Music of Thomas Tallis recorded with a modular synth

Oh, oops. Didn't see the restriction on posting links until I've already posted a new thread.
 
Sorry!

You need more posts before you can include a link, it's a spam filter thing.
 
https://soundcloud.com/sp...temerata-thomas-tallis

Thanks to James sorting a link for you, as James says Nice!
 
Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, for listening and commenting! And thank you so much for helping me out with the link. I'm not sure why it wouldn't work. I apparently had to have 5 posts to put the link there, and I had 6 when I tried for the second time...oh well. Thanks again!
 
I know it's not the sort of thing perhaps usually posted here (I've done a little searching here for modular users, haven't come up with anything yet), but I wanted to share it as another example of sonar in use. I've been a Sonar user since Sonar 6, and it's been a great work environment for me. 

Very soothing...
 
I really like the muted tones you used during the first section, they lead really well into the brighter tones that follow.   And overall, though it's obviously a synth piece, there's something nicely organic about it.  
 

Sounds really good. Thanks for sharing!

Richard,
 
I must confess that I am a huge aficionado of the music of Thomas Tallis ; I have his complete works on disc along with multiple versions of his best compositions. His visionary and inspirational music has an ineffable celestial quality, unique in my experience, which speaks to a sublime sense of spirituality. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say I have listened to his music on a daily basis for years.
 
I have long thought that many of Tallis’ compositions would make fabulous instrumental transcriptions (most of his oeuvre are acapella choral pieces) as most of them are contrapuntal settings as elegant and sophisticated as a Bach fugue. There aren’t that many instrumental recordings of his music (years ago, The Kronos Quartet did a wonderful reading of his surpassing masterpiece Spem in Alium that is one of my most treasured recordings), so I am delighted to come across this project on the Songs Forum.
 
Salve Intemerata is a very interesting and good choice for an instrumental. It is Tallis’ earliest known large scale masterpiece and it represents an astonishing achievement for a then-unknown church musician in his mid-twenties. Salve is written in phrygian mode -the same mode as his more famous 3rd Mode Melody which Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams used as the basis for his masterpiece “Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”- and this mode (I think) imparts a mysterious quality to both compositions.
 
I find this (partial) rendering of Salve Intemerata drop dead gorgeous. The synth sounds are rich, sustained, layered, and thick, with slow attack/decay not unlike the human voice or a horn. There is good contrast between the string, horn, and organ voicings.  About halfway, there commences a luminous, sustained, and gentle crescendo that I just can’t get enough of. I greatly admire the phrasing/shaping of the melodic lines. Very artistic. 
 
I am hearing an original and unique interpretation of an almost 500 year old masterpiece. All that glitters is gold. I can’t wait to hear the entire project.
 
Cheers,
 
Bert

Absolutely beautiful

Richard,
I spent some time this morning meditatively listening -multiple times- to this splendid instrumental version of Salve Intemerata, and, a great choral version of the same by the Tallis Scholars (listening to choral music is something I frequently do Sunday morning in lieu of attending a church service). This close comparative listening makes me certain that SI was a truly inspired choice for an instrumental. Your version greatly enhances my appreciation of the choral version, while the choral version, likewise, greatly enhances my appreciation of your interpretation. In both versions, the ethereal & celestial concinnity, present in so much of Tallis’s work, shimmers briightly.
 
A quality of music that I prize most is warmth. And I find it remarkable how much warmth I feel in your digital recording of Salve Intemerata. I attribute this warmth to your instrument (an analogue synthesizer) and the fact that you expressively recorded this awesome masterpiece, line-by-line, directly into your DAW, in real time.
 
Also, I agree with your sense that Salve Intemerata is a superior work to (the subsequent masterwork) Missa Salve Intemerata, as this subsequent mass was clearly derived from SI, and, it actually quotes the seminal composition extensively. (The essential notes to Chappelle Du Roi Complete Tallis Works state unequivocally that Salve Intemerata is Tallis’s 2nd greatest composition, with the astonishing Spem in Aleum his “Everest” and SI his “Matterhorn”.)
Richard, yours is a massively hip cover. Bravo!
 
Cheers,
Bert