Thomas Tallis | Timeline

Thomas Tallis (c.1505 – 23 November 1585; also Thomas Tallys or Thomas Talles) was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. He is considered one of England's greatest composers, and he is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. No contemporaneous portrait of Tallis survives; the one painted by Gerard Vandergucht dates from 150 years after the composer's death, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a fair likeness. In a rare existing copy of his blackletter signature, he spelled his name "Tallys". (Intro from Wikipedia)

January 30, 1505 - Kent, England - Thomas Tallis is born

January(?) 1(?), 1532 - Dover - First musical appointment as organist of the small Benedictine monastery of Dover Priory =(START)

October(?) 1(?), 1535 - Dover - The Priory of Dover is dissolved in the autumn of 1535, after being visited by the king's commissioners

January(?) 1(?), 1537 - Billingsgate, London - Tallis is employed by the parish of St.Mary-at-Hill in Billingsgate, London. The church had an organ built in 1517 and maintained a choir capable of singing music in five parts. At that post, Tallis comes into contact with the singers of the Chapel Royal in Greenwich and the chamber musicians of the King

October(?) 1(?), 1538 - Waltham Abbey, Essex - Begins working at the Augustinian monastery of Holy Cross in Waltham Abbey, Essex, in the Autumn

March 23, 1540 - Waltham Abbey - Waltham is the last english abbey to be dissolved, under a governmental decision of dissolving greater monasteries

April 4, 1540 - Canterbury - Canterbury Cathedral is surrendered to the Crown. It ceases to be a Benedictine monastery and is reorganized with a secular dean and chapter and provided with a large choir of men and boys

July(?) 1(?), 1540 - Canterbury - Posted at Canterbury Cathedral in the summer, as a member of the choir

January(?) 1(?), 1542 - Greenwich, London - Sent to Court as a Gentleman (singer) of the Chapel Royal. Begins composing and performing for King Henry VIII

November 1(?), 1547 - Westminster, London - The Mass Ordinary is sung in english at Westminster Abbey to mark the opening of Parliament and Convocation

January(?) 1(?), 1552 - London - Marries a woman named Joan

December 25, 1554 - Greenwich, London - Christmas Mass "Puer Natus est Nobis" is sung when Queen Mary believed that she was pregnant with a male heir

January(?) 1(?), 1565 - While in Greenwich - Publication of the four-part motet (or anthem) "If ye Love me", a setting of a passage from the Gospel of John

September 7, 1573 - Canterbury - First presentation of the Motet "Spem in Alium" for 40 voices, probably celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 40th Anniversary

January(?) 1(?), 1575 - Greenwich - Queen Elizabeth grants Tallis and William Byrd, a 21-

Cantiones Sacrae, 1575

year monopoly for polyphonic music and a patent to print and publish music. The two monopolists take advantage of the patent to produce a grandiose joint publication under the title "Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur". It is a collection of 34 Latin motets dedicated to the Queen herself, accompanied by elaborate prefatory matter including poems in Latin elegiacs by the schoolmaster Richard Mulcaster and the young courtier Ferdinand Heybourne (aka Richardson). There are 17 motets each by Tallis and Byrd, one for each year of the Queen's reign

January(?) 1(?), 1577 - Greenwich - The "Cantiones" are a financial failure. In 1577 Byrd and Tallis are forced to petition Queen Elizabeth for financial help, pleading that the publication had "fallen oute to oure greate losse" and that Tallis was now "verie aged". They are subsequently granted the leasehold on various lands in East Anglia and the West Country for a period of 21 years

January(?) 1(?), 1580 - While in Greenwich - Oxford don Robert Dow writes: "Talis es et tantus Tallisi musicus, ut si / Fata senem aufferent musica muta foret" (Thou art so renowned and great a musician, Tallis, that if fate should carry thee away in thine old age, music would be mute)

November 23, 1585 - Greenwich - Thomas Tallis dies, aged 80(?) =(END)

The King's Singers sing Tallis, "If ye Love me" from their homes

during isolation from the Covid-19 pandemic