If ye love me - Tallis - Molly Netter, soprano. The Voice of the Viol gamba consort 8K video

If ye love me, keep my commandments, sung by Molly Netter, with the Voice of the Viol viola da gamba consort.
Wendy Gillespie, Elisabeth Reed & Farley Pearce, Elizabethan viols.
The Voice of the Viol, directed by Elisabeth Reed, is a program of Voices of Music.
One of the finest works of the renaissance; Tallis writes a perfect miniature.
This work is presented here for the first time in 8K UHD video.
The text is from the Gospel of John (14:15-17):
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another comforter,
that he may 'bide with you forever;
E'en the sp'rit of truth.
The source of the text is usually given as the Tyndale Bible; however, it likely that Tallis, ever aware of his position, used Henry VIII's Great Bible of 1539 which has several small changes from Tyndale that align with Tallis' earliest manuscripts.
A lifelong Catholic, like William Byrd, Tallis could write in any musical style in several languages, and his plain English settings, composed in plain style, are as accomplished as his Latin works, or any renaissance works.
Elizabethan viols Voices of Music is developing programs for two consorts of viols, one from the Elizabethan period and earlier (in this video), as well as an early renaissance consort from around the year 1500 to perform works published by Petrucci, the first music publisher, and his contemporaries.
The renaissance Elizabethan viols are primarily based on the work of John Rose, who was famous by the 1550s for his “vyalls” and other instruments. Although these instruments were from the middle of the century, only the later instruments survive, and it is not known if Rose’s style changed over the years, so these instruments either reflect the practice as early as the 1550s or, more likely, as late as the 1590s, although the changes may have been minor over the years. Notably, the design of the Amati violins from roughly the same time period changed very little. The Rose workshop parallels Elizabeth’s reign as queen, and so these instruments are an excellent choice for this repertory.
The English court imported a great many Italian instruments beginning with the reign of Henry VIII, but the Rose instruments were considered preeminent for the viols, even as the lutes and recorders were mainly sourced from Italy and Germany. For the renaissance ideal, the consort was conceived of as a matched set, and all the instruments played tonight were made by one builder, Wesley Brandt, using similar patterns, techniques and timbers based closely on historical models. The close matching gives the ensemble a unique sound and is essential for consort music.
Another major difference to the baroque instruments is the strings: wire-wound strings emerged circa 1660 and were unknown to the musicians of the renaissance and early 17th century. Without the “overspun” strings the sound of the instrument and its overtones are markedly different, especially in terms of greater transparency, and this enables each individual part in the early English viols to be heard clearly. Importantly, with wire wound strings, bowed instruments are louder in the bass register, but unwound strings have the opposite, softer sound. In addition, there is no register change as the player crosses strings with the bow: all the strings are the same. Lastly, the early English viols had soundboards that were made of very thin, parallel strips of wood that were heated and bent under tension, so they are similar to a drum: this process of tempering and tensioning the soundboard changes the harmonics of the viol.
Entrenched in a multitude of styles from an early age, Canadian-American soprano Molly Netter enlivens complex and beautiful music both old and new. Noted for her “natural warmth” (LA Times) and “clear, beautiful tone” (NY Times), Molly’s voice can be heard on five Grammy nominated albums since 2017.
#Tallis
8K Video: Lloyd Hryciw and Rob Clevenger
Audio engineer: David Tayler
Post Production: David Tayler and Andrew Levy
Produced by David Tayler
Score transcribed and arranged by Voices of Music
Special thanks to Margaret Cohen.