Buckingham Palace, the madrigal ‘As Cæsar wept’ in Additional MSS. 18936–9, the Anglican service in Royal MSS. Appendix 74–6, and several of the above-named publications.
The least important part of Tallis's works is undoubtedly the instrumental music, in which he was not equal on the constructive side to Redford, or on the executive side to Blithman. The organ pieces in Additional MS. 30513 (Mulliner's book) are partly fantasias on a plain chant, while some appear to be vocal works in score. The lute pieces in Additional MSS. 29246, 31992, and at the Royal College, are arranged from vocal music. In Additional MS. 4900 the motet ‘Tu nimirum’ appears as a solo song; the opposite leaf, which probably contained a lute accompaniment, is missing.
The vocal works are almost entirely sacred, and are mostly to Latin words. Tallis was one of the first to compose settings of the Anglican ‘service,’ and the memorial tablet at Greenwich calls him ‘The Father of English Church Music.’ A service in Royal MSS. Appendix 74–6 is no doubt the earliest attempt, as the books contain a prayer for Edward VI. The service in the Dorian mode, commonly called ‘Tallis in D minor,’ is still frequently sung in cathedrals. It exhibits the extreme form of the reaction against the excessive complication usual in the liturgical music at the period of the Reformation; the direction for distinctness of the words is obeyed to the letter, and even in the longest canticle, the Te Deum, the voices move exactly together from beginning to end, and the result is dull. In the shorter canticles Tallis's skill has conquered the difficulty. Harrison (Description of England) boasted of the homophonic choral singing ‘in so plaine, I saie, and distinct manner, that each one present may understand what they sing, every word having but one note;’ but it is undeniable that the restriction fettered Tallis, and set an unfavourable model for all succeeding Anglican service music. The same influence is perceptible in the anthems, so far as they are not adapted from the Latin; but they are too short for the homophony to become tedious. ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments’ and the arranged ‘I call and cry’ are still in ordinary use, and others are on the repertory of many choirs. The litany, printed for four voices by Barnard, and for five voices by Boyce, is, in the words of Crotch (quoted in Life of … Elvey, p. 49), ‘one of the finest pieces of ancient church music extant;’ yet it is agreed to have come down to us in an incorrect form. Dean Aldrich attributed the faults to Barnard, the first editor; others have thought Boyce rearranged Barnard's version; Jebb suggested that Tallis wrote a service for five voices, the litany from which was arranged by Barnard for four voices. There are portions of other services in existence at Oxford and the Royal College of Music which strengthen Jebb's suggestion. The responses to the versicles after the Apostles' creed are the most successful and best-known parts of Tallis's ‘Service.’ They are harmonisations of the ancient ecclesiastical ‘accents,’ and no other setting can compare with them; they are sung daily in choral services, and the melodic beauty of the upper part has become so familiar that congregations join in that part instead of using the simple plain-song in the tenor. Even the men of some cathedral choirs, if the boys are absent, may be heard to sing Tallis's melodies instead of the ecclesiastical plain-song.
The eight hymn-tunes in Parker's ‘Psalter’ are in the eight modes then in ordinary use; but, as treated by Tallis, the modes hardly differ from the modern keys of D minor, E minor, F major, and G major. They are set to two stanzas of the Psalms; the tenor part was, as usual, intended for the congregation. The tunes are not of the ordinary Genevan pattern which won favour in England, and they might have become the model for English psalmody if Parker's version had come into general use. The eighth tune, in canon between the tenor and soprano, has been shortened to half its length and reduced to a simple form; it is everywhere familiar, Ken's evening hymn, ‘Glory to Thee, my God, this night,’ being always sung to it. The present form of the tune already appeared in Ravenscroft's ‘Psalter,’ 1621; Ken's hymn was adapted to it about 1770. The supplementary tune, which was written for one stanza only, and is of the usual pattern, is the only other which is popularly known; it is used three times in ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ under the name of ‘Tallis.’
The Latin church music gave the composer every opportunity for the display of his contrapuntal ingenuity. The mass in Additional MSS. 17802–5 is less remarkable for its science than many of the ‘Cantiones Sacræ,’ but in every case the science is kept subordinate to musical beauty. The specimens published by Hawkins and Burney, and the others arranged as English anthems, are all masterpieces in the highest style of polyphonic sacred music. Especially wonderful is the seven-voiced ‘Miserere’ printed by Hawkins, an extraordinary instance of
