Well, at least mine was kind of appropriate. I was sitting with the cats, just drifting off into the beauty of the music and I got an ad for Dreamies cat treats. Still bloody infuriating!
Written for an incredible 8 choirs each singing 5 different musical lines, for a total of 40 independent musical lines. Even a Mahler sized orchestra would be hard pressed to duplicate this. Considered one of the greatest choral works of all Western music.
About 25 years ago, we drove from London to Cambridge to hear this sublime piece of 16th century Anglo-Catholic music composed by Thomas Tallis, a genius whose brilliance allowed Queen Elizabeth to ignore his religious faith. It was sung twice by the superb choir in King's chapel and we drove home delighted with what we had experienced. My wife, Jinnie, died 8 years ago but whenever I hear Spem in Alium I think of you, my darling, and that you are also enjoying it.
Giles Large Dear Giles, Rest easy in the knowledge that your Jinnie is looking down on you as you both remember your life and times together as well as shared reverence and enjoyment in this masterpiece. May the Lord shine his light upon you now and in the time ahead as you prepare once more to embrace your Jinnie. God Bless.
David Nesbit Thank you David. I've managed not to listen to this beautiful music for months. I am nearly in tears, of total sadness and amazement that anyone could compose anything quite so stunning and ageless. G
Giles Large I couldn't listen to classical/choral music (or any music) after my daughter died, seven years ago. it was just agonising. I braved listening to misere mei and cried a lot. then I found this tallis piece today and I was overwhelmed but I enjoyed it. I'm sad my daughter won't get to hear it though :)
puggilove , she will. the music is heavenly and I'm not particularly religious. For 50 years, this music has reduced me to tears, as I remember my wonderful and forgiving Jinnie, who I found sitting dead at our kitchen table, 10 years ago next month.
Not going to lie. I had a dream where I built an entire castle house so that the Tallis scholars could perform. I am now a carpenter, working to become a draftsman, working to become an architect. English ancestry is a hell of a drug.
Why not reach heaven as well? Then you can hear this song performed by the choirs of the angels, the martyrs and the choir of apostles, with Tallis as director.
I heard this work performed in Ely cathedral, some 40 years ago. The five choirs were distributed throughout the cathedral. The sound came from everywhere a fantastic experience.
Anthony Hart It’s a spectacular and memorable piece when performed in a location like one of England’s great cathedrals. I think your memory has played a slight trick though, the 40 parts of Spem in Alium are arranged into eight 5 part choirs.
I feel like kneeling down and pray. In today's tormented and cruel world, such a divine piece of music gives me hope that human beings are also able to create so much beauty and peace to our soul.
Francine, this is exactly how I'd describe it too. I heard this in live performance a few years ago and was moved to tears, by the powerful sense of what extraordinary things the human mind can create... As well as the awful things humanity has done, people are capable of things like this. Incredible.
@@philowen6739 With the actual situation in Ukraine, I have been listening to it daily. Like millions of Europeans I'm feeling so helpless. But as we say back at home, hope is the last to die
I’m here because my friend from Oxford, Nick had a mother called Gill. I liked her very much and on her death her husband Michael had this performed at her funeral. Requiem in Pace Gill and I shall never forget your kindness to me as a semi conscious teenager. With thanks, appreciation and blessings.
The splendour, the beauty and the grandeur of English musical genius. I melt and weep. I play it over and over again. There's far too much for even an hour's playing of it. I enter heaven and cannot leave. Thanks be to Jesus for giving us Tallis and the Tallis Scholars.
La première fois que j'ai entendu ce chef-d'oeuvre, c'était en 1997, je venais d'acheter un cd compilation "musique sacrée classique" choisi au hasard chez Virgin Megastore. Installée sur mon canapé, après une journée de boulot, j'avais allumé, comme souvent, mon chandelier à 5 branches pour l'ambiance. En arrivant sur ce morceau, en entendant ces voix... j'ai carrément glissé de mon canapé, comme liquéfiée ...je me suis retrouvée à genoux, en pleurant, tellement surmergée d'émotion.... ... Peut être le souvenir d'avoir entendu cette merveille lors d'une de mes anciennes vies ... à ces époques du moyen âge... Magique... Cela transporte vers les Cieux. Depuis, je l'ai écouté plus de mille fois ...
Amateur de musique Metal, quand je suis tombé tout à fait par hasard sur ce chant (parfois le logiciel de yt enrichi notre culture), j'ai éprouvé la même émotion.
RUclips is compressing the audio so that the dynamic range is not as wide as originally recorded - on the CD the quiet parts are subtler and the loud parts, more powerful. If you like this, buy the Tallis Scholars record, CD, or FLAC audio. Then crank up the volume to hear the true power of this 40 part motet.
@@normanchristie4524I’m 16(not 75!), my ears are fine, and the compression is quite obvious when compared to the high quality(maybe lossless?) Spotify counterpart.
I just spoke to my best friend from Augusta, who now lives in Denton, Texas. We taught Music at what was Augusta College 1978-1983. He plays Clarinet and I play Trumpets. I can't sleep! Home- sick! Spem was ALWAYS my favorite Medieval piece of Music. So Soothing! Michael McClary, retired Professor of Music/ Trumpet
I am but 14 years old, but I love this piece. I love all forms of classical music and Tallis has always been a favorite. Words can’t describe the level of beauty and truth this piece speaks with, that’s what I love about music. It’s a whole new universal language. It’s can convey meaning and emotions like nothing else can, bringing the listener to a whole new state of mind.
That, is the definition of 'Music' as opposed to mere 'Sound'. Music by definition originally meant, ". . . of the Muses." Of god's and goddesses. What they implied is that unless it moves you to " . . . a whole new state of mind." it is merely pleasant sounds but not 'Music'.
Wow! Your language and taste suggest that you are already an adult, at least intellectually. This music gives me the feeling that I believe something when in fact I believe little.
