Klarinet Archive - Posting 000711.txt from 1998/12

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Music and the Bible
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 13:33:49 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.85
> Subj: [kl] Music and the Bible

> Dear James,
>
> You might look into the life and works of Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). He
> lived through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth as a
> court musician and still managed to keep his head. In going from Anglican
> to Catholic and back to Anglican again it is interesting to note the change
> in his compositions.
>
> Steve Tonkinson

Steve, thank you for bringing up Thomas Tallis whose music I have never
played but always enjoyed when hearing it.

Only one question: are you sure that he went FROM Anglican to Catholic
and then back the other way round??? Since he lived in the reign of
Henry VIII who was responsible for that whole mess of religious warfare,
and before whom there was no such thing as an Anglican church, it is
unlikely that Tallis went from the Anglican to the Catholic church.

Henry was so very anti Catholic that it would have been political
suicide for Tallis to have converted TO that faith during Henry's
era. And since Tallis was an astute politician, I find it difficult
to understand how he could have made such a counter-productive move.

My suspicion is that he was born a Catholic (as was all of England
except for a few pagans) and became an Anglican at the time of the
great religious strife begun with Henry's abandonment of Catholicism.
After Henry's death, Tallis could have reconverted under Mary,
but then he would have been up the creek during the reign of
Elizabeth. But I think he was dead by that time.

>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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