Tye: Four pieces

Day 208

Christopher Tye: Four pieces

Omnes gentes plaudits manibus

In pace in idipsum

I lift my hear to thee, my God

Save me, O God

Choir of Magdalen College Oxford

Bill Ives

The fact that two of these pieces are in English and two in Latin rather makes the point that Tudor composers had to work in an environment where allegiances between the Protestant and Catholic faiths were constantly changing. Christopher Tye was based in Ely and seems to have had a fairly consistent career as a church musician. I couldn’t really see that there was much of a difference between the English and Latin settings - perhaps the English was a little more syllabic, but essentially these feel part of the same tradition - but then I am no expert in this music so there may be subtle differences that I am simply not aware of.  I enjoyed this music but again didn’t really have many points of reference to appreciate the subtleties, Perhaps I need total iimersion in Tudor music for several months to really start to understand how all of these composers relate to each other.