Thomas Tallis, Mass for Four Voices - Credo
  • The Credo in Thomas Tallis’s four-voice Mass omits the section from ‘Et iterum venturus est […]’ picking up with the polyphony at ‘Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.’ I believe some other Masses by English composers from the time do the same. Which ones? Why? Does it have something to do with liturgical reform? As many now know, Tallis’s Credo is actually a reduced contrafactum of the Apostles’ Creed from John Sheppard’s five-voice First Service.
    Thanked by 1AngelaR
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    I have no idea why, and I'd love to know. My edition at cpdl has Credo I filling in (only Credo the Sarum rite had) but for it to be singable at all it had to appear in the "wrong" key (since it's a transposed edition for SATB)