Composer of the Week

Donald Macleod traces Tallis's career under Elizabeth I, who granted Tallis and his colleague Byrd a licence to publish the first ever collection of English music, the Cantiones Sacrae. (They hoped to make a fortune, but the venture was a financial disaster and it wasn't long before they were petitioning their benevolent queen for a bit of cash to tide them over.) We hear some of the pieces which were included in the collection and Byrd's musical elegy for his lifelong friend. Plus there's Tallis's beautiful Lamentations of Jeremiah and two settings of the Magnificat, which make quite clear the range of styles he was expected to master.