Thomas Tallis

“ How many know that the original of 'I call and cry' is an 'O sacrum convivium' worthy of any Church Composer in the world short of Palestrina himself? How many have looked into the 'Cantiones Sacræ,' which he wrote in conjunction with his pupil Byrd, and the MS. treasures scored in Burney's 'Extracts,' or the 'Matthias Collection'? Yet it is here that we must look for Tallis, if we wish to form any idea of his true greatness. The world has not seen many more accomplished Contrapuntists than he; nor has he ever been excelled in the exquisite 'surprises' of his Harmony. ”

“ Wasn't it Oscar Wilde who said that we men are all in the gutter; but some of us are looking at the stars. You're looking at the stars, Beresford, that's all."
"I suppose you're right," said Beresford a little doubtfully.
"With you it's the spirit of romance," continued Tallis quietly. "If you had lived a few centuries earlier, you would have gone about the country on a horse with a ten-foot pole asking for trouble. You would have been a disciple of Peter the Hermit, and every other uncomfortable person who preached the high-falutin'. The only trouble is that you won't face facts." ”

“ Tallis's ingenuity far surpassed that of his most erudite contemporaries; but he never paraded it at the expense either of intrinsic beauty or truthfulness of expression. Like every other great musician of the period, he produced occasionally works confessedly intended for no more exalted purpose than the exhibition of his stupendous skill, one of the most remarkable characteristics of which was the apparent ease with which it disposed of difficulties that, to composers of ordinary ability, would have proved insurmountable. ”

“ Do you think that Nature is a coquette, who appears to discourage a man in order to strengthen his ardour?"
After some hesitation the doctor replied:
"No: she's logical and even-tempered. There's nothing wayward about her: she represents abstract justice. Treat her well and she'll treat you well; abuse her and she's implacable. My professional experience tells me that if she ever deviates from the strict path of justice, it's on the side of clemency."
"Damn your professional experience," snapped Beresford, then he laughed.
"But what are you going to do?" persisted Tallis. ”

“ He returned to bed thinking, not of the weather, but of the Rain-Girl.
Soon after breakfast Tallis called to bid him good-bye.
"Now, young fellow," he said, "no tricks. Remember you are weak, and won't be able to stand much fatigue. If you set out to walk ten miles a day, or anything like it, your little worries and problems will settle themselves; but don't do it. I'm frightfully busy, and inquests are the devil."
"You've got a cheerful way of putting things," said Beresford drily.
"I've discovered that it's no use putting things to you in the normal way," replied Tallis with a smile. ”

“ At any rate, Tallis immediately or very soon after was called to the Chapel Royal. Choir-books at Peterhouse, Cambridge, written about this time, contain four works by him. In the list of Edward VI's chapel royal given by Hawkins and Burney, from an unknown authority, Tallis's name stands twentieth. For the list of musicians employed there Rimbault gives the reference Royal MS. 7 c. xvi., which, however, contains no such list. Tallis married in 1552; his wife's name was Joan. They had no children. ”

“ Tallis wrote his setting in an irregular Doric mode; his followers, having lost the knowledge of the church modes, used the minor keys instead; the fashion, once started, kept its hold on church musicians for a considerable period. These 'minor' settings of the canticles will, however, sometimes be found remarkably suitable for use in penitential seasons, or in times of public calamity—a contracted but respectable sphere of utility.
Closely following the class of services just described comes the strict contrapuntal school, of which 'Gibbons in F' forms such a noble example. ”

“ But, externally, a Kerothi would need only a touch of plastic surgery and some makeup to pass as an Earthman in a stage play. Close up, of course, the job would be much more difficult—as difficult as a Negro trying to disguise himself as a Swede or vice versa.
But Tallis was—
"I would have a word," Tallis said, shattering MacMaine's carefully neutral train of thought. It was a standard opening for breaking the pause of adjustment, but it presaged good news rather than bad. ”

