The King's Singers, a English a cappella sextet with a long history of iconoclasm, exceed even their own previous exploits with this recording of Thomas Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in alium. This is a CD single, including the Tallis work and an interview with the singers in which they discuss not only the obvious questions that arise -- how did they sing 40-part music with six voices? -- but also some less obvious ones: wouldn't it have been easier if Tallis' work had had 42 voices? (Tallis' 40 parts are divided into eight ...
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The King's Singers, a English a cappella sextet with a long history of iconoclasm, exceed even their own previous exploits with this recording of Thomas Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in alium. This is a CD single, including the Tallis work and an interview with the singers in which they discuss not only the obvious questions that arise -- how did they sing 40-part music with six voices? -- but also some less obvious ones: wouldn't it have been easier if Tallis' work had had 42 voices? (Tallis' 40 parts are divided into eight choirs of five.) The answer to the first question is simple for any pop listener but represents a new thing in the classical world: they use multitracking. How does it work? Spem in alium sounds completely different here from the usual effect it makes with 40 singers, or some multiple of 40, holding forth in a cathedral. The points where these tectonic plates of sound grind against each other come into much sharper relief in this close-up studio setting, and the palette of dissonances...
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