It's interesting what brings people here. It's 5 am in Canada, threw on the TV, some docu on Henry VIII. I went to Google some of the homes/castles mentioned. Came across an article about Nonsuch place, built for Heny's 30 year of reign. It went to his daughter Mary, then to Elizabeth I, where this song/motet was first performed for her 40th birthday. What a birthday present! The rest of us just get the Happy Birthday song.
+Jordan Cirincione this is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. It is a classic of renaissance and western art. Equal to anything Mozart or Beethoven ever did. Your tears are the tears of man faced with the sublime. I find this piece literally awe inspiring, majestic.
“Hope in Any Other Have I None” This is honestly one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. It’s my most favorite choral song. 🥰 I went to Catholic school growing up, my music teacher introduced me to Anglo-Catholic choral music in 2nd grade...I’ll always be grateful for that. If I ever got married, I would want this song to be played.
I always describe this as the angels singing from the heavens. I’ve gone to hear the Tallis Scholars in concert for years and every time I hear them, it brings me to tears.
it is now many years since I first bought an LP of the music of Thomas Tallis, which I no longer have. No matter. I want to say how utterly overwhelmed I was the first time I listened to 'Spem in Alium'. I was shaken to the very core. I put the LP back to the start, turned the lights off, set the LP to 'Play' and listened in stunned amazement and wonder. I had read my first book on astronomy in 1946 when I was 8 years old living about a mile from Cork City, well beyond any possible light pollution so that the sky was a pristine wonder to behold. That evening in the early 1970s as I listened to this piece my heart and mind took me on a cruise through the stars and galaxies of creation on beams of Christian faith and of modern cosmology. I decided that Tallis was, like Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn and so on, one of the greatest Christian composers ever. I have not yet changed my mind about that...
You do know of that this level of passionate creatively focused and inspired talent can ONLY ever be divinely inspired. GOD must have been very pleased with his creation in the form of mr. Tallis. To have known this man or even to be a confidant must have been a very valued gift.
I first heard this in the National Art Gallery, in Ottawa, Canada. The art installation consisted of forty speakers arranged in a circle with each one playing one voice from the choir. Standing in the middle of that was a sublime experience.
Just seeing this comment now. I wrote a paper on the Rideau Chapel for my architecture school, and had the opportunity to hear this amazing piece of music many times during my research. Such a treat
The art installation is Forty Part Motet by Janet Cardiff, performed and recorded by Salisbury Cathedral choir. My best friend and I experienced it first at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and it was a life changing experience. Walking around and between the speakers, each at head height to represent each chorister was just magical. I was fortunate to experience it again about ten years later in Leeds, UK and it was again mind blowing.
I first heard this on the radio in 1982, I had the great privilege of singing one of five of the top tenor parts in 2010. This is one of the most haunting, challenging and beautiful choral pieces ever composed, its even more beautiful when you can sing it. Thank you for posting it and taking me back to my si nging days before lockdown. Gary Jones
I listen. Teardrops fall from my eyes, the rain bringing forth joy and fulfillment. I feel the presence of Heaven in this. No tongue of man has words for this bliss, this splendour of voice, spirit and soul given form. Kyrie eleison.
Listening to this fabulous piece makes me feel like I am peaking heaven. The amazing harmonics touched me so well that I felt such graceness which I've never felt listening to any other pieces. It has been a shame that this piece isn't know by much people. I believe more people should discover this piece, to make the world a better place.
Many years ago I made a tour through the Netherlands (Brabant) with the choir a was a member of (soprano). Together with 7 other choirs we performed this music, most of the time in churches and cathedrals. I will never forget this experience.
Hi. I was just reading about this on Tenebrae's website. Is this the same online choir Nigel Short describes in his blog? Is it still ongoing and where can I find out information about it? Or, if it's over, where can I hear it? Sounds really amazing.
@@LisztyLiszt Hi, Nigel Short has conducted Choir of the Earth singers in this wonderful Tallis Spem in Alium. You can hear it on RUclips where you will see each of the choirs represented with Nigel conducting them. It is quite incredible. Enjoy it! And do consider joining COTE.
It's called Choir of the Earth, formerly Self Isolation Choir. Their library of music grows week by week. Voice parts are taught, in historical context by professional musicians and recording submissions are optional. A very worthwhile membership -- try it!
Tallis is a genius. I first fell in love with his music and then sought to learn more about him on a personal level. The historical conflicts in which he lived doubtless shaped his character and music. I only wish we had this kind of theological beauty, worldview and art commingling today. I seldom hear anything that has such content and a glimpse of God's glory all together today. The translation of this song alone has the scent of heaven.
I first heard this, many years ago, when my music professor played it for our class. We all listened to it in silence, and when it was finished, the entire class sighed in awe as if they had just heard a choir of angels as, indeed, it seemed to be. I will never forget that class and I thank that professor for sharing it. I love all pieces by Tallis, but this one in particular. It still fills my heart and soul with its beauty.
So glad to see the comments about how this great music has been a blessing to so many. So often when we think of England and its enormous accomplishments throughout history (no anticolonialism comments, please), its enormous cultural and musical legacies are overlooked. As the world morphs into a whole different society at warp speed, much of the past is ridiculed, scorned, politicized or forgotten. It is nice to see that there are still so many people that remember, appreciate, and respect what England has contributed to western civilization. And I am not English, by the way.
Interesting story. Choral singing was at its peak. An Italian composer was bragging he'd written a choral piece for like 35 voices. Which indeed was quite a feat. Thomas Tallis was all like, "Hold my beer...." and wrote this for 40 voices.
Jack Archer if you genuinely don't know and aren't just being ironic, then believe me you're probably best not knowing. . . and yes it is the best choral work known to Man
Devan Brandalick No one , not even the perpetrator of such pathetic trash should be burned at the stake. That went out with St Joan of Arc.. I doubt Deus Vult. Especially when He professes to be slow to anger and rich in mercy!! The book itself in my opinion IS only fit for burning, though And every online or pdf copy deleted.Every copy of the film too,
It's worthy to have lived in this world, if only to hear Tallis, Monteverdi, Allegri and Mozart - that such beauty can be brought into being by human beings.
