The Tallis Festival 2011
Join us for an amazing choral event. Around 200 singers will form the Tallis Festival 2011 Choir for the 16th Tallis Festival weekend which will take place on 5-6 March 2011, concluding with a fantastic free concert at the Union Chapel, Islington on Sunday 6 March 2011. There will be two optional Sunday rehearsals leading up to the festival and an optional rehearsal on the evening of Friday 4 March 2011.
Welcome Pack contents (Click here if you have already signed up)
Last year's Tallis Festival, as some of you will remember, went with a bang with Carmina Burana featuring 2 concert grand pianos and a 60-inch gong and the world premiere of James Lavino's Visitations. This time around we will be tackling, for only the second time in Tallis history, baroque masterpiece Handel's Dixit Dominus accompanied by string orchestra. The programme also includes Finzi's In terra pax, with strings, harp and cymbals, the FIRST PERFORMANCE of Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's Nine Dawn Watercolours in the presence of the composer, and, of course, the raison d'être of Tallis weekends - Tallis' Spem in alium.
The repertoire is:
- Tallis - 'Spem in alium'
- Handel - 'Dixit Dominus'
- Finzi - 'In terra pax'
- Mäntyjärvi - 'Nine dawn watercolours' (FIRST PERFORMANCE)
For this amazing opportunity the participation fee is £65 with a discounted rate for full-time students of £15. Music costs (either hire or buy) will be extra.
James Jarvis will once again be guiding us through the intricacies of singing in up to 40 parts throughout the weekend at Imperial College London's South Kensington campus.
A message from James:
"I'm always excited by the prospect of working with the Tallis Festival Choir but particularly so this time. Handel's Dixit Dominus is one of my all-time favourite choral works and, whilst it is from the 'traditional' end of the repertoire, it is relatively under-performed and enjoyably wacky. Best of all, it's a choral tour de force that will perfectly exploit the Tallis choir - which I like to think of as a chamber choir on steroids - and will form the backbone of our programme. The presence of a string orchestra provides the perfect opportunity for me to slip in a personal favourite: Gerald Finzi's In terra pax. It is hardly seasonal but it is sublime and will be new to many (perhaps the majority) of the group. I urge you not to miss out on this performance. Spem in alium with highly inauthentic forces is of course the nucleus of the weekend and always a stimulating experience! An important word about the approach to rehearsing it: the Festival is very different from a standard "Spem workshop"; we are giving a full-length public concert at the end of the weekend, so Spem will get its fair share of rehearsal time but not more. This means that those who know the piece well are likely to feel over-rehearsed (not that they will object); whereas Spem virgins are likely to approach the performance with a bit more adrenaline... but I promise to get you through it on the night! Last, but by no means least, the concert will include the first performance of Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's Nine Dawn Watercolours in the presence of the composer. As many Tallis regulars will instantly spot, these vignettes are a strange lovechild of the Tallis Festival: internationally-renowned Finnish composer and loyal friend of the Festival Jaakko Mäntyjärvi sets texts by another great friend Peter McGarr, whose "Lindisfarne lovesong" Love you big as the sky, highlight of Tallis 2007, embodies these original verse fragments. After the event Jaakko was inspired to write his own setting of Pete's words and this première will be the result. The Watercolours are an Exmoor Singers commission (this is not a commissioning year for the Festival) but I cordially invite Festival participants to play a supporting rôle in this first performance on a purely optional basis for just the price of a score. (If you prefer to experience this 10-minute performance as listeners you will still be an absolutely full participant in the Festival proper but you will gain a small amount of extra free time over the course of the weekend, which I know some will welcome and which we will do our best to schedule at a helpful juncture.) The Handel, Finzi and Mäntyjärvi works contain solos of a range of difficulty and, as usual, these will all be taken by Festival participants following an open audition process in early February. The panel on this occasion will comprise one of our regular Tallis repetiteurs, a hardened Tallis alumnus from outwith Exmoor Singers, and yours truly. I very much look forward to seeing you in March!"
