The “Tallis Canon,” with text by Bishop Thomas Ken (ca. 1673)
Arranged by Kenneth Brown

The 20th-century revitalization of the English choral tradition, exemplified by the music of Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and others, often draws upon the work of earlier Renaissance masters. Thomas Tallis, working during the turbulent times of Henry VIII and the English reformation, composed in virtually every genre of the 16th-century English church. Tallis composed two masses, three Anglican services, 40 motets, and 24 anthems and a variety of English service music pieces, including “God grant we grace”, known as the Tallis Canon. Kenneth Brown joins that melody with Bishop Thomas Ken’s “Glory to thee, my God, this night.”

— Andrew Clark

The Text

Thomas Ken (1637–1711), bishop of Bath and Wells, was a devout and gentle church leader, famous in his time for powerful, literary sermons and courage of conscience. He was one of seven bishops who refused to publish James II’s “Declaration of Indulgence,” believing it would compromise the primacy of the Anglican Church. (He spent three weeks in the Tower of London for his stance, before acquittal of “high misdemeanor” at trial.)

Ken is regarded as one of the finest hymn writers of the English tradition. He is the author of the common doxology, “Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow,” set to the “Old Hundredth” hymn tune. The text being performed tonight was written in the early 1670s and included as the evening hymn in his 1673 Manual of Prayers for Students at Winchester College. Some later editions replace “Glory to Thee” with “All Praise to Thee” in the first line. The text is widely available, including in facsimile from Princeton Theological Seminary.