Thomas Tallis at Dover Priory, 1530–1531

Abstract

The earliest-known employment of Thomas Tallis was as ioculator organorum (organ-player) of the Benedictine monastery of Dover Priory, 1530–31. The account that records his engagement there discloses also some indication of the musical resources, in terms of an organ and five or six singing-boys, that were placed at his disposal in this appointment, while study of the contracts of employment of other musicians holding similar posts elsewhere suggests some appreciation of the duties expected of him. This position emerges as relatively humble, and appears to have been best suited to discharge by some talented but still youthful musician at the very start of his adult career. Meanwhile, the appearance of his antiphon Salve intemerata Dei mater in London, British Library, Ms. Harley 1709 shows that even before his appointment to Dover Tallis was already a composer of some considerable accomplishment. The association of Dover Priory with the chapel of the household of its then patron, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, may suggest both a locale for Tallis’s earliest training as a youth, and an identification for the source of the patronage which secured him this employment at Dover.