Sublime is the word Athiests would use to describe this piece. And I see it has been posted here several times by irreligious persons. Sam Harris, a best selling Athiest author has written many books describing the psychology behind & depth of the human experience of "spirituality."
If we could bring back that golden record and send this masterpiece straight into space, that it may reverberate throughout all the heavens. All creatures capable of perceiving sound would capture it and would instantly know the lonely planet called earth. This seemingly simple organization of sound sums up the entirety of the human race and tells the story of us all; The journey from chaos to beauty.
Every broadcast with this piece of sublime music on it is Already reverberating through space. Travelling faster than Voyager's Golden Record. May it give other civilisations much pleasure and let them know that Earth is a cultured, peaceful world
Magnificent. A real monster- a 40 part motet composed by one of the great choral masters right at the top of his game. What a 40th Birthday present for QE1!
Man doth ride on the mountains of brilliance when sustained by He that is. How do we realize the humiliation of our personhood? Prostate thyself in the eye of thy creator and know your worthlessness. Fell night does cloud the world. By the imperfect striving of men towards knowing the inscriptions of our hearts will rays of luminescent understanding heal the earth of its wounds. No man shall see this day until he excepts his own unworthiness.
This is one of my favourite pieces of music - would definately take to a desert island. The Tallis Scholars are wonderful and this is the recording I always go to. The sound is extraordinary - a tapestry of woven sound. And just when you think it can't get any more extraordinary it goes on and on building. You don't want it to stop.
I was fortunate enough to hear the Tallis Scholars sing this at their 40th anniversary concert in St Paul's ... it was sublime. And it always make me think of my beloved uncle, who introduced me to this piece about 30 years ago ... it was a revelation.
Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. I finally got to see the Scholars in concert after a 30 year wait. They performed at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Just out of this world.
One of the greatest works of Western Civilization, the acme of polyphony. I first heard it in Boston Symphony Hall, conducted by a young fellow named Michael Tilson-Thomas, with the choirs distributed around the hall for the full effect, very daring. I was 18, I think. Never to be forgotten. Still I find more in it every time I hear it.
I am only 13 but this piece is one of the most magnificent pieces of music I have ever come across! I love Tallis and this has got to by far be my favourite arrangement. Absolutely divine 😻👏🏼
I found early music at your age, 60 years ago. It has been a lifetime's love since then. Tallis is really special and there is more beautiful music out there and in print and available today. Take it up yourself, if you are able, by singing, or playing an instrument. Join others with the same passion. You won't regret it.
I am delighted that you enjoy playing and singing. The reason I was on this site was to find a piece that was suitable to play in a concert with a vocal early music group. I play the viola da gamba with an instrumental group and am looking for a verse anthem that would suit our line up. I think one of the pieces we will do is Orlando Gibbons', "This is the record of John". Long may you continue to make music.
Ashy B good for you! I've just found it and I'm 45, can't play an instrument or sing very well but I'm attempting to sing along, my neighbours probs think I'm mad but hey ho! do learn an instrument if you can, it'll bring you joy peace and friends. my school was poor and only had xylophone recorders and bongos so i wasn't inspired at the time. good luck on yr musical journey, love from England:)
i fell in love with the music of Palestrina many years ago after hearing a multi-day 'orgy' of his work on the radio station from Harvard University. the Tallis Scholars performed so beautifully that i sought them out wherever i could find them. they were my introduction to polyphony, and, for that, i am forever grateful.
This is an excellent recording of this wonderful work and I believe the best one out there. The Tallis Scholars is my most favorite group of all in performing this kind of music. Discovered this group while I was in university. Thank you for posting it.
I feel like I’m the only person who’s never seen 50 shades of Grey. But this piece brought me to tears, amazingly beautiful! I imagine this is what angels sounds like when they sing
Many can't conceptualize how holy BDSM is. It is a sacrament. It is spiritual encounter between souls giving their all in complete vulnerability & strength. You bring your whole self to that room. You bare your soul. It is an interplay of the divine masculine & the divine feminine that is unparalleled. Red Carter has a song called "This Side of Heaven" that is exquisite in it's own rights. It's from a series entitled Gabriels Inferno that is an example of another D/s relationship that expands on the love between souls. ❤️🤍🧡💛💙💜
I have never seen it and probably never will, but so what? I have known and loved this piece (and the Tallis Scholars) for 25 years now. Saw them live in Schloss Dachau near Munich once - magnificent!
As a friend said about fifty shades of grey. That even the devil is subject to scoring an own goal. That's what comes of trying to change the true meaning of something that is on a totally different level.
Une pensée pour toute ses victimes de Paris du vendredi 13 novembre 2015 pour les familles qui sont dans le chagrin et la douleur mes condoléances courage.
Merci beaucoup pour ce souvenir. J'espere que les familles maintenant ont trouve quelque paix dans leur vies. Excusez-moi, mais mon clavier est seule en anglais.
Anyone else arrive at this page because of his or her genuine interest in classic Renaissance polyphony? Or Thomas Tallis, in particular? And not because of some half-baked romance novel? Just wondering. I mean, it's great that you all got here one way or another, because Thomas Tallis is one of the best composers that ever lived. I hope you like what you're hearing. :)
I genuinely love XVI century sacred music, I guess that way brought me here. This is just so amazing; wish I could get the voice arrangement to perform such a thing!
Years ago I awoke each morning to our local classical station. One morning, in that dreamy state before fully awakening, I dreamt that I had passed and was hearing voices of heaven….Spem In Alium. This remains one of my very favorite renaissance, as well as Tallis, musical pieces.
Yes. I didn't even know it had featured in a 'novel' until I came upon it here. I am attending a concert including this piece next week, in fact. By the way, if anyone reading this has never heard Tallis's "Miserere nostri" go and listen to it (and yet again the Tallis Scholars have a wonderful rendition of it).
