Here's something you might be interested in.
I have plans to read 50 Shades of Grey. All I know about it is that the two main characters "do it" while listening to Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium (Hope in any Other). While Tallis is too reverent to make my love-track, I like the mixture of the sacred and the sordid.
Thomas Tallis is known to some of us because of his lusty, homoerotic, portrayal in Showtimes' The Tudors. That's twice in recent pop-culture that Tallis has been associated with the big nasty.
Tallis is know to others of us because of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.
Who was Thomas Tallis?
The date of his birth is uncertain but there is evidence of him being at Dover Priory in 1530 as the organist. He died on November 23rd, 1585. If he was 15 when he became organist that makes him at least 70 years old. A remarkable age for the time.
Tallis managed to stay in the good graces of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth I. This is another remarkable accomplishment. Tallis was literally able to keep his head during these bloody years.
He weathered Henry's vacillation between Catholicism and Protestantism. He succeeded under the Roman Catholic Mary and the Reformist Elizabeth.
Elizabeth granted Tallis and his pupil William Byrd a monopoly on polyphony. Yes, that means they were the only composers allowed to write polyphony in the whole of England.
Polyphony is music that has two or more melodic lines. At the time it was quite new and cutting edge. Tallis' Spem in Alium has a mammoth 40 melodic lines. It was written for eight choirs with five voices each.
Looking at the translation of Spem in Alium I am intrigued by its use in 50 Shades of Grey.
"I have never put my hope in any other but in You, O God of Israel who can show both
anger and graciousness, and who absolves all the sins of suffering man.
Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, be mindful of our lowliness."
This text is pregnant with potential if we look at it from an interpersonal perspective.
How often do we look at our "beloved" be they spouse, lover, or child, and consciously or not, think, "I have never put my hope in any other but you"?
How often do we look to our beloved to "absolve us of our sins and suffering"?
If this is the tact that the author is taking, then brava to E.L. James.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn7ZW8ts3Y
I have plans to read 50 Shades of Grey. All I know about it is that the two main characters "do it" while listening to Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium (Hope in any Other). While Tallis is too reverent to make my love-track, I like the mixture of the sacred and the sordid.
Thomas Tallis is known to some of us because of his lusty, homoerotic, portrayal in Showtimes' The Tudors. That's twice in recent pop-culture that Tallis has been associated with the big nasty.
Tallis is know to others of us because of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.
Who was Thomas Tallis?
The date of his birth is uncertain but there is evidence of him being at Dover Priory in 1530 as the organist. He died on November 23rd, 1585. If he was 15 when he became organist that makes him at least 70 years old. A remarkable age for the time.
Tallis managed to stay in the good graces of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth I. This is another remarkable accomplishment. Tallis was literally able to keep his head during these bloody years.
He weathered Henry's vacillation between Catholicism and Protestantism. He succeeded under the Roman Catholic Mary and the Reformist Elizabeth.
Elizabeth granted Tallis and his pupil William Byrd a monopoly on polyphony. Yes, that means they were the only composers allowed to write polyphony in the whole of England.
Polyphony is music that has two or more melodic lines. At the time it was quite new and cutting edge. Tallis' Spem in Alium has a mammoth 40 melodic lines. It was written for eight choirs with five voices each.
Looking at the translation of Spem in Alium I am intrigued by its use in 50 Shades of Grey.
"I have never put my hope in any other but in You, O God of Israel who can show both
anger and graciousness, and who absolves all the sins of suffering man.
Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, be mindful of our lowliness."
This text is pregnant with potential if we look at it from an interpersonal perspective.
How often do we look at our "beloved" be they spouse, lover, or child, and consciously or not, think, "I have never put my hope in any other but you"?
How often do we look to our beloved to "absolve us of our sins and suffering"?
If this is the tact that the author is taking, then brava to E.L. James.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn7ZW8ts3Y