Spem in Alium

Ladies... and Gentlemen.

If you have any chance to listen to this masterpiece, I strongly suggest you do.

In 1570 (ish) a chap called Thomas Tallis composed a choral work for 8 groups of singers, each group having 5 singers, each group has a bass, a baritone, a tenor, an alto and a soprano.

40 people.

And it's designed to be in an Octaganal Room I believe, which is hard to reporoduce on a PC or on a stereo.. but this is no excuse for not blowing your ears off :).. don't be tricked by the quiet pieces.. mind your amp and speakers.

Doesn't really do anything for me - boring to sing, boring to listen to, just a wall of mushy sound for the most part. Maybe good for background music I guess.

</classical musician snobbery>

But if you like it- good - more people should give choral music a try :)

I've heard this sung live by my girlfriends old choir, who have been to the finals of the bbc choir of the year, it's an amazing piece and very hard to follow! The rendition I heard wasn't the best but that just goes to show that this is a fiendishly difficult piece to perform, and to be fair, they only had the day of the concert to rehearse and perform it.

I'm a big choral music fan, wasn't expecting to see a thread about it here :)

In the spirit of 'if you liked this, then you'll love' try some Whitacre eg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1sYkJHipvg

and pretty much anything else by him really.

I'm not a big fan of mush, but it's more interesting than Tallis' spem.

Tallis Scholars are allegedly the best, I have a half decent version (not them) on a CD and it's not quite up to the job.

AND as to mush... I think the sheer genius of the notes he chose, means the 8 "teams" need to sing is so perfectly, trying to get it balanced that, sometimes they DO neutralise each other.. and other times they mammothly amplify the piece.

I'd go so far as to say it's near impossible to record.. but it's mammothly worthy of a listen.

It kills my car speakers... the 7 speakers and 150w can't touch it.. it sound truly bloody dire.

But on 2 speakers ni the living room on a half decent amp, not attempting any silly buggers with fake surround (unlike the car) it does a majestic job.

It's a long piece... get a cup of tea ready.

I still read the title as sperm in alium. :eek:

/leaves

/shuts door

I knew some one would.. the next person will think it's about gardening.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zak33

Tallis Scholars are allegedly the best, I have a half decent version (not them) on a CD and it's not quite up to the job.

AND as to mush... I think the sheer genius of the notes he chose, means the 8 "teams" need to sing is so perfectly, trying to get it balanced that, sometimes they DO neutralise each other.. and other times they mammothly amplify the piece.

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He pointlessly repeats and mirrors stuff just so that he could one up a musical rival. It's willy waving in the classical music world, basically.

wish I could wave my willy like that.

Well yes, he clearly has quite a big baton, but he can do better than Spem (and did).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kalniel

Well yes, he clearly has quite a big baton, but he can do better than Spem (and did).

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NOW you're talking... :)

List 'em big boy.. list 'em :)

Gloria Patri
O Sacrum Convivium
salvator mundi (number 1)
Suscipe, Quaeso Domine - Si enim iniquitates (in fact most of the Cantiones Sacrae.)

and many many others.. will try and find some others later, got choir rehearsal now :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 0iD

I still read the title as sperm in alium. :eek:

/leaves

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I suppose you have a , " boner " now too , eh ? ( looks a pic profile )

This is as close to choral as I get .

m