No clue what book it was in, but what directed me here is Sir Terry Pratchett's wish to choose his time to die while in his garden listening to Tallis. www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal
I am listening because I heard this at the National Gallery in Ottawa last summer and thought it was so beautiful. Janet Cardiff had an installation of 40 speakers, each an individual voice around the perimeter of the Rideau chapel and one could stand in the middle and listen to this. Enchanting!
+Nancy Rafferty What an experience that performance must have been.. lucky you.. Many decades ago, in a local choir l always remember what, at the time, was a truly difficult piece which was a 40-part Amen.. very difficult and very exhilarating all at the same time.
What’s really magical is to feel the hand of god and then have a White Claw commercial blast through
It was f!king AirBnB for me, right in the midst of that incredible fermata before all 40 voices come together at once. INFURIATING
Use Brave browser
Well, at least mine was kind of appropriate. I was sitting with the cats, just drifting off into the beauty of the music and I got an ad for Dreamies cat treats. Still bloody infuriating!
i just use ublock origin
Igebl*ck for Android removes the ads
Written for an incredible 8 choirs each singing 5 different musical lines, for a total of 40 independent musical lines. Even a Mahler sized orchestra would be hard pressed to duplicate this. Considered one of the greatest choral works of all Western music.
And of absolutely amazing beauty, unearthly even.
Indeed, unearthly and glorious.
Argee.
@@ludante Ethereal. Heart-wrenching.
Yes, sublime
I sang this at my church my senior year in high school 20 years ago, and honestly that will probably be the high point of my musical life
About 25 years ago, we drove from London to Cambridge to hear this sublime piece of 16th century Anglo-Catholic music composed by Thomas Tallis, a genius whose brilliance allowed Queen Elizabeth to ignore his religious faith.
It was sung twice by the superb choir in King's chapel and we drove home delighted with what we had experienced.
My wife, Jinnie, died 8 years ago but whenever I hear Spem in Alium I think of you, my darling, and that you are also enjoying it.
Giles Large Dear Giles, Rest easy in the knowledge that your Jinnie is looking down on you as you both remember your life and times together as well as shared reverence and enjoyment in this masterpiece. May the Lord shine his light upon you now and in the time ahead as you prepare once more to embrace your Jinnie. God Bless.
David Nesbit Thank you David. I've managed not to listen to this beautiful music for months. I am nearly in tears, of total sadness and amazement that anyone could compose anything quite so stunning and ageless.
G
Giles Large bless you, that's a lovely story to share with us :)
Giles Large I couldn't listen to classical/choral music (or any music) after my daughter died, seven years ago. it was just agonising. I braved listening to misere mei and cried a lot. then I found this tallis piece today and I was overwhelmed but I enjoyed it. I'm sad my daughter won't get to hear it though :)
puggilove , she will. the music is heavenly and I'm not particularly religious. For 50 years, this music has reduced me to tears, as I remember my wonderful and forgiving Jinnie, who I found sitting dead at our kitchen table, 10 years ago next month.
Magnificent. My father is dying in my home now...Im playing this glorious piece for him. May he rest in the brilliant light of it's sound.
What a lovely, lovely thing to do for your Dad
Hope there’s someone there to play it for me when the time comes.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Wow, just wow Jane. Beautiful
I hope you have found piece of mind
Imagine being the only person to hear all that in your head. No wonder he wrote it down, he’d have gone mad otherwise. Stunning piece.
Last piece of music my father listened to before he died in 1996. So beautiful.
God bless you both. If a piece of music can carry a soul to heaven, then this is it. 😢
no need to die and reach heaven: this man brought it down to earth, blessed be his memory and his talent
Not going to lie. I had a dream where I built an entire castle house so that the Tallis scholars could perform. I am now a carpenter, working to become a draftsman, working to become an architect. English ancestry is a hell of a drug.
Amen to that
Why not reach heaven as well? Then you can hear this song performed by the choirs of the angels, the martyrs and the choir of apostles, with Tallis as director.
You just defined the meaning of transcendent.
no need to die at all.
I heard this work performed in Ely cathedral, some 40 years ago. The five choirs were distributed throughout the cathedral. The sound came from everywhere a fantastic experience.
Ely is a wonderful building. I will never forget the evening light filtering through the windows on a November day.
Anthony Hart It’s a spectacular and memorable piece when performed in a location like one of England’s great cathedrals. I think your memory has played a slight trick though, the 40 parts of Spem in Alium are arranged into eight 5 part choirs.
@@elaineblackhurst1509 you are correct. My memory fades after so long! It was a beautiful evening,
Anthony Hart No problem; everyone who loves music should hear Spem in Alium sung in an English cathedral at least once in their lifetime.
It's like being in a rainfall of stars, of purest light.
I feel like kneeling down and pray. In today's tormented and cruel world, such a divine piece of music gives me hope that human beings are also able to create so much beauty and peace to our soul.
I feel much the same.
Blessed music 😊
Francine, this is exactly how I'd describe it too. I heard this in live performance a few years ago and was moved to tears, by the powerful sense of what extraordinary things the human mind can create... As well as the awful things humanity has done, people are capable of things like this. Incredible.
@@philowen6739 With the actual situation in Ukraine, I have been listening to it daily. Like millions of Europeans I'm feeling so helpless. But as we say back at home, hope is the last to die
@@francinesicard464 well said 💐.
Tallis, for those moments, had a direct line to God...
I’m here because my friend from Oxford, Nick had a mother called Gill. I liked her very much and on her death her husband Michael had this performed at her funeral. Requiem in Pace Gill and I shall never forget your kindness to me as a semi conscious teenager. With thanks, appreciation and blessings.
This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard in my life
The morning of Christmas eve and I discover this! Perfection.