Music Director James Jarvis
MUSIC We aim to use uniform editions of the music for ease of reference. The following are the required editions, together with hire / buying costs:
- 'Spem in alium' - OUP; £2.50 / £17.50
- 'Dixit Dominus' - Barenreiter; £4 / £10
- 'In terra pax' - Boosey & Hawkes'; £3 / £7.99
- 'Nine Dawn Watercolours' - £7.50
You will be able to collect your music when you arrive at the start of the festival or at the optional advance rehearsals. However, for an extra fee (£4) we are able to post your music to you in advance of the start of the festival. Music will be dispatched from the 14th February. We cannot post music requested less than a week before the festival. Please note that due to its very large size we are unable to send you a copy of Tallis' 'Spem in alium' before the weekend.
If you would like a preview of Tallis' 'Spem in alium', here is a public domain version. However please note that the OUP edition will be used on the weekend.
A word about Jaakko's new work: it is written for nine small ensembles set against a spatially-shifting sonic background made by humming and other vocalisations and by the use of regular and improvised percussion instruments/effects. You can form part of the sonic background with no extra commitment apart from the purchase of a score, or you can try out for one of the ensembles through the same February audition process that selects the Handel and Finzi solos. The ensembles will involve an additional time commitment as it is important that the ensembles (which are, however, very short) are known prior to the weekend. Alternatively you may opt to sit this item out and simply enjoy hearing the premiere. (Even so you may choose to buy a score: Jaakko will be signing copies all weekend and they will provide a splendid souvenir of the event!) Please express your preferences on the web form.
OPEN REHEARSALS
- 2-9pm Sunday 20 February (to include catering by Exmoor Singers of London)
- 6-9pm Sunday 27 February
- These are non-compulsory, but all are encouraged to attend to make your experience of the weekend more enjoyable.
For a useful crib and to run through your Spem part, check out this link.
Welcome Pack contents |
Further information about the Tallis Festival
What is the Tallis Festival?The Tallis Festival, hosted by Exmoor Singers, is not a workshop, nor 'sing from scratch'. It is an opportunity to learn great music intensively over a weekend - always including Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium and a larger scale work. The Festival attracts choral singers from around London and further afield (including France, Hungary, Finland and Japan so far), to form the Tallis Festival Choir, with the aim of performing a stunning public concert on the Sunday evening, whilst having fun in the process. "One of the highlights of my singing year." The Festival provides a friendly atmosphere, with everyone sharing a common goal of learning and performing the music to the very best of our collective abilities. This is challenging, but James Jarvis, our music director, provides intensive instruction throughout the weekend. |
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The Tallis Festival 2007 was recorded by BBC Radio 3 and featured on The Choir 
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Festival development
The Tallis Festivals have become a key event for Exmoor Singers – not only for the enormous amount of work needed to organise them, but as a significant musical experience and achievement.
The choir has hosted 'Tallis Performance Weekends' periodically over a number of years. The original concept was to bring choral friends together for intense rehearsals from a Friday evening through to a high quality public concert on the Sunday evening. The Weekends have become very popular, with choirs of between 120 and 160 singers being formed. They are neither workshops nor 'sing-from-scratch' concerts - the goal for every event has been by the Sunday evening to be able to give performances of a remarkably high standard.
In recent years the status and significance of the Weekends has increased enormously both for Exmoor Singers and for all the singers taking part, not least in becoming a more regular event.
Prior to becoming a Festival there were eleven 'Tallis Performance Weekends', fondly known as 'Tallis I' to 'Tallis X', and ending with 'Tallis D' to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Tallis in 2005.
Reflecting on the quality of the performances, the works performed and the strong commitment to new music, 'Performance Weekends' is now a wholly inadequate description of the events.
Moreover, in 2006, as a major departure for the Weekends, a new 40-part work was commissioned, Tentatio, from Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, and given its first peformance.
