I have never put my hope in any other but you, God of Israel Listen It goes round It rings from voice to voice on the beat and off like lines of silk meanderings of parallels and opposites that gather to organic knots of chord and discord to silence We journey on again inside this fine embroidery as forty different threads go in and out on the frame of the steady pulse of four beats in a bar One then two singers and then another few throw backwards and forwards the glittering ball of sweet polyphony and more and more join in until we reach the monumental final where everyone is crying NOSTRAM Our song Ours Listen Words fail me I have never put my hope In any other but you, Music
Spem in Alium is a forty-part Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis, composed circa 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. The motet, sung by the Chapelle du Roi, can be heard on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbIQrIwY_bg
Janet Simon has published two poetry collections, Victoria Park and Asylum. She has been singing in choirs for many years and is a member of the Morley Choral Society, one of several choirs based at Morley College in London.