kronos Quartet--a surprise, since they ostensibly didn't play old music.
While this is a beautiful, interesting mass of music, and the piece is immediately recognizable, the cellos sound so alike that the give and take between the “choirs” was inaudible….the richness of the different tonal elements of human voices is lost, as though 40 sopranos sang, or 40 of any other vocal range. It was nice to hear once, but I wouldn’t need to hear it again.
Ooh, I was waiting for that RESPICE ... Very nice!
Wow, this is really something special! Thoroughly enjoyed it, it has a different quality to the choral version. I still prefer the choral version, but I might just come back to this one!
Fantastic , though in my view the human voice takes some beating and in praising god
astonishing - didn't think this could be done. Someone should do Spem with 40 saxophones
We did a version with 40 Flutes and a ContraBass
It’s such a monotonous sound, with every single instrument playing the part of five different voices! I’d get an absolute migraine with 40 saxes, my God! I have no idea why the conductor got 40 cellos instead of using 8 quintets (violin, violin, viola, cello bass) to play the parts originally scored (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass)….otherwise, it’s a carnival sideshow, maybe interesting seen once, but no need to see it again!
No
Is it illegal for string players NOT to use vibrato? This piece needs absolute clarity and not blurriness which vibrato imparts. It also needs an acoustical environment which is not dry. I would love to hear the same group perform this in a large stone church, with no vibrato.
Honestly, it's more that they're not completely nailing it. Perhaps the arrangement, the intonation, the timing . . . it doesn't translate well imo. It could also be using 40 instruments of the same range and timbre instead of the choral counterparts roughly represented by a string section.
This would have been a fun project for a whole bunch of proficient cellists, they probably only had 30 minutes to sight read and rehearse this during some weekend player's workshop, I doubt it was ever meant to be anything more than that!
I'm an atheist cello player and I'll be the first to admit that this sounds a bit flat compared to 40 singers praising God in a vast ancient cathedral with the knowledge that this piece was once the biggest sound anyone had ever heard. If I'd been invited to play in this I totally would have done it!
@Johann Sebastian first line, second paragraph. That's where I fitted it in. If you don't follow that's on you.
I adore this piece of music and the cello is pretty much my favourite stringed instrument. But, despite having listened to this God knows how many times, l'm still uncertain as to whether it actually "works"...
It doesn't. Still listened to the whole thing, though.
Understood, and perhaps the viola de gamba would make a good alternative. For example someone like Jordi Savall has gotta be as close as they come to making that instrument come close to imitating the human 'voice'.
The only way to have it work would to emulate Tallis’ choice of voices….8 quintets, with 5 instruments each corresponding to SATBB. It would have been _far_ easier to assemble the instrumentalists, too, instead of 40 of the same instrument, such as violin, violin, viola, cello, bass, which exactly correspond to the human voices. Otherwise, it’s just a wash of the same sound, made recognizable only from the very distinctive chord progressions.
A great idea, only cello’s. On me it has a strange effect. The natural sound of the strings are slowly combined with the human voices by the brain. It’s almost like listening to the choirs.
Eu também sinto a mesma coisa.
I am finding that. I can hear the voices with the cellos.
Unlike the human voices, these cellos are alike. So the notes must be written differently. What about trying with violins, bratsches, cellos and basses?
Concordo, creio que aplicando as vozes dentro dos instrumentos correspondentes na sua tessitura ficaria muito mais harmonioso. Mas não desprezo essa versão, ela ficou incrível!
ruclips.net/video/7upY7nCH3bw/видео.html
Aqui foi feito um arranjo eletrônico com outros instrumentos.
@@juanellan1522 Gracias!
Oh thats not Spanish... wow that is trippy i can understand most of what you said.
For the first time I heard it played by Kronos Quartet and still have only it in my head.
What can I say... Your record is amazing too ;) !
This is a wonderful expression of this sensational piece of Tallis. The feel of the sound hits differently than the vocal version. Well Done!
It’s _all the same tonal fabric!_ The piece is recognizable bc of the singular chord progressions, but it’s simply a wash of the same sound….it would have been so much more interesting with strings corresponding to the vocal parts (violin, violin, viola, cello, bass)!