“ It was very strange," he added, half to himself.
"What about the cheapening of life?"
"It's a bit difficult to express," said Beresford slowly, "but somehow or other I seem to feel that the old idea of the sacredness of human life has gone for ever as far as I am concerned." Again he paused and for some seconds smoked in silence, then he continued whimsically, "Take an exaggerated case. Before the war if a man had——"
"Stolen from you the girl with the eyes, shall we say," suggested Tallis gravely. ”

“ For a moment Beresford did not reply, then he laughed.
"You certainly are the most extraordinary fellow I ever met," he said. "So you think I can't walk ten miles?"
"You'll collapse before you reach the third mile," Tallis replied, with the air of a man making a simple statement of fact.
"What!" cried Beresford, sitting up straight in his surprise. "Am I as bad as that?"
"You're just weak and want building up," was the reply.
For some time the two men continued to smoke in silence.
"I suppose the war cheapens human life," said Beresford irrelevantly.
Tallis looked across at him ”

“ Tallis nodded as he gazed into the bowl of his pipe. Suddenly it struck Beresford that what made Tallis so easy to talk to was that he always appeared to be absorbed in something else, generally his pipe. It was much easier talking about such things to a man who did not persist in looking at you. ”

“ THALES.
Thales of Miletus (about 624–547 B.C.) was a man of extraordinary versatility; philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, engineer, and man of business, he was declared one of the Seven Wise Men in 582–581 B.C. His propensity to star-gazing is attested by the story of his having fallen into a well while watching the stars, insomuch that (as Plato has it) he was rallied by a clever and pretty maidservant from Thrace for being so “eager to know what goes on in the heavens when he could not see what was in front of him, nay at his very feet”. ”

“ Your will might carry you on for four miles; but you'd finish the journey on a gate."
"You're as gloomy as a panel-doctor during an epidemic," laughed Beresford. "That's the worst of you medicos, you do everything by rule of thumb. You say certain things have happened and consequently certain other things must grow out of them as a natural sequence. You make no allowance for the personal equation."
"I've made a great deal of allowance for your personal equation, my son," replied Tallis grimly, "otherwise I should long ago have certified you insane." ”

“ And Thalis, I'd take it kindly if you'd furnish us with a bit of food and drink."
For answer Thalis leaned herself against him, slipping one white arm about his bronzed shoulders. Her sleek naked flank pressed against his thigh and the perfume of her foamy hair was in his nostrils.
"Why dare the desert?" she whispered urgently. "Stay here! I will teach you the ways of Xuthal. I will protect you. I will love you! You are a real man: I am sick of these moon-calves who sigh and dream and wake, and dream again. I am hungry for the hard, clean passion of a man from the earth. ”

“ Thales’s claim to a place in the history of scientific astronomy rests on one achievement attributed to him, that of predicting an eclipse of the sun. The evidence for this is fairly conclusive, though the accounts of it differ slightly. Eudemus, the pupil of Aristotle, who wrote histories of Greek geometry and astronomy, is quoted by three different Greek writers as the authority for the story. ”

“ Tarsis asked.
“Some of them cry, ‘Down with Tarsis!’ Others revile you, oh, with awful epithets, signore. They have gone mad!”
Tarsis threw himself in a chair, rested an arm on the Napoleonic table, and tapped it nervously. “I see,” he said; “the beasts would bite the hand that has put food in their mouths. We must act at once. Signor Ulrich, you will go to [Pg 258] the Questura and give my message. Say that I demand a guard for Palazzo Barbiondi.”
The little colour that had remained to the superintendent left his face ”

“ With eager hands Talithie placed in it, months before her babe was born, a clean feather tick, no bigger than a pillow of their own bed. Pieced a little quilt too, did the happy, expectant mother.
How contentedly the little one snuggled there even the very first time Talithie put her in the crib! Rarely did 184 the child whimper, but this night small Margie was fretful. Talithie gathered her up and came back to the hearth crooning softly as she jolted to and fro in a straight chair. The Tipton household, like most in Crockett’s Hollow, owned no such luxury as a rocker. ”