Hold on to the memory. This Christmas 2020 looks to be the worst since I can remember and beyond. Beautiful music like this will help us pull through
Misere mei
Hymn of the cherubim
@@count7340 and Memory Eternal
The splendour, the beauty and the grandeur of English musical genius. I melt and weep. I play it over and over again. There's far too much for even an hour's playing of it. I enter heaven and cannot leave. Thanks be to Jesus for giving us Tallis and the Tallis Scholars.
I'm just thanking his mum and dad.
First time I ever heard this music (70 years old) - it blew my socks right off!
La première fois que j'ai entendu ce chef-d'oeuvre, c'était en 1997, je venais d'acheter un cd compilation "musique sacrée classique" choisi au hasard chez Virgin Megastore.
Installée sur mon canapé, après une journée de boulot, j'avais allumé, comme souvent, mon chandelier à 5 branches pour l'ambiance.
En arrivant sur ce morceau, en entendant ces voix... j'ai carrément glissé de mon canapé, comme liquéfiée ...je me suis retrouvée à genoux, en pleurant, tellement surmergée d'émotion.... ...
Peut être le souvenir d'avoir entendu cette merveille lors d'une de mes anciennes vies ... à ces époques du moyen âge...
Magique... Cela transporte vers les Cieux.
Depuis, je l'ai écouté plus de mille fois ...
Amateur de musique Metal, quand je suis tombé tout à fait par hasard sur ce chant (parfois le logiciel de yt enrichi notre culture), j'ai éprouvé la même émotion.
Incredibly beautiful. 😢
RUclips is compressing the audio so that the dynamic range is not as wide as originally recorded - on the CD the quiet parts are subtler and the loud parts, more powerful. If you like this, buy the Tallis Scholars record, CD, or FLAC audio. Then crank up the volume to hear the true power of this 40 part motet.
By the time you are 75 you won't be capable of hearing them! It won't affect youenjoyment.
@@normanchristie4524I’m 16(not 75!), my ears are fine, and the compression is quite obvious when compared to the high quality(maybe lossless?) Spotify counterpart.
Tallis Scholars recordings are unbalanced -- the sopranos are far too prominent. Van Nevel's recording is much better.
Spotify is not lossless, a CD has between 4x and 60x better quality than Spotify (depending on your Spotify subscription and settings).
@@Infinite_Maelstrom Supposedly Spotify is going to offer lossless (for a deluxe price) "real soon now". We'll see if it's true this time.
I just spoke to my best friend from Augusta, who now lives in Denton, Texas. We taught Music at what was Augusta College 1978-1983. He plays Clarinet and I play Trumpets. I can't sleep! Home- sick! Spem was ALWAYS my favorite Medieval piece of Music. So Soothing! Michael McClary, retired Professor of Music/ Trumpet
I'm listening to this through headphones with tears rolling down my cheeks.Sublime.
I sat, immersed in this fully, in a drunken stuper, overwhelmed even, only to have an ad at half way
Ridiculous, isn't it? Sort it out, RUclips.
use Brave, no adds
I am but 14 years old, but I love this piece. I love all forms of classical music and Tallis has always been a favorite. Words can’t describe the level of beauty and truth this piece speaks with, that’s what I love about music. It’s a whole new universal language. It’s can convey meaning and emotions like nothing else can, bringing the listener to a whole new state of mind.
How's kindergarden
That, is the definition of 'Music' as opposed to mere 'Sound'. Music by definition originally meant, ". . . of the Muses." Of god's and goddesses.
What they implied is that unless it moves you to " . . . a whole new state of mind." it is merely pleasant sounds but not 'Music'.
So impressed that you enjoy and appreciate the sublime nature of this music. I hope your interest and enjoyment continues all through your life.
Wow! Your language and taste suggest that you are already an adult, at least intellectually. This music gives me the feeling that I believe something when in fact I believe little.
You are 14 *but* you love this? 14-year-olds should not love this? :-)
It's interesting what brings people here. It's 5 am in Canada, threw on the TV, some docu on Henry VIII. I went to Google some of the homes/castles mentioned. Came across an article about Nonsuch place, built for Heny's 30 year of reign. It went to his daughter Mary, then to Elizabeth I, where this song/motet was first performed for her 40th birthday. What a birthday present! The rest of us just get the Happy Birthday song.
This reached into my soul and brought out tears. I don't know what I'm crying about but here I am...
+Jordan Cirincione look at my comment, I had same experience
+Jordan Cirincione - you cry because you have a soul... This is sublime.
+Jordan Cirincione this is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. It is a classic of renaissance and western art. Equal to anything Mozart or Beethoven ever did. Your tears are the tears of man faced with the sublime. I find this piece literally awe inspiring, majestic.
+Jordan Cirincione , I fail to understand how Spem in Alium could not find a man's soul and a subsequent tear perhaps.
+Jordan Cirincione Because your a woman.
For every suffering in the world there is a master piece like this one inviting us to go deep in oceans of peace
HALLELUJAH ❗🙌
I had the good fortune to see this choir in performance at a church in Highgate, Birmingham back in the mid 90s. Mesmerising. Wonderful.
This music makes me cry and the stories people are sharing in the comment section makes me cry as well. Wow. Sublime!
Maybe you should cry less.
Ces voix qui s'entremèlent, nous emportent, nous enveloppent ... Grandiose !
I heard there are no images of Tallis ever painted. Yet I say to you... who needs to see his face, when so clearly we feel his soul through his music.
Transcendant 🌠en cette période d'Ascension et Pentecôte 2021.
Une élévation spirituelle, à n'en pas douter 🌈 un voyage dans l'au delà.
“Hope in Any Other Have I None” This is honestly one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. It’s my most favorite choral song. 🥰 I went to Catholic school growing up, my music teacher introduced me to Anglo-Catholic choral music in 2nd grade...I’ll always be grateful for that. If I ever got married, I would want this song to be played.
