Thinking Allowed
medical / technology / education / art / flub
Spem in alium nunquam habui (Hope in any other, never did I have)
This piece of music is probably like nothing you have ever heard. Maybe because it is nearly 500 years old it feels like it is from another world. Maybe because it is written for eight choirs with five voices each the forty parts it's so complex you'd be pressed even to hum some of the tune afterwards. It is impossible to listen to 40 voices and comprehend what you are hearing. It is widely recognised as a masterpiece of choral music.
It is constantly mixing and changing, the attention moving amongst the singers, a mysterious piece of music that stirs human emotion. More of an art installation of sound than something sung by a choir.
To many it opens - as intended by the composer - a great spectacle and a window to a loving creator God. It sounds obviously spiritual as if revealing something bigger and timeless.
According to some accounts, following its first performance Thomas Howard, the 4th Duke of Norfolk, was so moved he lifted his heavy gold chain from his neck and gave it to the composer.
I had read about this piece before and seen it mentioned in a programme about choral music but I had never committed the 10 minutes it requires to listen to it. Today there was another Radio 4 programme about Thomas Tallis and so I listened to a recording of the work and so glad I did.
It is said that you can divide your life into the time before you listened to 'Spem In Alium' and the time after. Give it a go - the Tallis Scholars are amazing.
There is also an amusing summary by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi of why and how it was composed - a mystery in 40 parts. In it he describes the flowchart (pictured).
Source: agnate.co.uk
music piece alium choral composer tallis spem listened
RSS feed