“ The Taliessin legend in its late form cannot be traced back beyond the end of the sixteenth century, but the account of the transformation is to be found in the "Book of Taliessin," a manuscript of the thirteenth century, preserved in the Hengwt Collection at Peniarth. The Welsh bard himself is supposed to have flourished in the sixth century. ”

“ The meeting, in itself a trivial occurrence, proved a source of much illumination for the Austrian. It explained what had puzzled his mind ever since the night he had performed for Tarsis the service of sending the message that made Hera listen to his plea. He had tried in vain to account for that affair as some ruse in a political game where his resourceful master had set his skill against that of the leader of the New Democracy. Now he divined that a woman—no other than she who became his wife—was the stake that Tarsis had won. ”

“ Signor Ulrich was the only man in Italy to whom Tarsis would have intrusted the errand—Ulrich the Austrian, as he was known to the toilers; superintendent of all the Tarsis silk works. As a crusher of labor revolts he had proved himself a master, and Tarsis, perceiving a sound investment of capital, had made him rich while making him loyal. He knew that the little device of the telegram would remain as deep a secret as if it were known to himself alone. ”

“ His words did not square with Tarsis’s assertion that the heart of a statesman should be in his head. He gave reasons why some are rich and some are poor, and though new to those at the table, they felt that they were listening to no sentimental dreamer. He struck the key-note of the century’s new thought. If his head did lift itself toward the clouds at times, his feet remained firmly planted [Pg 31] on the earth, and his ideals were those of a man determined to be useful in the world.
It was good, Hera thought, to look upon him; good to hear his voice, good to feel that one admired him. ”

“ He forced his wandering mind back to his work. The blow on the head, plus the crazy effect the spinning was having on his inner ears, plus the cockeyed gravitational orientation that made his eyes feel as though they were seeing things at two different angles, all combined to make for more than a little mental confusion.
There was adhesive tape, all right. Wound on its little spool, it looked almost homey. He spent several minutes winding the sticky plastic ribbon around Tallis' wrists and ankles. ”

“ For Hera, she gave no sign. When Tarsis was talking, somewhat heavily, with his air of a rich man, his small, keen eyes looking into hers now and then, she wondered what her life would be with such a companion; but when they were moving homeward past the darkened shop windows of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, out through the Venetian Gate, and speeding in the moonlight of the open country, her reflections took a different cast. Her soul cried out to be free, and to the cry for freedom came an answering call to revolt. ”

“ In the sudden impulse of his rage he threw himself against the door, crying, “Open, open! I am your husband! It is my right!”
But the door did not swing, and from the other side came no answer. With a Sicilian malediction on his lips, Tarsis moved away to the window to stand in the cool of the night air. The new conscript and his comrades, passing below, sent up a fresh gust of tipsy laughter. ”

“ Thalis paused to fumble at it for an instant, apparently sliding home a bolt, and as she took her hand from Natala's mouth to perform this act, the Brythunian girl began to scream at the top of her voice. Thalis's laugh was like poisoned honey in the darkness.
"Scream if you will, little fool. It will only shorten your life." ”

“ Mario moved forward and looked him squarely in the eye. “Signor Tarsis,” he began, his voice [Pg 57] without a quaver, “I am sorry, helplessly sorry. We are confronted with an invincible fact of life. I love Donna Hera. She loves me. By every natural law we belong to each other.”
A flush of anger overspread the face of Tarsis. ”

“ Nor was there any account of the doings of La Ferita, the woman of the scarred face, who shook her fist at Tarsis. Before he came from the church she had annoyed the Civil Guards by crying out: “Joy to the bridegroom! Death to the children in his factories!” The guards gave her a final warning, which she understood; and when Tarsis passed by her tongue was stilled, but the long scar glowed and her eyes looked savage hatred. Tarsis saw the woman shaking her fist at him, and so did Hera. ”