I always describe this as the angels singing from the heavens. I’ve gone to hear the Tallis Scholars in concert for years and every time I hear them, it brings me to tears.
it is now many years since I first bought an LP of the music of Thomas Tallis, which I no longer have. No matter. I want to say how utterly overwhelmed I was the first time I listened to 'Spem in Alium'. I was shaken to the very core. I put the LP back to the start, turned the lights off, set the LP to 'Play' and listened in stunned amazement and wonder. I had read my first book on astronomy in 1946 when I was 8 years old living about a mile from Cork City, well beyond any possible light pollution so that the sky was a pristine wonder to behold. That evening in the early 1970s as I listened to this piece my heart and mind took me on a cruise through the stars and galaxies of creation on beams of Christian faith and of modern cosmology. I decided that Tallis was, like Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn and so on, one of the greatest Christian composers ever. I have not yet changed my mind about that...
+Patrick Tobin Yes, but way beyond the bindings of Christianity and its ways. He was, simply, one of the great composers, period.
word!
You do know of that this level of passionate creatively focused and inspired talent can ONLY ever be divinely inspired. GOD must have been very pleased with his creation in the form of mr. Tallis. To have known this man or even to be a confidant must have been a very valued gift.
@@mitchellwhite9920 tthhù7uwu.,...90u9u 0⁸⁹
@@calonlan7561 no, this IS the bindings of Christ, who says, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
First heard this over 60 years ago on a BBC Sunday evening radio programme. It's haunted me- very wonderfully!- ever since
Music to make you weep with joy and marvel at the Creator and His creation.
Simply amazing. I want this song to carry me through dying. I cannot imagine a more heavenly earth song.
It worked for Terry Pratchett.
Then maybe "Nearer, my God, to Thee'' sung by BYU Vocal Point may lay in your interests too.
One of the most beautiful pieces of music in the cosmos. Thank you for posting.
one doesn't just listen to this, one experiences it. it washes over the mind and feeds the soul!
One of the great things to do in life: sing Spem in Alium at least once
Step one: make 39 friends...
I first heard this in the National Art Gallery, in Ottawa, Canada.
The art installation consisted of forty speakers arranged in a circle with each one playing one voice from the choir.
Standing in the middle of that was a sublime experience.
The same for me. And I went back a few more times. Crying and goosebumps!
Just seeing this comment now. I wrote a paper on the Rideau Chapel for my architecture school, and had the opportunity to hear this amazing piece of music many times during my research. Such a treat
The art installation is Forty Part Motet by Janet Cardiff, performed and recorded by Salisbury Cathedral choir. My best friend and I experienced it first at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and it was a life changing experience. Walking around and between the speakers, each at head height to represent each chorister was just magical. I was fortunate to experience it again about ten years later in Leeds, UK and it was again mind blowing.
i experienced it today in cukrarna and i have experienced heaven. it's so magnificent and i love it so much
@@andyshaw9497,
Very grateful for your post. Thank you.
I first heard this on the radio in 1982, I had the great privilege of singing one of five of the top tenor parts in 2010. This is one of the most haunting, challenging and beautiful choral pieces ever composed, its even more beautiful when you can sing it. Thank you for posting it and taking me back to my si nging days before lockdown.
Gary Jones
Благо дарю за счастье слушать эту неземную музыку.
I listen. Teardrops fall from my eyes, the rain bringing forth joy and fulfillment. I feel the presence of Heaven in this. No tongue of man has words for this bliss, this splendour of voice, spirit and soul given form.
Kyrie eleison.
A great writer brought me here. R.I.P. and thank you, sir Terry!!
Listening to this fabulous piece makes me feel like I am peaking heaven. The amazing harmonics touched me so well that I felt such graceness which I've never felt listening to any other pieces. It has been a shame that this piece isn't know by much people. I believe more people should discover this piece, to make the world a better place.
The boy Tallis could sure sort out a vocal arrangement. Stunningly, hauntingly wonderful.
No matter what music you favour, choral music gives the feeling that it is outworldly..
Just heard this today, for the first time, on BBC 3. I’m not normally a massive classic fan, but this is incredible.
Many years ago I made a tour through the Netherlands (Brabant) with the choir a was a member of (soprano). Together with 7 other choirs we performed this music, most of the time in churches and cathedrals. I will never forget this experience.
Soon singing this divine music with a huge online choir. Hope and joy for these dark dark times. Wonderful composer touching us so deeply. Glorious.
Hi. I was just reading about this on Tenebrae's website. Is this the same online choir Nigel Short describes in his blog? Is it still ongoing and where can I find out information about it? Or, if it's over, where can I hear it? Sounds really amazing.
@@LisztyLiszt Hi, Nigel Short has conducted Choir of the Earth singers in this wonderful Tallis Spem in Alium. You can hear it on RUclips where you will see each of the choirs represented with Nigel conducting them. It is quite incredible. Enjoy it! And do consider joining COTE.
It's called Choir of the Earth, formerly Self Isolation Choir. Their library of music grows week by week. Voice parts are taught, in historical context by professional musicians and recording submissions are optional. A very worthwhile membership -- try it!
Tallis is a genius. I first fell in love with his music and then sought to learn more about him on a personal level. The historical conflicts in which he lived doubtless shaped his character and music. I only wish we had this kind of theological beauty, worldview and art commingling today. I seldom hear anything that has such content and a glimpse of God's glory all together today. The translation of this song alone has the scent of heaven.
It's not about what BROUGHT you to listen to this piece, It's what the piece BRINGS TO YOU after you listen that matters
Even when these superb singers cease their praise, a place in my psyche still resonates with HOPE and TALLIS.
Music is probably humanity's best and purest accomplishment given its net positives.
Wow great point, hopefully aliens will let go of a lot of the bad human stuff because of the beautiful music we managed to produce.
Does that include Rap!
I first heard this, many years ago, when my music professor played it for our class. We all listened to it in silence, and when it was finished, the entire class sighed in awe as if they had just heard a choir of angels as, indeed, it seemed to be. I will never forget that class and I thank that professor for sharing it. I love all pieces by Tallis, but this one in particular. It still fills my heart and soul with its beauty.
