God's elevator

Author Terry Pratchett's description of Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium in Wednesday's Guardian........

"I always say that if God had an elevator, this is what it would be playing."

Image credit: On The Levvil, oil on board, 48” x 35” by Alan Parker, linked from Cadogan Contemporary

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Comments

Anonymous said…
I tried to follow the link to find the Spem in Alium article, but failed... could you help point me in a better direction?
1:59 pm
Pliable said…
The article was in a double page spread (P4) titled Pieces of me of G2 in the hardcopy of Wedneday's (not Tuesday's as in my original post) Guardian.

Like you, I too can't find it online. It is a photo feature so they may not make it available on the web because of bandwidth considerations.

It is a fairly shallow 'toys for boys' feature they run each week. If you are a Terry Pratchett fan you haven't missed much by not reading it. There is little in it apart from the rather neat Tallis quote.
4:59 pm
SJZ said…
That quote could mean so many things! Does it mean that it's the most heavenly music written and so it is worthy to be heard by while ascending to the Pearly Gates? Or does it mean that it's simply elevator music...but God's. I have yet to do the piece or hear it live. I've been dying to for awhile. Are there any Tallis +500 events going on that you know of?
5:34 pm
Pliable said…
SJZ, not sure of any upcoming Tallis events, but there have sure been some good ones in the past months.

For me the highlight was The Sixteen's late night Prom, see this post which was quite outstanding.

One problem of course with Spem is the forces required. Which is why Antony Pitts' new work XL is so interesting, see this post.

Although the Tallis and Tippett anniversaries have justifiably grabbed attention this year it has meant that Obrecht has been overlooked in his anniversary year, something I hope to rectify shortly.

And talking of Tallis do you know Antoine Brumel's Missa "Et ecce terraemotus" (Earthquake Mass). If you like Spem you'll love it. And the great news is that it is on a stunning super budget release from Brilliant Classics, see this post.
7:52 am
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