@@voraciousreader3341 Yes in its sameness of tone it it beautiful. Strings would be wonderful but his voice was beautifully applied!
This lacks something that a choir of voices has. I think voices are so much more individual sounding than a bunch of cellos, which break up the cacophony of sound that this piece can elicit. In many places, it almost sounds like a string section tuning at the beginning of a concert. Also, I think lyrics break up the wall of sound in a way cellos can’t.
What a beautiful arrangiament!
bad idea...
Just crying, amazing, beautiful..
Was there some kind of drawing the short straw process to decide who would be playing the soprano parts? Asking for a shy friend who only ever did grade 5...
Has there ever been an actual orchestral transcription, like Stokowski and the Toccata and Fugue, I wonder...?
Rich Rolwing Kronos Quartet.
I wonder what it would be like with a full SATB string section?
Well, SATBB, to be precise (violin, violin, viola, cello, bass), and I agree that _that_ would be much more interesting to listen to. This is like looking at a monochromatic painting.
Very interesting take on this piece - it has a Ralph Vaughn Williams-type sound, which isn't surprising really, considering how he did borrow from Tallis for pieces such as "Fantasia on a Theme.."
What a silly thing to say! Vaughn Williams did a gorgeous orchestral “theme and variation” on something Tallis wrote, which isn’t _BORROWING_ at all! And it’s ludicrous to think that, bc he was in love with that hymn tune, Vaughn Williams based his whole compositional style on Tallis’! That is exactly like saying that Rachmaninov based his whole compositional style on Paganini’s when he composed a Rhapsody on one of Paganini’s themes!
What a good idea! Thank you!
This piece either sung or like now played is heart rendering beautiful calls for reflection and yet hope
What key is this in?? LOL...
Should say VVCB. Interested to know why that mightn't work?
This is great, but I liked Joe Parrish’s 40-guitars version better. The incisive attack on the guitars made for astonishing clarity.
And 40 guitars20 would have the same uninterrupted identical tonal fabric, with articulated entrances or not. The instruments need to correspond to the vocal parts, or it’s like a side show….maybe interesting once, but no need to go back again.
The 8 times 5 grouping is essential to any performance of this work whether by voices or as in this case.
Totaly agree. And the octave transposition blurrs it all and makes very harsh the normally beautiful G - G# 'rubbings' so characteristic of Tallis.
I also agree! I can’t understand the adulatory comments, but maybe they’re not musicians (?)….the chord progressions are instantly recognizable, but it’s a wash of sound, and only interesting as a stunt. It would have been so much easier to configure 8 string quintets (violin, violin, viola, cello, bass) than 40 cellos, and I imagine the sound would be glorious in the hands of professionals! I’ll stick to the vocal recordings, thank you very much.
Heaven's band class...
An interesting experiment but the cello alone cannot generate the range of color produced by treble, counter-tenor, tenor and base voices; also it can't put emphatic power into a phrase like "in tribulationem" or "Domine deus" the way a choir can.
Ummmmm…..it is _ALTO,_ not countertenor, which wasn’t necessary because Tallis used BOYS for his soprano and alto parts! It is completely anachronistic and frankly, ugly, for a woman to sing the soprano part and a MAN to sing the alto part! I can hear those ugly countertenor entrances whenever they’re used…..either women should be used, or boys, if it’s going to be accurate as to sound quality.
Incredible.
Soothing
nice
Simply marvellous! Thanks!
So beatiful. Thankyou.
the God instrument
Interesting but, to be honest, it is an infernal row. Pretty much an unrecordable piece.
Stop this vibrato mess!
Wow!
💙🌵⭕️😃
too much vibrato!!
Nice try but some of it was very painful. Humans can get away with being off-tune easier than cellos, I guess.
The bad bits are painful. The good bits are absolutely transcendent. It's like eating a meal by the best chef in the world, biting into a live slug partway through, and choosing to keep going anyhow because it is only the one slug, after all, and the rest of it is so completely perfect.
Gimmicky. Stick to voices.