Last August, I attend the Tallis Scholars Summer School in Seattle. During one of the Lectures, Tallis Scholars founder and director Peter Phillips noted that he was at times derided for specializing in such a seemingly narrow field. He went on to express that most of the Renaissance Polyphony performed today represents a small segment of the total body of work and is drawn mostly from the high Renaissance. He explained that history is not monolithic. We don't fall asleep one night in the Renaissance period and awake the next morning to find ourselves in the Baroque. Phillips made the point that much of what was happening in music, stylistically speaking, depended greatly on geography. Whereas some parts of the globe were moving away from the Polyphonic school, other areas continued in that tradition. It turns out that Polyphony endured for more than two hundred years. Viewed in this manner, the field of sacred Polyphony is hardly narrow at all, and most performers and musicologists have really only scratched the surface.
Phillips also marveled at how, with Polyphony, there was so much beauty, expression, and diversity within a musical style comprised of very strict rules. Isn't it interesting how Polyphony, a style often associated with sacred music, and Christian morality are alike in this way? In our time, many outside observers see Christian morality as restrictive and stifling, yet a Christian life truly lived, is anything but. When submitting ourselves to the seemingly restrictive ways of Christian moral virtue, we find the true music of our lives; music as lush, expressive and diverse as the aforementioned sacred Polyphony. Furthermore, critics may relegate Christian moral virtue to a certain time and a certain people, making it's scope seem narrow and no longer relevant. Much like the Polyphony of the Renaissance, Christian moral virtue is much broader and more relevant than anyone can know from the outside.
