11. Thomas TallisSpem In Alium
I don’t consider myself religious. I’m not interested in this because it’s ‘devotional’ music. I don’t necessarily listen to the words. The majority of the pieces I’ve listed here have been instrumental, and it’s that primal language of music that draws me in. For some reason I find choral music incredibly powerful. If we analyse it, it could be something to do with the scales that are being used and the way that the music is arranged. It could possibly have resonances with other kinds of music that we’ve talked about. I don’t listen to it and get a sense of religiosity, but I do get a sense of the mystical, and of awe and wonder, and I experience something similar when immersed in natural landscapes. So there’s some kind of dovetailing there, between land and music, and how I experience them. It’s very instinctual. An overlapping terrain that I’m always looking to explore.
