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THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

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MEET THE MUSICIANS

MEET THE MUSICIANS

Day 1

Friday 20 October

The festival begins with a concert at Hampton Court Palace.

Direct trains from Waterloo arrive at Hampton Court station every half hour, and the duration of the journey is c. 36 minutes. You will be met here by festival staff who will direct you to the coaches where you can leave your luggage. The procedure is the same if you arrive by road: stop at the station and put your luggage on a coach.

Coaches will pick up luggage here between 10.00am and 1.30pm, allowing the possibility to visit the palace and gardens (tickets provided ), and for an independent lunch (cafeteria in the grounds or restaurants in the village) before the concert.

Rebuilt by Cardinal Wolsey from 1514, confiscated in 1528 by Henry VIII who further enlarged it, Hampton Court is the largest and most sumptuous of surviving Tudor palaces. Soon after William and Mary came to their joint throne in 1689, Sir Christopher Wren added a grand Baroque extension. Iconic architecture, formal gardens, lavish interiors, fine paintings and tapestries – this is one of the great historic sites in Britain.

Concert, 2.00pm Hampton Court, Chapel Royal

Tallis Magnificat and Nunc dimittis ‘Dorian’; Tallis If ye love me; Sheppard Lord’s Prayer, Tallis Absterge, domine; Tallis Derelinquat impius; Tallis Audivi vocem; Byrd Great Service Te Deum; Tallis Te Deum ‘for meanes’

The first programme on the Trail introduces us to Tallis as an Anglican composer, writing music to English words for the new reformed liturgy. Some of these relatively simple pieces have, over the centuries, become the music by which he is most widely remembered – If ye love me being a famous example. However ‘simple’ is not the word to use when describing the two settings of the Te Deum which end our programme. Although to English words, they show just how advanced this music had become in the decades after the Reformation.

The chapel is part Henry VIII – Tallis would have gazed on the amazingly elaborate ceiling with appropriate wonder – and part Queen Anne, the furnishings being designed by Wren and Hawksmoor in 1710.

Tallis served as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal from, probably, 1543 until his death in 1585, serving four monarchs – Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth.

Drive from Hampton Court to Canterbury (the journey time depends on traffic, and could take between two and two and a half hours), where both nights are spent. Dinner is in the hotels.

The concerts

Seats. Except in Canterbury Cathedral, specific seats are not reserved – you sit were you want. If we reach full capacity, a few seats in Hampton Court Chapel may have restricted sightlines.

Exclusive access. Except again at Canterbury Cathedral, the concerts are private. The other three are planned and administered by Martin Randall Festivals exclusively for an audience consisting of those who have taken the full festival package. The capacity is around a hundred and ten participants.

Duration. Four of the concerts are about an hour long and have no interval. The concert at Canterbury Cathedral is about two hours, with an interval.

Day 2

Saturday 21 October

Coaches take you the half hour from Canterbury to Dover.

Concert, 10.45am Dover College, Refectory

Tallis Mass for four voices ; Byrd Miserere mei, Deus ; Byrd Tribulationes civitatum ; Tallis Salve intemerata

With this programme we enter the musical world which was still in currency before the Reformation. Still entirely in Latin, Tallis wrote settings of the mass, and antiphons to Mary of prodigious size, for services which were designed to last a very long time. Byrd aspired to this world, though it had passed before he was born, yet wrote music which would have suited it very well.

Built in the 1130s, the refectory of Dover Priory is one of the most impressive nonecclesiastical buildings of the period. The monastic precinct having become a school, Dover College, in 1868, the refectory is once more a dining hall – one with excellent acoustics.

Thomas Tallis was organist at Dover Priory 1530–31, his first recorded appointment.

Return to Canterbury after the concert for a free afternoon. There is plenty to see, not least the cathedral, one of the great medieval buildings of Europe. Admission is included in the festival package.

There is a talk at 5.00pm at the cathedral conference centre by Dr David Skinner, Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

This is followed by the first part of dinner (starter and main course) at the Cathedral Lodge; dessert is served after the concert.

Concert, 7.30pm Canterbury Cathedral

Gibbons O clap your hands ; Tallis Suscipe quaeso ; Muhly Rough Notes ; Byrd Tribue domine (Interval) Palestrina Tu es Petrus ; Rutter Hymn to the Creator of Light ; Gombert Lugebat David ; Josquin Absalon fili mi; Pärt Which was the son of…

The Tallis Scholars’ 50th birthday season has given Peter Phillips an opportunity to programme some of the pieces which have meant most to the ensemble over the years. Some they have sung repeatedly: Byrd’s Tribue domine over 130 times, the first in 1991; some, like Muhly’s Rough Notes , commissioned by The Tallis Scholars, so far only a very few. Many other pieces could have been included, but these make a particularly satisfying sequence.

We have organised the evening concert in association with the Canterbury Festival, and the audience of a thousand is seated in the nave. Our audience has been allocated top category seats, and interval drinks just for our group are provided at the Cathedral Lodge.

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