Sir James on Tallis’ Spem in Alium

Composer and Composition: Thomas Tallis, (1505-1585) Spem in Alium (ca. 1570)

Sir James remembers the life of Thomas Tallis, one great English composers who navigated the turmoil of the English reformation. Through Tallis’s 40 voices in his motet, Spem in Alium (In no other is my hope), MacMillan invites us to consider how the composition might help us appreciate both the simple and complex nature of God.

Performed by the Tallis Scholars: