Tallis is supposed by Rimbault to have been a pupil of Mulliner, the
organist of St. Paul's, but there is no evidence to support this. It
must be confessed that his service in the Dorian mode, which heads the
collection in Boyce's Cathedral Music, and which is indeed the first
harmonised setting of the Canticles ever composed for the English
Liturgy, is very dull, but his harmony of the Litany and of the
Versicles after the Creed, has never been equalled for beauty. His
Canon tune, to which we sing Ken's Evening Hymn, is also unsurpassed,
and his anthem, "If ye love Me," is one of wonderful sweetness and
devout feeling. John Redford was his contemporary, and was organist
of St. Paul's, 1530-1540. His anthem, "Rejoice in the Lord," is as
impressive and stately as Tallis's that I have just named. It is
frequently sung at St. Paul's still. William Byrd was senior chorister
of St. Paul's in 1554. I hold his service in D minor to be the finest
which had as yet been set to the Reformed Liturgy--the Nicene Creed
in particular is of marvellous beauty. Tallis had not attempted
"expression" in his setting of the Canticles.
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