THE THOMAS TALLIS TRAIL AN INTRODUCTION

There is just one ensemble, and it could not be a more appropriate one, nor the year more auspicious: The Tallis Scholars (TTS), in their 50th year. Founded by a juvenile Peter Phillips, TTS is widely regarded as the world’s finest interpreter of Renaissance polyphony.

Nearly half the music is by Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585), one of the greatest English composers of all time, and one of the finest composers of polyphony in Europe. None surpasses him for variety; a long life helped, but so did his skill at negotiating the treacherous eddies of religious belief and liturgy that swirled around him during the English Reformation and CounterReformation.

Not only his livelihood but also his very survival depended on adapting his creative genius to please both Catholic and Protestant patrons. Simply to have served four disparate and disputatious monarchs is a remarkable achievement.

Other Tudor and Stuart composers we hear are Byrd, Sheppard, Purcell and Gibbons. Mainland Europe is represented by Palestrina, Josquin, Gombert, and Allegri (his Miserere), while Arvo Pärt, John Rutter and Nico Muhly provide stunning contemporary pieces, some written specially for TTS.

The festival begins at Hampton Court Palace, on the edge of London. The next day is spent in Kent, with concerts at Dover Priory and Canterbury Cathedral. On the third day we decamp for the final concert to the great Romanesque church of Waltham Abbey in Essex. As far as possible, music has been chosen to suit Tallis’s association with these buildings.

With the unmatched event-planning skills of Martin Randall Festivals, and TTS’s half century of devotion to Tallis’s compositions, this promises be an exceptionally enthralling, intense and moving three days.

The Thomas Tallis Trail is available as a package which includes not only all four concerts but also two nights’ accommodation, travel by coach, two dinners and a lunch. There is a talk by a renowned musicologist, Dr David Skinner, and opportunities to mingle with Peter Phillips and the singers. There is a choice between two 4-star hotels in the historic heart of Canterbury, the Abode and the Lodge, the cathedral’s conference centre.

THE FESTIvAL PACKAGE

Prices include:

— Admission to all four concerts

— Accommodation for two nights in Canterbury

— Breakfasts, one lunch and two dinners with wine, and all tips

— Lecture by Dr David Skinner

— Interval drinks for the concert in Canterbury Cathedral

— Tickets for admission to Canterbury Cathedral and Hampton Court Palace

— Travel by comfortable private coach

— A programme booklet, and the assistance of festival staff

The Speaker

Dr David Skinner is Fellow and Osborn Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College in the University of Cambridge, and divides his time equally as a scholar and choral director. An engaging presenter, he has worked extensively for BBC radio, appearing in and writing a variety of shows on Radio 3 and 4. He acted as music advisor for the Music and Monarchy series on BBC2 with David Starkey, and was Music Consultant for the BBC4 documentary Evensong with Lucy Worsley. He has published widely on the music and musicians of early Tudor England, including a collected edition of Tallis’s Latin church music for Early English Church Music (Stainer & Bell), of which he is General Editor.

He is artistic director of the multi-awardwinning early music ensemble Alamire (www.alamire.co.uk), and also directs the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, with whom he has toured and made highly acclaimed recordings. He is frequently invited to lecture, lead workshops and coach choirs throughout Europe and the USA.

OUR FESTIvALS

This festival follows the format established by Martin Randall nearly 30 years ago with our first Danube Music Festival. Since then we have organised nearly 150 own-brand festivals along the Rhine and Seine rivers, in Suffolk, York, Oxford, the Cotswolds and the West Country, to Seville, Toledo, Burgos, Santiago, Rome, Bologna, Sicily, the Veneto, to St Petersburg, through Thuringia, the Alentejo in Portugal and most recently to Venice.

Martin Randall devised the original Tallis Trail festival in 2013, and this iteration has been put together by Lizzie Watson, Artistic Director.

Illustration: Dover Priory, etching by Sonia Bignall.