We’ve mentioned that Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium was rising in the charts, on the back (careful…) of E L James’s Mummyporn bestseller, Fifty Shades of Grey. It has now reached number one. James is very proud of that.
“I am delighted to have introduced so many of my readers to this amazing 16th century piece of music, it is absolutely wonderful and the recording from the Tallis Scholars is particularly special. A deserved number one !!”
Here’s the full press release:
PRESS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
“50 Shades” Seductive Soundtrack tops the Classical Charts
The 16th Century Choral Masterpiece on the “playroom” iPod
The Tallis Scholars’ recording of Thomas Tallis’s magnificent Spem in alium, for 40 unaccompanied voices, has today reached Number 1 on the UK’s Official Classical Singles Chart, ending a 3 week run at the top of the chart for Luciano Pavarotti.
Tallis’s Spem in alium is featured in the controversial literary sensation 50 Shades of Grey by E L James. So many readers, after reading the book, have been downloading The Tallis Scholars’ recording in recent weeks that it has steadily risen in the Official Classical Singles Chart, from Number 20, to Number 13, to Number 8, to Number 7 and today to Number 1.
E L James said:
“I am delighted to have introduced so many of my readers to this amazing 16th century piece of music, it is absolutely wonderful and the recording from the Tallis Scholars is particularly special. A deserved number one !!”
Composed around 1570 in the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth, Spem in alium is written for eight unaccompanied choirs of five voices each, and is one of the most remarkable choral works ever written. Peter Phillips, director of The Tallis Scholars, said:
“I am thrilled that Spem in alium has attracted such a large new audience. It is one of the most remarkable achievements of the human brain, an extra-ordinary and moving piece written for 40 individual singers. After performing Spem in alium for nearly 40 years I still cannot conceive how Thomas Tallis set about writing it. Even with 21st century computers it would be a daunting task. For me it ranks alongside the best works of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci and confirms Tallis as England’s greatest composer. It’s on my iPod!”
According to The Official Chart’s Company’s sales data, the past two years have seen a surge in individual classical track download sales in the UK – up 46% in 2011 compared to 2010 (from 834,000 to 1.2 million). This trend has continued in 2012, and in the first quarter of this year, some 284,000 classical downloads were sold, a 34% increase on the 212,000 sold in the first three months of 2011.
The Official Charts Company’s managing director, Martin Talbot, said:
“It’s fantastic to see Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars enjoying chart success off the back of the 50 Shades Of Grey publishing phenomenon, coming just months after the Military Wives became the first choir to top the Official Singles Chart. It shows the changing ways in which classical fans are buying their music – track by track, as well as album by album.”
I hope she accepts responsibility for global warming, then.
I expect the downloaders are reading the title mistakenly as ‘Sperm in alium’
That has made me smile!
Peter Philips, in his book about the Tallis Scholars titled What We Really Do, recounts an entertaining rehearsal story. They were preparing for a concert where Spem was on the program, and he told the singers (I paraphrase), You’re not going to believe this, but the concert presenters actually added an “r” to the piece’s title in the program booklet.
Whereupon one of the sopranos, confused, piped up, “Sprem?”
Oh, how I wish I’d been in the room to see her colleagues’ reaction …
If she’d picked Ferneyhough instead…
Some get really turned on by Xenakis.
Xenakis might actually work for a heavy bondage-and-domination scene …
She probably used it because it was already well known.
I don’t know, Elaine … Spem is well-known to early music aficionados and choral music fans. I think it’s a safe guess that most of the target audience of Fifty Shades of Grey had never encountered the piece (or much other Renaissance sacred music) before. I’m just happy that lots of people are discovering Spem for the first time; however they find out about it is fine by me.
It’s fine not to like the book, but the fact is that the recent spike in sales of the recording is directly related. It’s not like it’s a ridiculous, unfounded exaggeration on James’ part, and what’s the harm, especially in light of wider recognition for both Tallis and the Tallis Scholars?
What Japecake said.