11 June 2023 : THOMAS TALLIS : Verily, verily I say unto you

Although it's the First Sunday after Trinity Sunday, the Gospel reading was John 6.51–58,  the set reading for the Feast of Corpus Christi (Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion), which falls 10 days after Pentecost (therefore, just the Thursday past). This Anthem (a musical setting of scripture for liturgical use) is by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585), who served the courts of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I as a composer and performer and somehow managed to survive. Tallis avoided the religious controversies of his times and was particularly versatile and adept at adapting his style. This anthem demostrates all the desired qualities sought during the protestant reformation: in English (rather than Latin), setting of the text with the natural rhythms of speech and can be heard easily, judicious repetition, a directness of emotion, and measured drama and rhetoric. (Historian Peter Ackroyd however still thinks Tallis was an unreformed Roman Catholic).

 

Text: 

Verily, verily I say unto you,

except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man

and drink His blood, ye have not life in you.

Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life,

and I will raise him up at the last day (bis)

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood

dwelleth in me, and I in him.

John 6.53-56