So glad to see the comments about how this great music has been a blessing to so many. So often when we think of England and its enormous accomplishments throughout history (no anticolonialism comments, please), its enormous cultural and musical legacies are overlooked. As the world morphs into a whole different society at warp speed, much of the past is ridiculed, scorned, politicized or forgotten. It is nice to see that there are still so many people that remember, appreciate, and respect what England has contributed to western civilization. And I am not English, by the way.
Well said. 😊
Dont worry, the pettiness of our time will be drown in time but the greatness of the past will stay forever
Just Shakespear alone would be profound, but there is so much more
Interesting story. Choral singing was at its peak. An Italian composer was bragging he'd written a choral piece for like 35 voices. Which indeed was quite a feat. Thomas Tallis was all like, "Hold my beer...." and wrote this for 40 voices.
Thomas Tallis was an amazing man. So glad his music survives.
Absolutely,extraordinarily beautiful. Bravo to Thomas Tallis and the Tallis Scholars.
50 Shades did NOT bring me here. Getting the chance to sing this piece brought me here :)
What is 50 Shades? I came here because it's one of the most beautiful and inspiring pieces of music ever written.
Jack Archer if you genuinely don't know and aren't just being ironic, then believe me you're probably best not knowing. . . and yes it is the best choral work known to Man
I am here because I was researching music of the 1500s
OrangeSodaKing this talks about the God of Israel. I think who ever made that Sick film should be Burned at the stake. Deus Vult!
Devan Brandalick No one , not even the perpetrator of such pathetic trash should be burned at the stake. That went out with St Joan of Arc.. I doubt Deus Vult. Especially when He professes to be slow to anger and rich in mercy!!
The book itself in my opinion IS only fit for burning, though And every online or pdf copy deleted.Every copy of the film too,
Singing this in a couple of weeks, assuming I can manage to hold back the tears at the beauty of it.
I hope that you have attended this performance, if not, please post a recording (if you don't mind) when you do?
What else is there to say other than this is absolutely superb and inspirational.
It's worthy to have lived in this world, if only to hear Tallis, Monteverdi, Allegri and Mozart - that such beauty can be brought into being by human beings.
having just listened to this, I am now going to sit in silence, forever.
Have you spoken yet?
A beautiful deeply moving cry of faith, my soul is singing with them.
Your words are so apt, this transports me to a heavenly place 😊
HALLELUJAH ❗🙌
You don't need to be religious in any sense to appreciate the total beauty that is encapsulated in this exquisite piece of music. Simply stunning!!!
You actually do though. I know you feel something from this, but truly understanding what hope in God means is something else indeed.
Sublime is the word Athiests would use to describe this piece. And I see it has been posted here several times by irreligious persons. Sam Harris, a best selling Athiest author has written many books describing the psychology behind & depth of the human experience of "spirituality."
If we could bring back that golden record and send this masterpiece straight into space, that it may reverberate throughout all the heavens. All creatures capable of perceiving sound would capture it and would instantly know the lonely planet called earth. This seemingly simple organization of sound sums up the entirety of the human race and tells the story of us all; The journey from chaos to beauty.
I agree. Any culture that can produce such beautiful music can't be all bad.
Every broadcast with this piece of sublime music on it is Already reverberating through space. Travelling faster than Voyager's Golden Record. May it give other civilisations much pleasure and let them know that Earth is a cultured, peaceful world
Geoffy, nice work.
you are right. iam sure we are the only life in the universe that can make beauties like this
Succinctly put sir
Magnificent. A real monster- a 40 part motet composed by one of the great choral masters right at the top of his game. What a 40th Birthday present for QE1!
Même un incroyant tombe à genoux en entendant cette musique divine
tried it once in a choir. Trust me this version is awesome.
Agreed
@@MattA-nz9ze Coasters, Gaming *and* stuff?!! you are my people
Would love to sing it! Presumably it requires a lot of confidence as you are on your own on each part?
Man doth ride on the mountains of brilliance when sustained by He that is. How do we realize the humiliation of our personhood? Prostate thyself in the eye of thy creator and know your worthlessness. Fell night does cloud the world. By the imperfect striving of men towards knowing the inscriptions of our hearts will rays of luminescent understanding heal the earth of its wounds. No man shall see this day until he excepts his own unworthiness.
Divino. Deus se manifesta de muitas maneiras na terra. A voz humana pode ser um instrumento divino.
Terry Pratchett introduced me to this and I couldn't be more grateful
This music is like an intense luminescence that can't be directly beheld.
Perfect description ❤
This is one of my favourite pieces of music - would definately take to a desert island. The Tallis Scholars are wonderful and this is the recording I always go to. The sound is extraordinary - a tapestry of woven sound. And just when you think it can't get any more extraordinary it goes on and on building. You don't want it to stop.
I was fortunate enough to hear the Tallis Scholars sing this at their 40th anniversary concert in St Paul's ... it was sublime. And it always make me think of my beloved uncle, who introduced me to this piece about 30 years ago ... it was a revelation.
Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. I finally got to see the Scholars in concert after a 30 year wait. They performed at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Just out of this world.
Down the road from me. One day maybe. Good for you
Recently attended a performance of the Tallis Scholars in Pasadena. Their singing pierced the heavens.
Gawd they came to the United States . I wonder if they came or will come to Miami !
This was one of the main pieces of music in our wedding ...so beautiful ..my husband picked it
This is the nearest thing to the 'heavenly choirs' ever created. Praise indeed.
Yes
There is a choral part in Beethoven 's Ninth Symphony that fits the description like no other. And it lasts 20-25 seconds
absolutely beautiful it wakes me weep ,how can anybody conceive and convey this
so long ago
what God wouldn't feel Man's love for his Creator when hearing this sung for Him
But what if God preferred Ramstein?