Thus what was in theory Tallis XII had much greater significance than any of the preceding eleven Weekends. It was the beginning - it was the 1st Tallis Festival.
Exmoor Singers are now immensely proud to host the Tallis Festival and the Tallis Festival Choir.
Repertoire
The raison d’être of the Weekends and now the Festival has always been Thomas Tallis' magnificant 40-part motet 'Spem in alium', which is performed with eight individual choirs around the concert venue, to give the audience the ultimate surround-sound experience.
The Weekends also include a larger scale choral work, often accompanied by orchestra, and usually another work. Recent Tallis Weekends have included Tippet's A child of our time, Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Rachmaninovs' Vespers (All night vigil), Vaughan Williams' Mass in G Minor and Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.
New music and new commissions
The Tallis Weekends have also provided the opportunity for singers to work on and perform pieces that they are less likely to have come across before, and have included works by living composers such as John Tavener, Arvo Pärt, Henryk Gorecki, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Nicholas Maw, and Giles Swayne.
In 2003, Tallis IX included Giles Swayne's The Silent Land, and the composer came to work with the choir. This work, written for cello and 40-part choir, had been given its first performance at the Spitalfields Festival in 1998, where it was described by The Times as a "masterpiece". Those taking part in Tallis IX were delighted to be giving the first performance of The Silent Land with the singing forces Swayne had originally envisaged.
In 2005, Tallis D included Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's Psalm 150 in Grandsire Triples. To everyone's delight the Finnish composer decided that he and his wife should come to London to take part in the Weekend. He enjoyed the event so much that there and then he conceived of a 40-part work, which a few months later Exmoor Singers commissioned him to write.
Thus in 2006, the 1st Tallis Festival included the first performance of Mäntyjärvi's 40-part work Tentatio.
Tentatio
Love You Big as the Sky
For 2007, for the 2nd Tallis Festival, another new 40-part work was commissioned, Love You Big as the Sky, from Mancunian composer Peter McGarr. This new commission has been made possible through financial support from the PRS Foundation.
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"I need to write this piece, it's been waiting inside me for a long time, growing from a love of people, memories and landscape in my life. It's a huge love song for my wife, evoking the history and landscape of the Northumbrian coast and in particular the island of Lindisfarne. On a practical level, I want to write a piece that is within the reach of a good amateur choir and can also act as a convincing companion piece to the Thomas Tallis 40-part 'Spem in Alium'. Exmoor Singers of London and their director James Jarvis are the perfect performers for this; I've had a close working relationship with them. They have a unique insight and understanding into what I'm trying to achieve." |
Composer Peter McGarr |
Previous Tallis Festival Concerts
Tallis Festival Concert - Sun 7 Feb 2010, Union Chapel, Islington
Tallis Festival 2009 - Sun 8 Feb 2009, Imperial College
Tallis Festival 2009 Concert - Sun 8 Feb 2009, Union Chapel, Islington
Tallis Festival 2009 - Sat 7 Feb 2009, Imperial College
Tallis Festival 2009 - Fri 6 Feb 2009, Imperial College
Tallis Festival 2007 on 'The Choir' - Sun 28 Oct 2007, BBC Radio 3 (broadcast)
Tallis Festival 2007 - Concert - Sun 14 Oct 2007, St Alban the Martyr, Holborn
Tallis Festival 2006: Temptation - Sun 19 Nov 2006, St Alban the Martyr, Holborn
Tallis D - Sun 6 Nov 2005, St Alban the Martyr, Holborn
Tallis X - Sun 7 Mar 2004, St Augustine's
Tallis IX - Sun 9 Feb 2003, St. Giles', Cripplegate
Tallis VIII - Sun 29 Apr 2001, Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music
Tallis VII - Sun 27 Sep 1998, Concert Hall, Royal College of Music
Tallis VI - Sun 2 Feb 1997, St. John's, Smith Square
Tallis V - Sun 24 Sep 1995, Holy Trinity
