Arts Review
The Tallis Scholars @ Concert Hall, QPAC
A full Concert Hall at QPAC enjoyed a memorable performance from The Tallis Scholars early vocal music ensemble on Sunday, October 30.
Named after the composer Thomas Tallis, and conducted by Peter Philips, the ensemble from the UK is a project that has extensively performed and recorded works in the Western Christian a cappella tradition since its formation in the 1970s.
On its seventh tour of Australia since 1992, the group’s Brisbane concert followed its release of new recordings of two masses composed by Josquin des Prez.
The acoustics of QPAC’s Concert Hall, which were improved with refurbishments in 2009, did ample justice to the a cappella group’s ten voices (five female and five male), all apparently unamplified.
The program was for the most part sung in Latin, with two pieces in English, and an interval dividing the evening into two sets. Singers periodically left the stage for pieces with fewer parts throughout the program, and returned for those requiring more until finally, The Tallis Scholars were joined by 30 members of the QPAC Choir for the Tallis composition Spem in alium, to great effect.
For the research-minded, it might be interesting to note that from the words classical music, Google Scholar’s search bar produces the following automatic suggestions: “…effects”, “…and memory”, “…and studying”, etc.. Although its search suggestions for choral music and early music do not yet include such cognitive psychological associations, one curious automatic suggestion for sacred music is “…and movement”. Whatever human psychological effects are associated with recordings of Baroque music (largely composed between 1600–1750 CE) or Western Classical music (largely composed between 1750-1820 CE) (for instance: reduction of stress, as indicated by heart rate, respiration, etc.) might also be expected to apply to recordings of early choral music (largely composed between 500 BCE and 1600 CE).
From a sample of one, I find that recordings of early choral music in the Western Christian tradition as relaxing to listen to with headphones around the clock as any vocal music I have listened to from other religious traditions or cultures. This might be due the fact that I am not a scholar of languages, and in most examples I can only understand a few words of the songs’ main languages at best, and so the lyrics are not as distracting as recordings in English. But, of course, there is also potential for religious music to cause undesired emotional responses in individuals for various reasons, and whether one has time for it is a matter of personal taste that might depend on one’s attitude to religion.
To the sceptic who asks “What good has come of Christianity?” a list of historical institutions and accomplishments might be presented in response: universities, schools, hospitals, libraries, the abolition of slavery in modern times, and humanitarian charities. In architecture, Christian cathedrals of the Gothic and Renaissance periods, typically featuring stained glass windows and impressive pipe organs, stand as reminders of the historical significance of churches. In visual art, much of the imagery that inspired many masterpieces of Renaissance painting and sculpture was of biblical origin. But the list would not be complete without music composed in the Christian tradition.
From Hildegard von Bingen to John Tavener and Arvo Pärt, it is a tradition which provides a wealth of raw material for contemporary performing, recording, and other creative artists to draw from. And the Tallis Scholars' repertoire (the group's available discs now stand at an impressive total of 83) fits neatly into such a tradition.
In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Pierre Bourdieu wrote that “as the countless variations on the soul of music and the music of the soul bear witness, music is bound up with ‘interiority’ (‘inner music’) of the ‘deepest’ sort and all concerts are sacred”. Whether or not he was referring exclusively to concerts in which audiences are seated, or to instrumental music, I suppose Bourdieu’s meaning was that all concerts are sacred because individuals who enjoy music privately can enjoy it performed live at the same place and time together. In the case of vocal music, the depth of the individual experience of the sacred (whether in a concert hall or wearing headphones) is possibly related to the depth of one’s understanding of the meanings of the sung lyrics; and in the case of religious music, the sacredness of a concert experience might also depend on one’s attitude to religion. Who knows?
Nathan Laurent