@@fbridge let's hope he could spell it ;)
Hope in another for these difficult times we are facing. But Earth will survive and so shall we.
One of the greatest works of Western Civilization, the acme of polyphony. I first heard it in Boston Symphony Hall, conducted by a young fellow named Michael Tilson-Thomas, with the choirs distributed around the hall for the full effect, very daring. I was 18, I think. Never to be forgotten. Still I find more in it every time I hear it.
A masterpiece that you believe is the sounds of heaven. 💫
I am only 13 but this piece is one of the most magnificent pieces of music I have ever come across! I love Tallis and this has got to by far be my favourite arrangement. Absolutely divine 😻👏🏼
I found early music at your age, 60 years ago. It has been a lifetime's love since then. Tallis is really special and there is more beautiful music out there and in print and available today. Take it up yourself, if you are able, by singing, or playing an instrument. Join others with the same passion. You won't regret it.
Cristina Jerry I both play the trumpet and sing, and I adore it! Music really is an art in the finest sense of the word.
I am delighted that you enjoy playing and singing. The reason I was on this site was to find a piece that was suitable to play in a concert with a vocal early music group. I play the viola da gamba with an instrumental group and am looking for a verse anthem that would suit our line up. I think one of the pieces we will do is Orlando Gibbons', "This is the record of John". Long may you continue to make music.
Ashy B good for you! I've just found it and I'm 45, can't play an instrument or sing very well but I'm attempting to sing along, my neighbours probs think I'm mad but hey ho! do learn an instrument if you can, it'll bring you joy peace and friends. my school was poor and only had xylophone recorders and bongos so i wasn't inspired at the time. good luck on yr musical journey, love from England:)
As Walter Pater wrote in 'Renaissance', "all art aspires to the condition of music."
i fell in love with the music of Palestrina many years ago after hearing a multi-day 'orgy' of his work on the radio station from Harvard University. the Tallis Scholars performed so beautifully that i sought them out wherever i could find them. they were my introduction to polyphony, and, for that, i am forever grateful.
This is an excellent recording of this wonderful work and I believe the best one out there. The Tallis Scholars is my most favorite group of all in performing this kind of music. Discovered this group while I was in university. Thank you for posting it.
Beautiful! I love Renaissance polyphony. It is so intricate and harmonious. I love Tallis also and the Tallis Scholars.
I feel like I’m the only person who’s never seen 50 shades of Grey. But this piece brought me to tears, amazingly beautiful! I imagine this is what angels sounds like when they sing
Many can't conceptualize how holy BDSM is. It is a sacrament. It is spiritual encounter between souls giving their all in complete vulnerability & strength. You bring your whole self to that room. You bare your soul. It is an interplay of the divine masculine & the divine feminine that is unparalleled. Red Carter has a song called "This Side of Heaven" that is exquisite in it's own rights. It's from a series entitled Gabriels Inferno that is an example of another D/s relationship that expands on the love between souls. ❤️🤍🧡💛💙💜
NO. you are not the only one.
@@shannonglynice1142 WHAT. THE. FUCK. ?
I have never seen it and probably never will, but so what? I have known and loved this piece (and the Tallis Scholars) for 25 years now. Saw them live in Schloss Dachau near Munich once - magnificent!
@@isabellajones8535
Same here
Mesmerising , awesome , uplifting ....
As a friend said about fifty shades of grey. That even the devil is subject to scoring an own goal. That's what comes of trying to change the true meaning of something that is on a totally different level.
Une pensée pour toute ses victimes de Paris du vendredi 13 novembre 2015 pour les familles qui sont dans le chagrin et la douleur mes condoléances courage.
Merci beaucoup pour ce souvenir. J'espere que les familles maintenant ont trouve quelque paix dans leur vies. Excusez-moi, mais mon clavier est seule en anglais.
Anyone else arrive at this page because of his or her genuine interest in classic Renaissance polyphony? Or Thomas Tallis, in particular? And not because of some half-baked romance novel? Just wondering. I mean, it's great that you all got here one way or another, because Thomas Tallis is one of the best composers that ever lived. I hope you like what you're hearing. :)
I genuinely love XVI century sacred music, I guess that way brought me here. This is just so amazing; wish I could get the voice arrangement to perform such a thing!
Years ago I awoke each morning to our local classical station. One morning, in that dreamy state before fully awakening, I dreamt that I had passed and was hearing voices of heaven….Spem In Alium. This remains one of my very favorite renaissance, as well as Tallis, musical pieces.
Yes. I didn't even know it had featured in a 'novel' until I came upon it here. I am attending a concert including this piece next week, in fact. By the way, if anyone reading this has never heard Tallis's "Miserere nostri" go and listen to it (and yet again the Tallis Scholars have a wonderful rendition of it).
No clue what book it was in, but what directed me here is Sir Terry Pratchett's wish to choose his time to die while in his garden listening to Tallis. www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal
Karen Binegar Interesting. I hadn't heard about that.
I am listening because I heard this at the National Gallery in Ottawa last summer and thought it was so beautiful. Janet Cardiff had an installation of 40 speakers, each an individual voice around the perimeter of the Rideau chapel and one could stand in the middle and listen to this. Enchanting!
+Nancy Rafferty What an experience that performance must have been.. lucky you.. Many decades ago, in a local choir l always remember what, at the time, was a truly difficult piece which was a 40-part Amen.. very difficult and very exhilarating all at the same time.
This music is out of this World. Must come from God, I have no doubt .!
No, just Thomas Tallis.
When I hear these etheric sounds I feel I am home and with source. Thomas I believe felt this too.
My soul sings along with this transcendental masterpiece of praise. The choir is as fabulous in performance as Tallis was a composer. Bravo!
Awesome performance of an amazing piece of music composed by one of the finest Renaissance composers to grace the choral literature.
Just close your eyes and listen
It's just sound though isn't it? People conducted by people. Perfect harmony.
Cherish this, times are a changing.