~ Monday Music ~

A very, very special "song" I have for you today. An anthem would be a better word to use for today's song I think!

My youngest sister-in-law is visiting today and will have a little farewell dinner with us. Since I have known her, she has stayed in Scotland and Suriname for quite some time for her studies, and now she has tied the knot for a new career path. I think the Netherlands is a bit too boring to her taste! :)

This time, she is going to Vancouver for about a year, probably longer if she can get a work visum. She is going to really learn how to cook ( I don't know which cooking school it is going to be as there seems to be four of them in Vancouver...I will ask though!) and probably want to start somewhere as a sous chef.
Exciting isn't it? She is young, no kids, internationally orientated, so it is a wonderful opportunity to see the world from a different perspective!

I got to know her as the little sister of Big Man, a girl who sings in a choir. I have seen her perform a couple of times and it got me to value classical music even more. All the different voices and different keys they use to get an emotion across to the public is just so beautiful!

Today's song is an anthem from ghe UK. I chose the masterpiece "Spem in alium" by Thomas Tallis. It is very very beautiful and I was urged to listen to it by my sister-in-law because it is also a technical masterpiece.
The other reason I like it because of the historical part of the piece. It was created by Tallis for Queen  Elizabeth I during her reign, but Tallis was the royal composer and performer during the reign of Henry VIII, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth during very turbulent religious times for England. And if you have seen the HBO series "The Tudors" you know of which person this masterpiece came from!

So without taking more of your time by blabbering about history, please sit down with something and listen to this amazing piece of music....