IMSLP Forums

http://hdl.handle.net/1802/6234

The pieces, chants, Te Deum, Benedictus, responses, Litany, Kyrie eleison, Nicene creed, Sanctus, Gloria in excelsis, Magnificat, and Nunc dimittis, as set to music by Thomas Tallis, the organ part added by Vincent Novello.

It's just what it sounds like: religious text set to music by Thomas Tallis, with an organ part added (much) later on by Vincent Novello. I assume this would be a Novello arrangement of a Tallis work, but how in God's name (pun completely intended) would you name this? What you see there is not just an annotation by Sibley; it's what's on the top of the first page of the PDF. I'd be fine truncating the title after "dimittis", but that seems ridiculously long to me.

Hmm, tricky. and not helped by the fact that Sibley have misread the start of the title as "Pieces", rather than "The Preces"

The footer on the Sibley score calls it "Tallis's Service", and a little digging around indicates that Tallis wrote a "Dorian Service" (also known as the "Short Service"), whose movement titles are a remarkably good fit with the Sibley description. So I'd recommend "Dorian Service (Tallis, Thomas)", which is the uniform title used by the Library of Congress.

You have no idea how thankful I am that experienced people exist here. I skipped that one quite a while ago, deciding that I'd come back later, but I got tired of seeing it sit there, laughing at me.

Here, the Library of Congress is going for a short, almost invisible title. The fuller title of this work is usually given as the “Short Service in the Dorian Mode”, just to be confusing, but I’d very much prefer the title to be as it’s known to the sort of people who perform it (it is actually a common repertoire piece, for the canticles at least). And yes, it’s Preces — normally paired with Responses, but here a few things like the Te Deum have been inserted in place between the two groups of responses.

Also, it’s not an arrangement. The four vocal parts are more or less exactly what Tallis wrote, irrespective of Vincent Novello adding a keyboard reduction for the organ that adds precisely nil to the pieces.

Cheers, Philip

pml wrote:Here, the Library of Congress is going for a short, almost invisible title. The fuller title of this work is usually given as the “Short Service in the Dorian Mode”, just to be confusing, but I’d very much prefer the title to be as it’s known to the sort of people who perform it (it is actually a common repertoire piece, for the canticles at least). And yes, it’s Preces — normally paired with Responses, but here a few things like the Te Deum have been inserted in place between the two groups of responses.

Also, it’s not an arrangement. The four vocal parts are more or less exactly what Tallis wrote, irrespective of Vincent Novello adding a keyboard reduction for the organ that adds precisely nil to the pieces.

Cheers, Philip

Well, I had already put it up as per Davydov's instructions, so it's open to cleanup if you haven't already done so. I'm at work right now, and I probably won't get a chance to do it today.