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Track(s) taken from CDA68076

Te lucis ante terminum I

composer
5vv ATTBarB; Festal tone; Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur, 1575
author of text
Hymn at Compline

The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: November 2013
Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel Castle, United Kingdom
Produced by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Engineered by Martin Haskell & Iestyn Rees
Release date: January 2015
Total duration: 2 minutes 6 seconds

Cover artwork: A young lady aged 21 (possibly Helena Snakenborg, later Marchioness of Northampton) (1569).
16th-century British School / © Tate Gallery, London
 

Other recordings available for download

Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker (conductor)
The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park (director)
Winchester Cathedral Choir, David Hill (conductor)
The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)
Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon (conductor)

Reviews

‘This very enjoyable series continues its sequence of motets and hymns, with a Mass as the centrepiece—this time the setting for four voices, the most direct and pared down of Tallis's output … The Cardinall's Musick give a very well-judged account of one of Tallis's most economical works … for the rest, there are splendid performances here: with O salutaris hostia, Laudate Dominum and Euge caeli porta the composer is in his essential idiom, to which The Cardinall's Musick respond with poise and precision, and they are equally at home in the settings from Archbishop Parker's Psalter, where a forthright unanimity is required. A very welcome issue, then; and it's always nice to known that there's more to come’ (Gramophone)

‘The Cardinall's Musick is vastly experienced in English repertory of the sixteenth century, and this is its fourth disc devoted entirely to Thomas Tallis … the wonderful 'Ave, rosa sine spinis' with its missing sections in the cantus part [is] admirably reconstructed here by Nick Sandon’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

‘Not only are the performances unimpeachable in intonation and general ensemble discipline, but they unfold with an impressive coherence of phrasing that does not rely on the imposition of artificial dynamic shadings. They are performances that are engaging but not either excessively subjective or coldly dispassionate. Listeners who have been collecting the series will not be disappointed’ (American Record Guide)

‘As in the first three issues, the quality continues—if you are collecting, no time to stop!’ (Audiophile Audition, USA)» More

‘Well-judged, vigorous singing flares up in the Gloria from the Mass for Four Voices. In that work, incredibly stellar chordal writing is intelligently balanced: a clear hierarchy in chordal notes is reflected in the tuning and volume of each note’ (Limelight, Australia)» More

‘As always with Hyperion the notes contribute considerably to the overall excellence … the new recording can hold its head high in [other labels'] company. Carwood takes all but the Sanctus and Benedictus faster than Summerly without sounding at all hurried … Even if you already have the complete Signum/Brilliant Classics set or many of the individual albums from it, the new Hyperion and its predecessors should be on your wish list. The four volumes issued to date cover almost half of Tallis’s extant output. Roll on the rest’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘The music is … very fine and full of interest. The singing is as excellent as we’ve come to expect from this ensemble. The ambience of the Fitzalan Chapel in Arundel Castle and the singing itself has been beautifully captured in the recorded sound’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘The Cardinall's Musick deliver a crystalline purity and direct aural sound from the 13 singers on this recording … an exemplary recording’ (The Toronto Early Music Newsletter, Canada)» More

«Dans la clarté des intentions, l'assurance des phrasés, cette lecture apparait efficace et rend pleinement justice à chacun des styles représentés que Thomas Tallis a pratiqués avec un égal génie» (Classica, France)» More

Thomas Tallis wrote two settings of the compline hymn Te lucis ante terminum, both of which were published in the 1575 Cantiones sacrae. This first setting—like the second—sets only the middle of the three verses in polyphony. The treble part replicates the pitches of the pre-existent chant melody note for note (with the addition of a single ornamental leading note at the final cadence) in a lilting triple-time rhythm, and the accompanying harmonization is a model of economy and placid beauty, nowhere more so than at the delicately handled Picardian cadence at the end of the third phrase.

from notes by Jeremy Summerly © 2013

Thomas Tallis fit deux mises en musique de l’hymne de complies Te lucis ante terminum. Toutes deux figurent dans les Cantiones sacrae de 1575; comme la seconde, cette première ne met en polyphonie que la deuxième des trois strophes. La partie de treble reproduit note pour note les hauteurs de son de la mélodie grégorienne préexistante (avec l’ajout d’une unique sensible ornementale à la cadence finale), sur un allant rythme ternaire, et l’harmonisation d’accompagnement est un modèle d’économie et de beauté placide, qui n’apparaît nulle part mieux qu’à la cadence picarde, subtilement manipulée, à la fin de la troisième phrase.

extrait des notes rédigées par Jeremy Summerly © 2013
Français: Hypérion

Thomas Tallis schrieb zwei Vertonungen des Komplet-Hymnus Te lucis ante terminum, die beide in den Cantiones sacrae von 1575 veröffentlicht wurden. Hier liegt die erste Version vor, in der—ebenso wie in der zweiten—nur der mittlere der drei Verse polyphon vertont ist. Die Treble-Stimme gibt die bereits bestehende Melodie des Cantus planus Ton für Ton wieder (wobei der Schlusskadenz ein Leitton zur Verzierung hinzugefügt ist), die in einen beschwingten Dreierrhythmus eingepasst ist. Die begleitende Harmonisierung ist ein Vorbild an Ökonomie und friedlicher Schönheit, insbesondere bei der behutsam gesetzten Kadenz mit Picardischer Terz am Ende der dritten Phrase.

aus dem Begleittext von Jeremy Summerly © 2013
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

Other albums featuring this work

Fading
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Lighten our Darkness
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Miserere
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Tallis: Spem in alium & other choral works
CDA66400CD temporarily out of stock
Tallis: The Complete Works, Vol. 5
SIGCD016Download only
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