Tallis, If Ye Love Me

If Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585) had a list of greatest hits, If Ye Love Me would surely rank near the top. One of the things I remember well about the day I married Carol is the performance of this work (and others) by Carol’s music students.

Tallis lived a long life in a particularly interesting and volatile time in English history. Henry VIII’s break with Rome in the 1530s spurred some movement toward a simpler and less florid style of musical writing. Mary Tudor (r. 1553-1558) restored the Catholic liturgy, only to have those efforts undone by Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603). Tallis and his younger colleague William Byrd (c. 1540-1623) managed to navigate these changing tides.

The unprecedented Spem in aliem, a Latin motet written for 40-voice choir (featured here as Friday Performance Pick 260), attests to Tallis’ skills at complex contrapuntal writing. But the prevailing trend was toward a simpler and more syllabic (one note per syllable) style. Such writing was more in keeping with a Protestant aesthetic and the new Anglican Book of Common Prayer published in 1549.

If Ye Love Me appeared in the Wanley Partbooks from 1547-1548. Tallis was among the first to write for the new Anglican Rite and this work is one of the earliest examples of the new English church music. Tallis and numerous others in the artistically rich Elizabethan years would produce some of the most beloved sacred music—music that is a hallmark of Anglicanism but that also enriches many other Christian traditions. Sadly, there are many Anglican parishes today that have largely abandoned this heritage, either through lack of resources or attempts to “modernize.”